Lil B

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For the Japanese female R&B duo, see Lil'B (group).
Lil B
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McCartney in 2011
Background information
Birth name Brandon Christopher McCartney
Also known as The BasedGod, Lil B 'The BasedGod', Young BasedGod
Born (1989-08-17) August 17, 1989 (age 34)[1][2]
Berkeley, California, United States
Genres Hip hop, cloud rap, outsider music
Occupation(s)
Instruments Vocals
Years active 2004–present
Labels
Associated acts
Website www.basedworld.com

Brandon Christopher McCartney (born August 17, 1989), professionally known as Lil B and often known as The BasedGod, is an American rapper, record producer, author, activist and motivational speaker from Berkeley, California. Lil B has recorded both solo and with The Pack. His solo work spans several genres, including hip hop, new age, and choral. His hip-hop work in particular is often described as "based", a term also used to describe a lifestyle of positivity and tolerance. He is noted for his extensive use of social media websites such as MySpace and Twitter to build an online following.[3][4]

Music career

1989–2007: Early life and career beginnings

Brandon McCartney grew up in Berkeley, California, and attended high school at Albany High in Albany. He adopted the name Lil B, and began rapping at age 16 with San Francisco Bay Area based hip hop group The Pack. After two locally successful mixtapes, at the peak of the Bay Area's hyphy movement, the group's song "Vans" became a surprise hit. The song was ranked as the fifth best of 2006 by Rolling Stone magazine.[5] The strength of "Vans" led the group to release Skateboards 2 Scrapers, featuring a "Vans" remix with Bay Area rappers Too $hort and Mistah F.A.B.. In 2007, Lil B and The Pack released its first album, Based Boys.

2009–10: Solo success, collaborations and Rain in England

On September 24, 2009 Lil B released his first digital album entitled I'm Thraxx; it was released on independent label Permanent Marks. On December 22, 2009 Lil B released his second digital album entitled 6 Kiss to critical reception.[6] On March 25, 2010 Lil B released his debut mixtape Dior Paint.[7] On April 3, 2010 Lil B officially signed to fellow artist Soulja Boy's label SODMG Entertainment.[8] On May 7, 2010 Lil B released a mixtape entitled Base World Pt. 1.[9][10] On July 5, 2010 Lil B released a collaboration mixtape with Soulja Boy entitled Pretty Boy Millionaires.[11] Lil B had recorded over 1,500 tracks as of July 2010, including hits "Like A Martian", "Wonton Soup", "Pretty Bitch", "I'm God", all of which were released for free.[12] On September 21, 2010 Lil B released his debut studio album entitled Rain in England on CD and Vinyl through Weird Forest Records; it would be met with very critical reception, though it did not chart the Billboard 100.

In November 2010, Lil B was featured on a cover, in The FADER's 71st issue.[13]

2010–present: Second album

File:Lil B Nuemos 2012.jpg
Lil B in 2012

On December 29, 2010 it was announced and confirmed that Lil B apparently signed a multiple-album deal with Amalgam Digital.[14][15] On July 10, 2011 Lil B released his third digital album entitled Paint, through his label BasedWorld Records.[16][17]

On January 18, 2011 Lil B released his fourth digital album entitled Angels Exodus, through Amalgam Digital. On April 14, 2011 Lil B announced that his next album would be entitled I'm Gay. The album's title caused mass controversy, even causing Lil B to receive death threats.[18][19][20] On June 29, 2011 Lil B released his fifth digital album entitled I'm Gay (I'm Happy), through Amalgam Digital it went on to chart, the album entered the Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number 56 and the Heatseekers Albums chart at number 20 for the week of July 16, 2011.[21] In 2011 Lil B was chosen for the XXL Freshmen cover along with fellow rappers Meek Mill, Big K.R.I.T., Cyhi The Prynce, Lil Twist, Yelawolf, Fred the Godson, Mac Miller, YG, Kendrick Lamar and Diggy Simmons.[22]

