[Video] Vice’s Guide to Lil B (What the Hell is “Based”, Any way?)
Back in September when I wrote about Lil B, there was almost nothing written about the guy. I had to stream through pages upon pages of searches to find anything remotely factual about him. Months later, the Californian "Based God" is blowing up in the "real" world and has collected an extremely fanatic and impressive internet following (over 100,000 on twitter) without the aid of major music journalism outlets. Now, he has his own cover issue of FADER, just today New York Magazine called his New York HighLine Ballroom performance the "Critics Pick" (you can attend for only $13 bucks), and seemingly everyone is co-signing on this strange, extremely eccentric, and innovative rapper.
The first thing to be said about Lil B is the sense of immediacy and uncensored consciousness in his music, a type of rapping he invented and refers to as "Based". But his ultimate artistic intention remains surprisingly elusive given how substantive his online presence is (his twitter followers know it's huge and majorly cult), so to clarify things a little and get to know the guy, Vice headed to California to ask the man himself.
Stream the entire video after the JUMP.