In just a year, Lil B has gone from underground cult favorite to legitimate sensation. We're only a few months into 2011 but the self-proclamed Based God has made major moves including inking a deal with Live Nation, dropping his mixtape Illusions of Grandeur, and collaborating with everyone from Bow Wow to Tony Yayo. In fact, just today we found out he's going to work with Lupe Fiaso and has an EP with Jay Electronica on the way. There's no denying Lil B stays cooking something up. That's why for our April/May issue (with Wiz Khalifa/Danny McBride and Kat Dennings on the covers) we just had to let the Based God bless us with his wise words for our My Complex interview. The 21-year-old talks music, positivity, and why you should let him sleep with your girl. Swag!
As told to Ernest Baker (@newbornrodeo).
When you do everything yourself, it gets crazy. It’s very hard to balance. Sometimes I’m dealing with so much business, and my mind will be so stressed, that I’ll go a week without writing…But the benefit of doing everything yourself is that you get a major payoff. Nobody can say they made you. You feel good because you’re the person that made your career and you owe it to yourself. This is me. I’m the reason why I’m in this position, and it feels great.
I’m a human sacrifice. I put myself out there for the people, and hopefully they take the good and the positivity from that. The people that love me get the message…But it’s really hard to find people with genuine intentions. When people are hitting you off Twitter, a lot of times they don’t know who you are. They’re just hopping on your character and they gon’ be hopping on another rapper next. You gotta weed out the real and the fake.
Some people say they’ll let me have their girl just to be cool. That’s why I have to ask some of my supporters, “Who will really let me fuck their bitch when it comes down to it?” I haven’t taken anyone up on the offer yet…But in the future, I’ma do something like that, maybe in Europe, and bless them. The woman gets a piece of the Based God, and the guy gets that positive spirit. It’s like, “Based God fucked my bitch because I want that positive energy.” That’s love.
Labels put you everywhere. They got that money to promote you and get you on that radio and TV…But there’s a dirty side. At the flip of the switch, if they don’t wanna fuck with you, they don’t gotta fuck with you. If they don’t believe in you, they don’t gotta put you out. Going to a label is like having a job. It’s like, “I’m about to go work for somebody.” You got a boss. A lot of artists are independent and don’t like working for people.
