I want people to smile when they hear my name.
— Lil B
I'm a product of the different - whether it be institutional racialism, whether it might be growing up in a low-income area, whether it might be, you know, coming from my mother, my father. I'm a totally different person from my mother and father, but once again I'm from them. We all have our different souls, but I'm from them.
For me, there are a lot of people that want to hear what I have to say. There are a lot of people who want to talk to Lil B, and they care about Lil B. Without the people I wouldn't be able to reach that magnitude of engagement.
What I mean by being real is just when you are doing dance celebrations, sports celebrations, like the cooking dance or anything like that. When you're an artist, you want to always try your best to do the homework and see where it originated from.
Anybody that wants to take a picture with me I'm more than happy - I'm excited about it. I'm building that personal connection with the fans and keeping it.
I definitely see myself as as much a feminist as I can try to be. I know I'm not perfect, but I definitely feel the connection with women. I feel them.
I give it all to Based God, I'm just putting stuff together that the Based God gives me.
It's all run by one person, but, real talk, Brandon McCartney is a book author, the Based God is perfect and Lil B is the trendsetter, the person that everyone follows and pays attention to.
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.
Based means being yourself. Not being scared of what people think about you. Not being afraid to do what you wanna do. Being positive.
I don't really do anything unless it's from the heart - I don't like to joke on people, or distract them from something they love.
I've seen a lot of people stealing from what I do. Some people show love and say thank you and tell me how I was an inspired for them.
If the white folks feel America is great for everybody, I don't want to change what they love. All I want is to bring my love and respect in the areas of law, policy, business, and banking. That's what I do when I do my extremely rare lectures at universities.
Growing up low income and poor, I didn't have the best relationship with money.
Sometimes you don't go straight from high school or college and get to the NBA from there. Sometimes you have to go when you're a little bit older and try that other route like Jeremy Lin. And he made it.
I'm not paying attention to Kevin Durant. I don't have any recollection of watching him play. I can't remember how he shoots free throws.
Clams's music to me is where there's no boundaries. It was just exciting for my mind to be as free as Clams's music is.
I have a song that's called 'Rap Dreams, Hoop Dreams'. Besides education, everybody's got hoop dreams from day one in rap. Rap, sports, music have so much of an impact on the world.
I think for me, I get so much love that it balances or overpowers the hate. When I started making music, it was kind of flawless for me. I didn't get any hate early in my hip-hop career.
I followed the 1.2 million people with my hand. Never faked anything. Never bought any followers or anything like that. So anything on my social media is a hundred percent real.
An artist should appreciate anybody that appreciates their art because really bro, without people I can't do anything.
If I can really sustain myself and become a powerful entity on the internet, it'll transfer into real life. So right now I'm putting everything into the net.
I appreciate women so much. I think the part that they play is that I just admire women. I love every part of the woman. I think the woman is what is amazing.
Sometimes, I know it's not me that makes this music. Like, when the Based God comes, he speaks to me. It's not me, even though I'm there playing the music live, myself.
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.
I don't support violence and I don't support negative energy. I don't support people putting other people down.
Rappers are definitely role models and definitely should get involved. They're involved in politics whether they like it or not.
It doesn't matter where you're from. You can be from the hood or the suburbs. You can be poor with no education or a college graduate. No matter your background, you can win.
Black Ken' debuted number one on iTunes in hip-hop, and top five or ten top, top five on the whole iTunes, on all genres. It was really cool to be able to self-produce.
I came in the gate as an African-American poor kid wanting to be a neurosurgeon but - with American life and the places I was put due to American history and laws and the oppression of black people - I had to make it work in other ways.
Well, Tony Yayo is my dude. Tony Yayo is a big supporter of my music.
I've been teaching myself the fundamentals and being around some good players, but also been learning to play team games, playing 3-on-3s, playing 1-on-1s, playing 5-on-5s, playing 21. There are guys bigger than me on the court, but I've had numerous comparisons to Ty Lawson.
I can joke around and do what I want and be great in my area and play around and be the best, but when I'm with Clams, he's the greatest and amazing, so I'm going to make sure I do what I've got to do.
My favorite player in the league is Klay Thompson.
I got started when I was about 15, or 16. My first break through was the Vans song with my group The Pack. That became a worldwide thing.
I mean, everything that is upon this earth, even from a worm or a caterpillar that blossoms into a butterfly, you know, these things are just amazing.
Before Lil B, hip-hop and music in general was in a different space. Lil B really just pushed this independence.
If one person reaches out to me, who am I not to reach back? Even if it takes me a year to reply, they do get that message and they feel it.
You know I think with Black Lives Matter, it is extremely special and important. I definitely feel that.
I feel everything. I feel everything, so when you feel, you know you have emotions and everything. Music is a feeling. Music is energy, vibrations and sounds.
I can't make Based God music all the time. The Based God is something that is better than Lil B and better than Brandon McCartney; he's something that I aspire to be.
I'm a human sacrifice. I put myself out there for the people, and hopefully they take the good and the positivity from that.
I just want all people to be treated equally, all creeds. It would just make everybody's time on earth easier.
I just gotta keep doing what I'm doing, and just continuing to grow and progress as an artist. People who are saying that about Lil B need to be innovative and not be tools.
The Warriors are a lifestyle. I love every Warrior that stayed. They represented Oakland with pride. I love the Warriors. I love Oakland. I love the people.
I'm actually going to self-produce my next tape that I'm working on, 'Platinum Frame'. This going to be my second official mixtape.
My perspective of capitalism growing up in Berkeley, Calif. in a low-income project, growing up poor, is that capitalism wanted to destroy me, they wanted me to become a worker.
Before the money or anything, number one, it was just to put out real music, real stuff with a passion, real art.
I was always a good athlete. I just gave up on football.
Me and Clams have always kept it organic with the way we work. It's just always the right time. It's never no pressure. He always comes through if I need him. I always come through if he needs me, and we always meet at that right time.
