Lil Donald has loftier goals than many of his peers. “I feel like I want to be like the Martin Luther King of Hip-Hop,” he says. “I don't wanna die and it just be like ‘He was a great artist.’ When I leave I want it to be like, ‘He really changed how people thought. He changed how people act toward other people. How people treated other people. A huge impact on the world. When you go to every city it's an MLK Blvd there.” Born Donald Brooks, the 27-year-old Decatur, GA native has already begun to make an impact in his region. Now, he plans to share his story with the world. His aspirations to change the world with his music are rooted in pain. Growing up in poverty with a drug-addicted mother, Lil Donald was exposed to significant hardships early in life. At age 10, his mom left him, his two older brothers, and younger sister in an abandoned house with no food, and no way to contact her. “We had to survive in that house for at least a month. We were going to the store stealing food, just trying to survive. I was the one that had to go the store and steal it because I was small and I was quick, so if somebody chased me, I could get away,” Donald remembered. Seeking an outlet for that pain, a young Donald turned to poetry. He entered a contest at school at age 13 and won, which inspired him to keep writing. But it was Tupac who that inspired him to begin making music. “It was “Dear Mama,” because at the time my mama was on drugs real bad. I just felt like I could relate to him. So I felt like, damn if I could relate to him, how many people could relate to me?” No song in Lil Donald’s catalog, to date, exemplifies his commitment to putting real life situations into his music like his hit single “Do Better.” The song was inspired by a close friend involved in an abusive relationship. She would reach out to Lil Donald for advice, but could never bring herself to break away from the man she was with. Frustrated that he was unable to get his friend to leave, he recorded “Do Better” and sent it to her. “I had no intentions of putting the song out, or making it a song for the world. It was just for her. I sent it to her, let her hear it, and I started seeing a change in her,” Lil Donald says. As he makes his climb to the top this time, you can believe that he plans to stay. Not just because of the quality of his music, or his work ethic, but his connection to the people. “I feel like my fans gonna be around for a long time because I got their hearts, not their minds,” says Lil Donald. “ A lot of these rappers got fans’ minds for that moment, then six months to a year later, ain't nobody paying any attention to them. But I’ve been so in tune and passionate with my fans, when I fell down and lost my buzz, I didn't lose my fans. And when I came back, my fanbase was right there.” With that type of support playing an instrumental role, Lil Donald is poised to be around for the long haul.