TYBG: A Breakdown Of Lil B's Fans & Critics

Let’s get this out of the way up front. Lil B is not really a good rapper by almost any metric. This piece isn’t going to be some contrarian-for-click’s-sake editorial telling you that the Based God should have a bust in between Rakim and the Dipset Weed-Carriers Wing in the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.

Still, anyone who claims to have knowledge of hip-hop in the Internet Age has to at least partially understand the cult and appeal of The Pack’s most famous member (and all the hate his uncomfortably earnest philosophy and ideas about the role of a rapper garners from people who don’t get it).

Trying to wrap your head around an artist who has released several thousand songs since 2006 can be a daunting task. That’s why we’ve broken down Lil B opinions into various camps (like we’ve done in the past for Riff Raff and Chief Keef) that might help you decide how you feel about the #rare-est of rappers without dedicating the next few months to the cause.

(This is you if: You wish your mom would get off your back about Bible Study.)

To understand the love for Lil B, you need to get that a lot of what makes the rapper popular has fuck-all to do with rapping.

Lil B has won a lot of fans just by being the most single-mindedly positive human being walking the Earth. B is what would happen if a self-help book became sentient. As such, he’s the perfect role model for kids going through a tough time in their life.

These kids are reaching out for something and B is willing to give it to them in the form of a free 100-plus song mixtape. If they were religious (or had a ride to Barnes and Noble), they’d fall into the open arms of crocodile-smiling cyborg Joel Osteen or new-age cash cow Deepak Chopra. But they aren’t, so they have found solace in the upbeat attitude of a weirdo from the Bay.

(This is you if: you're aged 10 to 12)

In addition, Lil B is the first rapper to truly embrace the always-on, oversharing lifestyle of the Internet Age. The current crop of kids are coming of age in a period where every thought, miscue and rough draft is posted online for eternal critique.

If you’ve ever seen an embarrassing video of a tin-eared kid trying to cover the latest pop song in his bedroom, opening himself up to the ruthless horde of internet commenters, you’ve seen someone who gets Lil B.

Lil B has never had a thought for a song that he didn’t make reality and release onto the internet. He stands with all these children who answer their parents’ question of “Why did you feel the need to post that?” with a “Fuck you, that’s why.”

(This is you if: You get paid six figures to use platforms that other people use to post pictures of sandwiches)

As we’ve mentioned before, Lil B is largely novel due to his use of the Internet and his “post everything, all the time” outlook.

For the “paradigm-shifters” and “Come to Jesus”-ers of the world, this is commendable. He managed to build a brand on his own savvy and status as an early adopter. In another, much more boring world, Lil B would be in a boardroom telling the CEO of a yoga pants company how to maximize his RTs.

Luckily for all of us on Earth-1218, this isn’t the case. Instead, the brand managers of the world have a "social media presence" they can look up to with the Based God, even if they'd never be caught dead listening to "I Own Swag."

(This is you if: You call every gaming device a Nintendo)

Very few olds have heard Lil B and the ones that have will insist on calling him “Jay-Z” until the day they die.

That being said, olds in the know are secretly terrified of Lil B. He is the living, breathing incarnation of a culture that has passed them by. Lil B exists on a medium they don’t understand (the internet) peddling a form of music that they quickly scan past on their radio and doing it in a way that eschews all their notions of celebrity, privacy and, well,  talent.

Lil B is a manifestation of the future, for good and bad. And you don’t need to have an in-depth knowledge of gold-selling, End Times-fetishizing talk radio skills to know that Olds split their time between screaming at and hiding from the future.

(This is you if: You use the words “based” and “rare” in conversations with your grandmother)

If you are a member of the Task Force, you don’t need to read this article to understand your feelings for the Based God. In fact, these die-hards are probably calling out the entire staff of HNHH just for the assumption at the beginning of this article that Lil B is not a very good rapper.

The Task Force is a version of the BeyHive that has leaked through from an alternate universe where a rapper who makes songs about being Ellen DeGeneres is the most popular artist on Earth. They will protect their pseudo-deity at all costs.

Case in point...

(This is you if: You’re a six-time NBA All Star and the reigning league MVP)

If Lil B is God to the denizens of BasedWorld, KD is definitely Satan and he likely feels the same way about Brandon as Lucifer feels about that unchill bro in the sky.

Before 2011, KD was largely ambivalent to the world of Lil B, even tweeting that he simply didn’t get the rapper’s influence given his level of skill.

This tweet would set off a series of events landing Durant in the heavily anti-Lil B camp. B responded to the harmless tweet by dropping his always-on bubble of relentless positivity and firing a shot across KD’s bow.

Lil B went full Madame Zeroni on KD, cursing the Oklahoma City center for always and eternity. Since the NBA doesn’t have a “Madden Curse”, clearly Lil B’s hoodoo is the only thing keeping KD from the single greatest career achievement he could possibly attain.

Also, there’s this:

So, yeah. If you’re KD, you don’t like Lil B.

(This is you if: You think Joey Bada$$ is the second coming of hip-hop)

Heads don’t like Lil B and frankly, they shouldn’t. It’s not a knock on them that they don’t like Lil B, considering that he’s genuinely a pretty mediocre rapper.

No one is grabbing the aux cord in a car playing Logic and saying “Fam, have you heard this?” before dropping an 05 Fuck Em deep cut.  

Somebody has to act as the guardians of hip-hop standards and in this case their hatred is totally understandable (unlike their completely unwarranted hatred for Riff and Keef).  

What do you think? Where do you fall on the Lil B spectrum?

Sound off in the comments.