On May 17, 2012 Lil B released his first Instrumental album entitled Choices and Flowers under the alias The Basedgod. On August 11, 2012, Lil B stated on Facebook that the only official album he had released was Choices and Flowers under his alias The BasedGod, he also stated that that all other releases by him are mixtapes and that he was working on his first official studio album, and he stated that before the first Lil B album comes out he will release a rock album.[23][24] On September 16, 2012, Lil B released a rock single entitled "California Boy".[25] On December 30, 2012 Lil B released his second Instrumental album entitled Tears 4 God under the alias The Basedgod.[26]

On December 24, 2013 Lil B released a mixtape entitled 05 Fuck Em, the mixtape contained over 101 songs.[27]

On June 1, 2014 Lil B released a mixtape entitled Hoop Life, it would be known for containing a track entitled "Fuck KD" which was a direct diss to NBA superstar Kevin Durant.[28]

On October 14, 2014, Lil B released the Ultimate Bitch mixtape, featuring his critically acclaimed song "No Black Person Is Ugly."[29]

On July 19, 2015, Lil B and Chance the Rapper announced that they recorded a new collaborative mixtape.[30]

Musical style

File:Lil B at Coachella 2011.png
Lil B at Coachella music festival in 2011

Lil B and music critics refer to his rapping style as "based", a word that Lil B also uses to describe a positive, tolerant lifestyle. "Based" is a reclaimed word, as described by Lil B in Complex:[31][32]

“Based means being yourself. Not being scared of what people think about you. Not being afraid to do what you wanna do. Being positive. When I was younger, based was a negative term that meant like dopehead, or basehead. People used to make fun of me. They was like, ‘You’re based.’ They’d use it as a negative. And what I did was turn that negative into a positive. I started embracing it like, ‘Yeah, I’m based.’ I made it mine. I embedded it in my head. Based is positive.”

Rapping technique

Slate columnist Jonah Weiner labeled him as one of a "growing number of weird-o emcees", calling him a "brilliantly warped, post-Lil Wayne deconstructionist from the Bay Area".[33]

Pitchfork contributor Mike Powell notes that:

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The issue isn't whether or not Lil B fans are 'indentured to the idea of ironic fulfillment,' but whether or not Lil B haters are indentured to outmoded ideas of artistic credibility. He's not making art designed to last the test of time, so holding him to the standards of timeless art is pointless. Ultimately, my take with Lil B is that he keeps the price of entry to his world so low that complaining about him is a waste of energy. He offers himself to his audience for nothing—giving him nothing shouldn't be hard. Furthermore, I don't even know what 'ironic' means in the context of Lil B. If he really didn't think that the world was a beautiful and endlessly amusing place, where does he find the energy to keep rapping about it for free?[34]

Musical critic Willy Staley described Lil B's work as "variegated", because it ranges from critical parodies of the hip-hop genre to "half new age, half spoken word". He further notes that Lil B draws from a large variety of genres, especially those not commonly used by other rappers. In an interview with Staley, Lil B agrees with this analysis, saying, "I can do 'Swag OD' but then my favorite musical artist right now could be Antony and the Johnsons. That's the difference between me and these other rappers, and other musical artists in general."[4]

Other ventures

Record production and songwriting

Lil B also produces records and song writes as well, Lil B is known for producing a majority of his own records.[35]

Music video director

Lil B is also known throughout his music career for directing and shooting most of his own music videos, usually leaving his own personal message in the beginning or towards the end of the video.[36]

Author

Takin’ Over by Imposing the Positive! is a book written by Brandon McCartney and published through Kele Publishing in 2009.[37] The book is a collection of and written in the form of e-mails and text messages, and is written in such a way that the author is e-mailing the reader. Subjects include positivity, optimism, and living what he calls a "Based Lifestyle".[38] The book was passed out in an unscripted NYU lecture in March 2012.[39] On March 30, 2013 McCartney announced that he was in the process of writing his second book.[40]

