Lil Baby finally broke his silence on that famous photo of NBA player Kyle Kuzma and Michael Rubin ... to say that he asked Rubin to pull footage from cameras to show the hug was the result ...

40 hours I lost like 8 million, 9 million," Lil Baby reiterated. "I made myself stop gambling. I had Mike Rubin write a letter to every casino and ban me from the casino. I'll just do s***t.

Lil Baby lost so much during a one-day gambling streak that his friend, Michael Rubin , had to intervene. To promote his upcoming fourth album, WHAM (Who Hard as Me), the Atlanta rapper appeared ...