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Lil Baby is in Chicago, pulling the double duty of being the halftime performer of the McDonald's All American Game

Hip Hop News | Trending Hip Hop Stories Hip-Hop and basketball are synonymous with each other. Over the eras, both arenas had key figures who stood at the forefront of this cultural partnership. Examining the landscape today, one of raps most influential representatives is Lil Baby. The friendship of the My Turn rapper and James Hardenis chronicled throughout the media, and Babys love for hoops has bled into his philanthropic efforts In December, Lil Baby teamed with another basketball lover in Hip-Hop, Meek Mill, to give back to the youth of Philadelphiain partnership with the 76ers. As fate would have it, Harden would soon join the ball clubin one of league historys biggest trade deadline deals. Visit streaming.thesource.com for more information Fast forward to March, and Lil Baby finds himself once again around basketball. This time with the stars of tomorrow. The superstar is in Chicago, pulling the double duty of being the halftime performer of the McDonalds All American Game and spending time with the future of hoops like Amari Bailey, Dariq Whitehead, and Mark Mitchell on the hardwood of Wintrust Arena before the big game. Speaking with The Source ahead of his halftime performance, the positive impact of his presence is not lost on Lil Baby. They make me go harder, Lil Baby said. You have the want to go hard and get to a certain level of money. Then its like another feeling that can make you go hard too. Its not about the money. Its about the future. They look up to me. I could guide the future. Advertisement Once its his time to perform, you see the importance of Lil Baby to Hip-Hop culture. Draped in an oversized coat, dripped in dancing diamonds, Lil Babys stroll onto the halftime floor is deafening. The players, who have spent the last week under the spotlight, immediately turn into fans. As Lil Baby moves across the court to service areas of the crowd with verses from We Paid, Drip Too Hard, and more, the entire Boys and Girls teams follow him, nearly embodying a new wave of security. Fans from courtside to the top row are enamored with every word he raps. A sign that his forthcoming music will have, at minimum, the same rate of success as his last album. Lil Baby knows he broke a 60-year-old Billboard record on that last album, but thats not what his concern is. I seen that somewhere, he said. I seen it the other day. Thats hard, but Im not the type to get into that. Lil Babys focus is on what next. Weeks back, he put Hip-Hop on alert His version of JAY-Z telling the game, Yall got less than two months to get yall thing together at the end of Show Me What You Got in 2006. Lil Baby kept it coy when asked for an update, Youll see in the summer. Its definitely coming, though. After some prodding, he became a bit more lenient. I gotta start out early. So the whole summer could be up. It aint gonna be late summer. Read more