Based God Life Essay

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 â€Å"Vans† became a surprise hit. The song was ranked as the fifth best of 2006 by Rolling Stone magazine.[5] The strength of â€Å"Vans† led the group to release Skateboards 2 Scrapers, featuring a â€Å"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. Solo success (2010–present) Aside from his involvement with The Pack, Lil B garnered popularity through the use of social media Web sites. He created over 155 MySpace pages in order to upload all of his music. He recorded over 1,500 tracks as of July 2010, including hits â€Å"Like A Martian,† â€Å"Wonton Soup,† â€Å"Pretty Bitch,† and â€Å"I’m God.†,[6] all of which were released for free. Lil B had apparently signed with Amalgam Digital in 2010 for a multiple album deal.[7][8] However, he appears to have only released one record through the label, and his subsequent records were released independently either through mixtape hosting website DatPiff, or iTunes. Slate columnist Jonah Weiner labeled him as one of a â€Å"growing number of weird-o emcees†, calling him a â€Å"brilliantly warped, post-Lil Wayne deconstructionist from the Bay Area†.[9] Lil B released Angels Exodus, on January 18, 2011, through Amalgam Digital, although he had previously released Rain In England on CD and Vinyl through Weird Forest Records in September 2010. On August 11, 2012, Lil B stated through his Facebook that the only official album he has released was the album Choices and Flowers under his alias â€Å"The BasedGod.† He said that all other releases by him are mixtapes and that he is currently working on his first official Lil B studio album.[10] Before the first Lil B album comes out he will release a rock album.[11] He has since stated he is working on a new album as â€Å"The BasedGod† called â€Å"Tears 4 God†, which was released on December 30 2012.[12] Controversy I’m Gay album 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.[13] Feud with 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 â€Å"wackest rapper of all time.† Lil B responded by calling Game â€Å"irrelevant,† to which Game then threatened Lil B.[14] Several weeks later, the two settled their differences through Twitter after which Lil B urged fans to purchase Game’s album The R.E.D. Album.[15] Feud with Joey Bada$$ Lil B took offense to rapper, and member of Pro Era, Capital Steez’s lyrics in Joey Bada$$’ song â€Å"Survival Tactics.† In this, he raps â€Å"They say hard work pays off / well tell the BasedGod don’t quit his day job.† Lil B responded with a song titled â€Å"I’m The Bada$$.† Joey Bada$$ then responded with a song titled â€Å"Don’t Quit Your Day Job!†.[16] A Lil B fan-group identifying as â€Å"Task Force† later prompted Joey Bada$$ to remove his twitter[17], which he later reactivated. Style Musical critic Willy Staley described Lil B’s work as â€Å"variegated†, because it ranges from critical parodies of the hip-hop genre to â€Å"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 analys