Lil Baby pays off $24K in student loans for Spelman College grad, four years after she initially reached out
TheGrio...
Janay Lesley, who raps under the moniker Nay Speaks, originally reached out to the Atlanta rapper when she was a freshman. Four years later, her journey and their interaction have come full circle.
There’s shooting your shot and then there’s what Spelman College graduate Janay Lesley did in 2022.
At the time, the then-freshman at the prestigious all-girls HBCU in Atlanta was navigating financial struggles as a young college student. So, Lesley, who also raps under the moniker Nay Speaks and is a sickle cell advocate, reached out to Lil Baby for assistance. Lesley’s Hail Mary went unanswered for four years, even as she crossed the stage and received her Bachelor’s degree in English.
Then she discovered the surprise of a lifetime.
Lesley took to social media and revealed that Lil Baby covered the entirety of her remaining student loans, all $24,074.97.
“I was a graduating senior at Spelman College. I am now a Spelman alumna. Chat, we made it across the stage,” Lesley said in a video uploaded to Instagram that quickly spread across various social media platforms. “My largest loan was exactly $24,074.97. My mom calls me today and says, ‘Nae, I got an email about your loans. It says that they were paid off in full.’ The loans are paid, chat.”
Long after she initially reached out to Lil Baby for financial assistance, Lesley kept her music career going, dropping tracks and freestyles throughout her college years. In March, she dropped a freestyle that won her a $5K scholarship from rapper Belly Gang Kushington. Two weeks later, she dropped another freestyle looking to get Lil Baby’s attention again, and last week, her financial blessing was answered.
“I just want to emphasize that prayer, manifestation, delusion, all of these things hold power,” she said. “I DM’d Lil Baby April 8th of 2022. It is 2026. I have got my degree. And here comes Lil Baby to pay off my loans. Don’t let anybody tell you nothing about the things that you believe and that you know are possible. Anything is possible. Every shot you don’t take, you miss. So take every shot.”
As student loan debt continues to weigh on several Black college students across the country, Lesley’s story represents that the community will be there for young students trying to push forward with their lives post-graduation, especially as the economy and other factors weigh on them.
Lesley’s post-graduate plans include going full-speed into her music career and continuing advocacy for sickle cell disease and sickle cell anemia, a condition that disproportionately affects Black men, women and children. It’s also something she said that almost “took her out” during her freshman year at Spelman.
Four years later, she’s got a clearer path for her future.