Skilla Baby Turned His Pain Into ‘The Price of Fame’ & Picked Up 50 Cent & Nas as Mentors: ‘I Finally Found My Love for Music Again’

Skilla Baby’s life changed forever on May 22, 2025, when the Detroit rapper was targeted in a drive-by shooting in Redford, Mich., near 8 Mile. Skilla’s SUV was riddled with more than 25 shots, and he suffered three gunshot wounds, which required multiple surgeries in his road to recovery — but that’s The Price of Fame.

While Skilla had already been working on his debut album, the shooting undoubtedly changed the trajectory of the project. “My life had flashed before my eyes, now this s–t crystal clear,” he raps on the LP’s title track.

The 27-year-old looked to hip-hop grails for inspiration, with prized albums like All Eyez On Me, Reasonable Doubt, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ and It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot laying the blueprint.

2Pac’s influence is apparent, with Skilla remaking a famed photo of a wheelchair-ridden Pac after a 1994 shooting at Quad Studios for his cover art. He even took a page out of the Death Row rapper’s book for a poignant letter to his mother, tracing the lines of “Dear Mama.”

The Price of Fame is also grounded in faith. Skilla connected with Mary Mary’s Erica Campbell for “Strength in Numbers,” which is his take at a “We Are the World” type of uplifting track. He still maintains his edge on the gospel-influenced cuts in a way that would make DMX smile.

“I finally found my love for music again within that time,” he tells Billboard while rocking an icy Cuban link chain with an oversized Detroit Tigers logo pendant, which he received as a gift from 50 Cent. “I had felt stagnant. This album had me feel more creative and put me in a spot where I liked what I was doing again.”

Skilla Baby organically picked up New York rap royalty as his mentors. 50 Cent, who appears in a teaser trailer for The Price of Fame, gave him a shrewd ear to lean on — and had Skilla set up with an acting agency, which led to a role in the upcoming Starz series Power: Origins, on which 50 is an executive producer.

Nas also saw a piece of himself in Skilla. The Queensbridge legend ended up blessing him with a verse on the DJ Toomp-produced “Respect My Gangsta,” while giving Skilla the ultimate co-sign, rapping about how they’re “cut from the same cloth.”

Skilla Baby is hitting the road this fall in support of the project, as The Price of Fame Tour kicks off in New York City on Oct. 21.

Keep scrolling for the rest of our interview with Skilla, who details his bond with 50 Cent, getting features from Nas and Chris Brown and what helped cure his depression.

How did the album shift creatively since the shooting?

This album shifted my whole mindset as far as life and creatively. I want this album to put me in the favorite lyricists category. The album shifted my mind completely. I don’t think [the shooting] shifted where I wanted to go, but how I went about it. It gave me another story to tell. It gave me something to detail where my head was at and put some more emotion into it. That for sure affected it. 

The album cover art is inspired by 2Pac, and you got a “Dear Mama”-lifting track on Price of Fame as well. What inspiration did Pac provide?

I always wanted my album to feel nostalgic. Before the shooting, I didn’t know how I was going to piece the album together. “Thick One” was really supposed to be on the album. As soon as all that happened, it put life in a different perspective for me. I started drawing inspiration from things other people went through. Pac always inspired me and going through something like that — not to compare us, but to show similarities in how he may have felt and how I felt.

You got 50 Cent in the album trailer. What gems did you take from him? He’s got you in Power: Origins coming up.

50 helps me separate myself from the pack. Whenever I get stagnant or stuck in a place, he gives me advice on how to get out of my head. It helps me do more things to lean toward all things entertainment and be an icon. I appreciate having him in my corner. He got me this chain on my neck too. 

When did you originally link with 50?

I be hanging in New York, so some of his younger guys he knows, my guy, TV. I met him a few more times and met with my manager, Rocket, and we worked on the acting stuff and he works closely with 50. I went to acting school for two years. I got with the agency and they gave me self-tapes to do for the Power role. 

With the “Suits” skit on the album, was that targeting the labels wanting TikTok dances and songs to trend with commercial appeal and you fighting against that?