Motivational speaker

Lil B has given motivational lectures at several colleges, including MIT and Carnegie Mellon University.[41] They are generally focused around his personal experience in life and current events.[42] On May 28, 2015, the rapper gave at lecture at UCLA, where he touched on subjects like money, the media, technology, space, awareness, and love.[43]

Basedmoji and vegEMOJI apps

Lil B launched the "Basedmoji" app on January 16, 2015.[44][45] On January 17, 2015, Lil B released "vegEMOJI", in cooperation with vegan company "Follow Your Heart",[46][47][48] despite the fact that Lil B is not yet a vegan, he has stated that he is cutting down on his consumption of processed foods, and that he is "ashamed of eating meat".[47]

Public image

General

Lil B's fans are commonly referred by him as BasedWorld or Bitch Mob.[49][50]

Lil B has also been known for creating and popularizing the "Cooking Dance".[49][51]

A painting by Canadian record producer Ryan Hemsworth depicting Lil B as American politician Bernie Sanders was displayed for the art exhibition "Weekend with Bernie" organized by New media artist Matt Starr in Wayfarers Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York.[52]

Social media

Lil B has garnered popularity through the use of social media. He created over 125 MySpace pages for his music. [53] Lil B has also gained a lot of popularity on YouTube, having accumulated over 40 million views on his official YouTube channel.[51]

Two popular Internet memes have been inspired by Lil B. "Thank You Based God" depicts a celebrity crying, with the caption "Thank You Based God", or its acronym "TYBG".[31]

Personal life

On January 16, 2015 Lil B's apartment building in Contra Costa County, California, caught on fire early in the morning on Thursday after an electrical fire spread through the building. Lil B and six other people were saved by 15-year-old Mateo Ysmael, who ran through the building to wake everyone up.[54][55][56][57]

During an interview Lil B would state:

I'm grateful to be alive. If that kid didn't come knocking on my door, it could've been so much worse than it was.

For the 2016 U.S. presidential election, he has endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, citing his civil rights record.[58]

Controversies and feuds

I'm Gay

When Lil B released his fifth album, titled I'm Gay, he received several death threats. Although he is heterosexual, he says the title is a message of support to the LGBT community. Referring to the original definition of gay, he says he is gay because he is happy.[59]

Joe Budden

In 2010, a number of exchanges between Lil B and Joe Budden were had over Twitter. Joe Budden had been seeming to speak mockingly about Lil B's "Based" movement and his tweets, to which Lil B responded, initially friendly but then with insults.[60] Lil B went on to release a diss track called "T Shirts & Buddens",[61] which was then featured on his "Everything Based" mixtape. Lil B later apologized for his insults and noted his respect for Budden, calling him a "legend".[62]

The Game

In 2011, after hearing a verse from Lil B on the Lil Wayne mixtape Sorry 4 the Wait, Compton rapper Game referred to Lil B as the "wackest rapper of all time." Lil B responded by calling Game "irrelevant," to which Game then threatened to knockout Lil B.[63] Game targeted Lil B in his verse in his track "Martians vs Goblins" featuring Lil Wayne and Tyler the Creator, with the line "Tie Lil B up to a tank full of propane, swag, now watch him cook". Lil B addressed this on his track "Tank of Propaine" on his "White Flame" mixtape. Several weeks later, the two settled their differences through Twitter after which Lil B urged fans to purchase Game's The R.E.D. Album.[64]

Joey Bada$$

Lil B took offense to the lyrics in the song "Survival Tactics" by late rapper Capital STEEZ, a founding member of the group Pro Era. In this, he raps, "They say hard work pays off / Well, tell the BasedGod don't quit his day job." Lil B responded with a song titled "I'm The Bada$$". Joey Bada$$ then responded with a song titled "Don't Quit Your Day Job!".[65] When the feud became public on Twitter, Joey became a target of a lot of attacks from Lil B's fans, which ended up with Joey deleting his Twitter account,[66] though restoring it later. In an interview with WWPR-FM, Joey Badass denied that he deleted his Twitter account because of Lil B's fans.[67] Later, in an interview with VladTV, Joey admitted the feud was created for publicity, and admitted he's a fan of Lil B's more serious work.

