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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Lil B (San Francisco's rapper Brandon McCartney) was originally a member of
a hip-hop group, The Pack, that had a minor hit with Vans (2006) and
released one album, Based Boys (2007);
but Lil B became famous and influential as a pioneer of "cloud rap" when he
started releasing "digital" albums, the first ones being
I'm Thraxx (2009) and 6 Kiss (2009), followed by
the mixtapes Dior Paint (2010) and
Base World Pt 1 (2010). By the time he released his first official
album,
Rain in England (2010), he had reportedly recorded more than 1,500
songs: 12 mixtapes came out just in 2010.
This was followed by the album
Angels Exodus (2011). In the same year he also released ten mixtapes,
including I'm Gay (I'm Happy) (2011).
Lil B's style was labeled "swag-rap", a genre pioneered by
Mississippi-based rapper DeAndre "Soulja Boy" Way with
Turn My Swag On (2008) and Pretty Boy Swag (2010).
Under the moniker Basedgod, McCartney released the instrumental new-age albums Choices and Flowers (2012) and Tears 4 God (2012).
In 2012 he released 16 mixtapes; and
in 2013 "only" four, but one of them,
05 Fuck Em (2013), contains 101 songs.
The frequency of releases then slowed down considerably.
Nonetheless, he released ten in five years:
Basedworld Paradise (2014),
Hoop Life (2014),
Ultimate Bitch (2014),
Thugged Out Pissed Off (2015),
Black Ken (2017),
Platinum Flame (2018),
Options (2018),
28 Wit a Ladder (2019),
The Hunchback of BasedGod (2019)
and
Loyalty Casket (2019).
The quality is inversely proportional to the quantity.
A greatest hits of his ten best songs would still be a mediocre album.
The 42-song The Frozen Tape (2022) even includes an 86-minute university lecture.
Thraxxx Kiss (2022) was mostly a collaboration with Gregory "Keyboard Kid" Phillips.
Call of Duty Task Force (2022) was one of his most entertaining albums, but still a far cry from a decent one.
He turned to jazz (sort of) on the all-instrumental Afrikantis (2022), ostensibly inspired by Sun Ra's masterpiece Atlantis but hardly related to it (or even to jazz). It is mostly a lo-fi electronic collage of computer-generated instrumentals that span genres like Afro-funk, Frank Zappa-esque skits, new-age music, even some country and easy-listening music.
(Copyright © 2019 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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