It's now been six weeks since Lil B dropped the Bitch Mob, which is like a thousand years in Based World. This time last year we were getting rare and legendary musical gifts from B on a nearly daily basis. The Based God works in mysterious ways. Just as a few of his devotees (namely me) were turning restless, last night his controversial I'm Gay dropped on iTunes, unexpectedly like bird shit.
The record's title has served as such a talking point that it was easy to forget that there was an actual album behind it. In fact for a while it seemed entirely possible that it might've suffered the fate of the much lamented lost album Black Ken. But if you divorce I'm Gay from the controversy of its title (which may never happen because controversy is more popular than music these days) you can process it as just another Lil B album, a mature effort of the Angels Exodus and Illusions of Grandeur lineage. Sample-driven boom bap production (okay one of the samples is a Goo Goo Dolls sample, but still), personal, sociopolitcally charged, traditional and mostly lucid rhymes. Very few mentions of swag or pretty bitches or tiny jeans. In fact, he doesn't even talk of his gayness (or straightness) once on the album. But maybe that was his plan all along—shock the world the title, only to have them come and witness his straightforward serious rap shit. Sample album track "I Hate Myself," below, then buy I'm Gay on iTunes.
Download: Lil B, "I Hate Myself"