Kevin Durant

In 2011, NBA superstar Kevin Durant tweeted his befuddlement with Lil B's popularity, and Lil B responded by "cursing" Durant that he would never win the NBA championship.[68] The curse had been rescinded in 2012 but then reinstated in 2014. The feud between the two has simmered since then, resulting in Lil B releasing the diss track "Fuck KD" in 2014 and also a commercial on NBA TV where Lil B calls out Kevin Durant.[69][70][71] Lil B has claimed the "curse of the basegod" to be responsible for Durant and his Oklahoma City Thunder team's loss to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA playoffs. The Thunder had been up 3 games to 1 in a best-of-7 series, but then went on to lose the series in stunning fashion after losing the next 3 games in a row.[72]

James Harden

During the Western Conference Finals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs, Lil B began questioning NBA superstar James Harden's "cooking dance", who has been doing that dance all season long, and tweeted that if he doesn't receive an answer from Harden regarding that dance then Harden will receive the "Based God curse" similar to Kevin Durant.[73] Lil B attributed the Houston Rockets loss to the Golden State Warriors with the score of 99–98 in Game 2, and again in Game 3 with the score of 115–80, to the curse.[73][74] On May 24, 2015, Lil B announced on TMZ Sports that he has placed Harden under the "Based God curse" for the remainder of the playoffs and until further notice.[75] On May 27, 2015, Lil B was present at Oracle Arena for Game 5 where the Warriors ultimately defeated the Rockets with the score of 104–90, becoming the Western Conference champions.[76] Additionally, during this same game Harden set an NBA Playoff record with 13 turnovers,[77] prompting Lil B to publicly consider lifting the curse.[78]

Discography

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Main article: Lil B discography

Many of his mixtapes and albums are uploaded to the website Datpiff.[79]

  • I'm Thraxx (2009)
  • 6 Kiss (2009)
  • Blue Flame (2010)
  • Everything Based (2010)
  • Roses Exodus (2010)
  • Paint (2010)
  • MF Based (2010)
  • Gold Dust (2010)
  • Where Did The Sun Go? (2010)
  • Red Flame (2010)
  • Rain in England (2010)
  • Evil Red Flame (2010)
  • Mm...Christmas (2010)
  • Red Flame "Devil Music Edition" (2011)
  • Illusions of Grandeur (2011)
  • Bitch Mob Respect Da Bitch Vol. 1 (2011)
  • Black Flame (2011)
  • The Silent President (2011)
  • BasedGod Velli (2011)
  • Blue Eyes (2011)
  • Goldhouse (2011)
  • Angels Exodus (2011)
  • I'm Gay (I'm Happy) (2011)
  • White Flame (2012)
  • God's Father (2012)
  • #1 Bitch (2012)
  • The Basedprint 2 (2012)
  • Trapped in Basedworld (2012)
  • Choices and Flowers (2012)
  • Water Is D.M.G. Pt.1 (2012)
  • Green Flame (2012)
  • Rich After Texas (2012)
  • Task Force (2012)
  • Obama Basedgod (2012)
  • Based Jam (2012)
  • Frozen (2012)
  • Illusions Of Grandeur 2 (2012)
  • Halloween H20 (2012)
  • Crime Fetish (2012)
  • Glassface (2012)
  • Tears 4 God (2012)
  • Pink Flame (2013)
  • P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thug) (2013)
  • 100% Percent Gutta (2013)
  • 05 Fuck Em (2013)
  • Basedworld Paradise (2014)
  • Hoop Life (2014)
  • Ultimate Bitch (2014)
  • Thugged Out Pissed Off (2015)

Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
2015 Basedworld[80] as Himself Documentary

References

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  58. ↑ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/meet-bernie-sanders-top-celebrity-backers/story?id=33020601 Sanders Celebrity Backers
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  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  74. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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