Lil B has emerged as a popular and polarizing hip-hop artist with the help of myspace, youtube, and twitter instead of a major label. His rapping style, which he calls "based music" is usually slow and often quite repetitive, two traits which are normally considered "bad" when it comes to hip-hop. And plenty of people do consider him bad, and it's hard to argue with them. To me though, he represents the future of music - a young guy making music he loves, regardless of what a bunch of suits in a boardroom would say about it. Eminem might have a dirty line or two about Hannah Montana, but Lil B has a whole song called "I'm Miley Cyrus," with such lyrics as
I'm Miley Cyrus
(swag)
I'm Miley Cyrus
(swag)
I'm Miley Cyrus
(swag)
I'm Miley Cyrus
Left hand Cyrus, right hand iced out
All the girls love me, all the guys hate me
Right hand Cyrus, girlfriend Cyrus
I'm Miley Cyrus, drive with no license
Other celebrity-centered Lil B songs include "I'm Bill Clinton" and "Ellen Degeneres"
More alarming to your average American than these are songs with titles such as "I'm God" and "Look Like Jesus," in which Lil B makes the claim (at length, and explicitly) that his success with women is due to his shared resemblance with Jesus Christ. Beneath all of the absurdity and heresy, however, "based music" is about something very pure - being yourself and staying positive, no matter what. In 2011, artists can use the internet to cut out the middleman - it doesn't matter that his songs will never be on the radio.
But I can't really tell about #basedmusic, you have to experience it for yourself. Vice Magazine did a good bit on their Mtv show which explains the details in better detail:
After that, we'll move on to the crown-jewel of his celebrity-joke songs, Ellen Degeneres:
Whether you made it through that one or not, here is the more introspective "I'm God"
Further Reading:
http://twitter.com/LILBTHEBASEDGOD
http://www.complex.com/music/2010/06/lil-b-talks-getting-sucker-punched-gay-rumors-drake-envy
