Live Review: Lil B

In the present day hip hop landscape, riddled with transient, wealth-centric rap artists who fail to communicate positive messages to an impressionable younger fan-base, Lil B a.k.a 'The Based God' dramatically stands out. With an ethos heavily focused on togetherness, acceptance and optimism in all realms of life, Lil B refutes ignorance and encourages all his fans to be inspired by his integrities. Although it would be wise to use the term “musician” loosely to describe his ventures, his enigmatic creative persona has acquired him an inimitable cult following, where his fans use specific catchphrases such as “thank you based god” to assert their allegiance to his craft. His live show was, as expected, a distinctively euphoric experience, which was equally inspiring as it was visually enriching. “I am the Dalai Lama of Hip Hop”, he wailed as his avid fans laughed at his faux-egotism. Inconsistently yelling the words to Fuck Me, Lil B proves his status as a personality and not a musician, also evidenced by his incoherent growls during an hilarious performance of Connected In Jail. The quality mildly improved with the beautiful aesthetics of Clams Casino-produced beat I'm God, which was evidently a crowd favourite with fans jumping onto the stage in an attempt to get wavy with The Based God. Moving onto some newer material, including I Love You, which channeled his most recent laughable, momentary 'indie-rock' phase, The Based God yelled hysterically 'I am a living legend' to his highly amused fans who enthusiastically encouraged his nonsensical rants. As he muttered “swag” and performed his most notable track, Wonton Soup, the audience excitedly did the 'Cook Dance', which Lil B made prominent earlier in his career, in unison. As his set drew to an end, Lil B sent out messages of love and tolerance to the audience and the young Based God hung around taking selfies with fans till the AM - a rare and based sight.