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.