#49: Baron Davis Wants to Know If Young Thug and Lil Baby Are "Mumble Rap"
B. Diddy also speaks on Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton appointment, his Black Santa Company and life after the NBA.
#49: Baron Davis Wants to Know If Young Thug and Lil Baby Are “Mumble Rap”
On this week’s episode of HYPEBEAST Radio, we scored a sit-down with former NBA All-Star turned analyst and illustrious beard-haver Baron Davis. Over the course of a forty-minute interview we talk to BD about the next wave in fashion (hint: it involves cowboy boots and huge belt buckles). Baron also confesses that he doesn’t really know what ‘mumble rap’ really means — that being said, he has been feeling Lil Baby and Blac Youngsta lately.
We also chopped it up about Davis’ social initiative, the Black Santa Company. The idea behind the Black Santa initiative is simple: Davis was frustrated that the African-American community did not have “a cartoon, a superhero, something to look up to that has a sense of purity. There’s nothing in mainstream media or pop culture that represents us in a wholesome, giddy, jolly, giving way.” Black Santa is Davis’s own attempt at wholesome African-American representation in media: “Black Santa was about presenting something in the culture that represented positivity in an underserved community, that represented giving, and all these great positive buzzwords. That heals wounds.”
Speaking on the subject of representation and healing generational wounds, Davis also produced a documentary film, Crips & Bloods: Made In America, with skate legend Stacy Peralta. “I had been trying to make a movie about gangs, because I’ve got homeboys and OGs that are misconceived,” says the native Angelino. “I wanted to make a movie that gave the gang-member an opportunity to speak; so that people could see them and they could also see themselves.”
We also spoke to BD about life after the NBA and how the transition out of athletics can affect young prospects. Davis’s hustle boomed after the NBA: beyond the Black Santa Company, Davis has championed athletes’ self-representation with his SLIC Media group. By representing himself and building his own team, Davis has managed all of his own film appearances, commercials, his TNT gig, and various other ventures throughout the years.
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