LIB B: FIRST RAPPER MADE ON THE INTERNET #2

LILBTHEBASEDGOD IM FOLLOWED BY AROUND 33 THOUSAND, I FOLLOW AROUND 33 THOUSAND, I HAV TWEETED AROUND 33 THOUSAND #BASED #BASED ERYTAHNG BASED!!!

There are still legends living very comfortably as middle level rap stars, maintaining a following without ever compromising their artistic integrity (favorite examples: Cormega, Sean Price, Ill Bill), but the traditional rapper traditionally fits badly into this new paradigm of rap production. Lil B on the other hand – with a hundred Myspaces, almost the double in youtubes, 24 hours a day online, spreading viruslike – lives the Age Of Information like few others.

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.

There are few other artists out there that are so extreme in their passion and devotion to their sound. Sonically and lyrically he explores and goes where he wants to. I believe that everything B does, from the retarded “hoes suck my dick because i X like X” lines to the deep and introspective points of view on things like race, struggle, and growing up can be easily reconciled under this based existence. B and I are only 3 years apart, so to a point I can understand where he’s coming from in being young and aimless and trying to actively figure out your place in the world. Some days I wake up thinking deeply about the culture of the Internet as well. Sometimes I wake up and think about hoes sucking my dick.

Every man has two sides. The balance between them needs to be #based. A dualism as brilliantly explored in The Bible, I’m God and I’m The Devil as in Sabac Red’s underground classic Positive And Negative.

Look at 2pac as the young effeminate black panther and later as the leather clad super thug (or all the other 2pacs he gave to the world). When Jay-Z raps Never Change – is that like nothing happened between Hawaiian Sophie and Parking Lot Pimping and Empire State Of Mind? Cormega kept it #based when he said that “if dough change things I’m no longer the same / But what I became does not conflict with from where I came“. 2pac was so great, so mythical, because he displayed the different people in him. And everything he wrote was not based on his individual life. He wrote models of living, and was, like Malcolm X, the great story of how a person changes, going from nothing to something, taking the world as hostage.

Honesty is gold in the attention economy. That’s what makes Lil B a billionaire even when wearing dirty vans.

LILBTHEBASEDGOD all the hate i will throw it in a pot. and use that as salt and peper and I will cook till my death. in my kitchen alone in tiny pants

stewarthome1 The three r’s of postmodernism – repetition, repetition, repetition!

It’s not unrealistic to assume that Lil B:s repeated use of Bitch and Hoes On My Dick and Suck My Dick is a deconstructionist strategy of sorts. Like geeks do with geek and niggers do with nigger. Repetition changes meaning. Every copy gets a different character. In a retweeting of a female fan’s tweet I feel like I’m seeing a hidden agenda of subverting hiphop’s misogyny and homophobia:

LILBTHEBASEDGOD @LILBTHEBASEDGOD wooooo swag wooo suck my dick hoe woo swag

Complex: Is your unconscious mindset fascinated by homosexuality? You talk about lesbians a lot. You call girls faggots. You call yourself a pretty bitch. Is there interest in that lifestyle?

Lil B: It’s a touchy subject. I respect the hell out of gays and the gay community. I’m not a gay man. I don’t agree with sex with another man or fucking another man or giving blow jobs to another guy. That’s not my thing. I’d rather fuck a girl, fuck her in her ass, fuck her in the mouth or something. Sorry for cussing.

Complex: It’s fine.

Lil B: It’s a very touchy subject. People get scared when they hear the gay word, but when you truly know yourself, you gonna be good.