
Nearly three years removed from it’s release, It’s Only Me is not necessarily the high point of Lil’ Baby’s career. During a recent conversation with Complex‘s Jordan Rose, the Atlanta native expressed that his label pressured him into releasing a body of work that he didn’t have much of a connection to.
“I didn’t even want to put It’s Only Me out at the time, because I wasn’t ready,” Lil’ Baby told Jordan Rose.
“I wasn’t in [the right] headspace. Those were songs I was just making, but it was nothing that I really loved, and nothing I even really liked.”
Music critics and many fans also expressed similar sentiments regarding the project. Pitchfork‘s Alphonse Pierre gave the LP a 5.5 rating and Variety‘s Brandon Yu described it as “bloated” and “ambitious.”
“The problem with It’s Only Me isn’t that the songs are not good, it’s that the combined product does not add up to standalone greatness bigger than its individual parts,” Will Hagle wrote for Passion of the Weiss.
Despite criticism, It’s Only Me moved more than 200,000 units during its first week and debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart. At the end of 2023, the album finished 13th on the Billboard 200 chart. More recently, Lil’ Baby released his fourth studio album, WHAM, on January 3, 2025. Much like it’s predecessor, it debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart. Now, Lil’ Baby will lend his talents to FireAid as he prepares to perform during the nonprofit’s fundraiser for individuals impacted by the widespread wildfires in Los Angeles.