That was inspired by how I keep hearing how hip-hop’s dying. I just wanted it to feel like an old-school hip-hop record, but I still wanted to get some respect. I forgot which Eminem song I was watching the video to, but it was a skit with Interscope. 

How did you link up with Nas and get him on the album? Was it intimidating to rap with him and present a song to him?

We was trying to figure out what role Nas was going to play at first. He was going to executive produce the project or help out. We got on the phone, because he heard the project before he put a verse on there. He told me he appreciates me for making the project and how it’s going to be big for hip-hop. We kept getting on the phone and then I flew to New York and got with him. I hung with him a few times and then it was like, “He gon’ give you a verse.” That was crazy for me; I was like, “What?” That blew me.

What did you think when you first heard his verse?

I’m like, “This really Nas?” And he gave me like 40 bars. He didn’t give me no half-ass 16. He really gave me a verse. I was blessed by the rap God. 

Talk about your album rollout. It looks like you’ve been having fun with things like the “Show Me Love” bootcamp video. 

I just want my rollout to be super creative. I wanted to be kind of edgy and creative. I wanted to step outside the box and push the line without offending anyone. I think people are kinda getting offended by it. I wanted to be edgy without offending anyone. I wanted to show that love comes in all shapes, colors and sizes. It’s okay to show love to people. You gotta hold yourself back with comedy and I come from watching comedy — my parents were older — where everybody don’t get offended by everything you say. I know people would feel some type of way and I just want to spread peace and love and it’s not these people versus these people; it’s everybody together. 

Are you really related to [University of Michigan quarterback] Bryce Underwood?

Bryce is my little cousin. That’s my family. He’s such a great football player, but as a human being and young man, he’s even better. He goes out of his way to help people. He doesn’t offend anyone. He takes family seriously. He gives back. Everything he’s getting, he deserves it. 

You gotta head to the Big House for a game this year.

I went last year. I’ve seen like four games and one of them I was in a super big, yellow bubble coat. Ohio State was playing and coach wasn’t letting my boy throw the ball like that. I was sick. I traveled all the way from Arizona, where it was hot, and came to the cold and it was snowing. [He’s a] future Heisman winner. 

How was working with Chris Brown and Bryson Tiller on “Face Card?”

That was everything to me. Chris Brown is our generation’s Michael Jackson, to me. Bryson Tiller has an arguably top-five R&B-trap album, in my opinion. This whole album has been mind-boggling for me — even just getting the Usher sample cleared, meeting Usher and Chris Brown and hanging with these people. That was the first sample that got cleared on the album. Everything else was so ridiculously hard to get cleared. Usher just cleared [“Seduction”] right away. I met Usher before that and he was like, “I’m a fan.” They have a beautiful family; his wife, Jen, I love her.

How about linking up with Erica Campbell?

Erica Campbell is a beautiful person. I met her husband, Warryn; he’s a pastor. He did a lot of records for Mary Mary, Mario and 2Pac. He’s big in the industry as a producer. I went to their church and met the family. He connected me with his wife for the record. Everything about my album feels nostalgic for me, because I remember where I was at hearing these records for the first time, even though some of them were already out. I remember being a kid listening to these people. I remember where I was when I first heard Chris Brown’s “Run It.” 

As part of the rollout, you had a segment with A$AP Rocky, G Herbo and Tee Grizzley explaining what fame has cost them. What did you think about their answers?

I think Tee’s connected to me the most out of anybody’s — because he went left, like, “It cost me my respect.” As a famous person, people can comment what they want and try to do what they want, because they can hide behind computers. I felt that one. I felt Rocky when he was saying, “My family, it cost me a lot of privacy.” I felt Herb when he said it cost him friendships, because I’ve been through all these things. Fame cost me a lot — childhood fun, I don’t do drugs and drink. I had to move faster than I wanted to move. 

What work did you have to do to get out of depression?

I didn’t really know I was depressed until I was out of it. I think getting out of it was doing normal stuff like working out, going to sporting events, popping up at football games out of state and nobody knows I’m there. Then I got my sanity back and I kind of put life in perspective.