Idris Sadiq, 31, and two other men assaulted Zabair Hussain, 41, in the Darnall area of Sheffield, on New Years Eve before dumping him in the road where he was run over by a passing car.
Mr Justice Nicol described their actions as "utterly callous".
Sadiq, of Darnall Road, was told he must serve a minimum of 20 years.
He was convicted of murder following a two-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.
Live updates on this story and others in South Yorkshire
Mr Justice Nicol said: "The immediate cause of Zabair Hussain's death were the catastrophic injuries he suffered when he was run over, but he would not have been exposed to that risk if you and the other two had not beaten him senseless and left him in the middle of Staniforth Road.
"The precise cause of the grievance cannot be known but I'm sure it had something to do with drugs.
"He was hit with the baseball bat, he was kicked repeatedly and he was punched as well.
"Whether you wielded the baseball bat does not matter, you took part in the attack knowing it was being used."
Sadiq stared at the ground as the sentence was read out, while cries of "Yes" and "Scumbag" were shouted from the public gallery.
In a statement released by Mr Hussain's family after the hearing they said: "There are no words to describe the devastating impact that Zabair's death has had on our family."
South Yorkshire Police has said it wants to trace 29-year-old Sohail Khan in connection with its ongoing investigation into Mr Hussain's death.
Mr Handley said it was believed Mr Khan had travelled to Pakistan but the force was "working hard to identify opportunities to apprehend him and bring him before the courts".
Three men, aged 35, 32 and 31, who were arrested in connection with the incident are on police bail.
A drug dealer who was one of three men who attacked a man with a baseball bat and left him for dead in the middle of a road has been jailed for life.