This story’s kind of sprawled out, well I guess that I should warn ya

Lil B’s my favorite rapper, he’s from Berkeley, California

I heard him first in ’06, he was in a group called The Pack

They were just a bunch of teenagers, real hungry to rap

And their single “Vans” got famous, all the skaters really loved it

“Got my Vans on but they look like sneakers,” they preached from their pulpits

But MTV wouldn’t play their song, they called it a commercial

They missed something entirely when they made it controversial

Cause rap and skating culture are both socially rejected

It might have been a silly song but it was still about being different

So a record label signed them on the strength of that 1 song

Two years went by, the label dropped them, things had all went wrong

Lil B was shattered so he came up with a plan

To find a more direct way to connect with all his fans

As soon as he found MySpace, that’s where the madness started at

A hundred fifty pages, he made seven hundred tracks

And a lot were recorded poorly with a lo-fi punk aesthetic

He talked about his life, got high, and came off schizophrenic

Psychedelic, funny; most important, he was honest

His gift was letting words, unfiltered, flow from his subconscious

He called this being BASED; at first I did not understand it

It was sloppy and unnerving, sometimes lost and heavy handed

I know rappers always claim they can find words right on the spot

But no one shares unstructured thoughts quite like Lil B the Based God

His music is a diary, one long transcript of his mind

Spaced out, existential, sometimes he won’t even rhyme

He talks about his thrift store clothes, how he loves everyone

How people should be positive before reaching for their guns

It comes off kind of like a deconstructive science project

Where he can pick apart cliches and forms within his genre
He’s got songs about celebrities, he’s even made up his own dance

It’s humorous and ludicrous, but it’s all part of his plan

Cause he’s got other songs that reach unmediated truths

Experimental hip hop, poignant vantage points on youth

The Based World is a product of a strong grass roots persistence
His life is a defense of the world wide web's mere existence
Sure there’s mediocrity, people will misuse it

But the digital community is the subtext to his music

He responds to every screen name out there as much as he can

Appreciates support, he keeps his music free for fans

I remember when his MySpace pages took so long to load
Girls sent him tattoed half-clothed photos, he posted them in droves

He’s got videos filmed in his hometown blowing up on YouTube

Lives his life on Twitter, if you follow, he’d retweet you

And his fans sometimes might seem a little crazed in their devotion

But something in his music brings out complex strong emotions
So you can call him terrible, you can say he sucks

But hatred looks so petty next to all the lives he’s touched

Reaching out to us in ways that never happen often

He dedicates his life to making hip hop’s hard shell soften

Ambient and soulful, he’s got one disc on a noise label

Spoken word insanity, I heard it when I had no cable

He’s a role model for kids much more than popes or politicians

Cause he lives for positivity and the power of ambition
It’s clear he’s just a young man out there doing what he loves

Not scared or shy to be himself when push comes to shove

So Based God, I recorded this hoping one day you would listen

A token of my thanks for all the music you have given

You know that if the blogs and critics someday forget about you

I’ll be among the millions who are glad that they have found you

Accomplished as an artist, you’ve earned fans and many friends

You stand for something special always worth time to defend

So thank you Based God

For staying honest and staying Based

When the world won’t fit you in


You have to make your own space