"I Was Not Expecting This..."

Ever since our friends at Droptops & Stacy Lattisaw Tapes put this song on their mix of best songs of 2011 I've been pondering its greatness:

Lil B "Bill Bellamy"



This song represents Lil B at the top of his game and doing something that few rappers are capable of: taking in the atmosphere and vibe of a song's beat and then creating raps that are in a completely opposite direction. While Lil B's raps are bizarre and abstract at times, it is usually accompanied by an off-kilter beat, for instance "Like a Martian" begs for ignorant-as-fuck, ridiculous raps and he more than delivers. But when given beats that are more ethereal and melodic his raps tend to become more coherent and introspective, for instance on "Last Summer."
But on this song he's faced with a dead serious and urgent production that begs for some focused, substantial raps. He creates the illusion of earnestness in his tone, but brings some of his most abtruse verses to date. The chorus is him counting felonies accompanied by verses with lines like, "if I'm fuckin' lyin' turn my soul into a skeleton" and "YOU goin' shoppin', fuck goin' shoppin'." What does it all mean? It means Lil B is at his best when remaining unpredictable and at his worst when he is teaming nostalgic East Coast beats with social commentary raps (see BasedGod Velli).

I like his neon shirt (no homo)

It reminds me of this Husalah song:

Husalah "Gear"



This beat (produced by Rob Lo?) begs for a few introspective verses reflecting on one's time in the hard streets and just about every rapper would have probably taken that approach when given a sound like this, but Hus instead decides to strictly rap about how fly his clothes are for three and a half minutes and follow that with some of his best ad libs to date ("yeah I've been working out!") about how handsome his wardrobe makes him.
Husalah in his heyday reminds me of Gucci Mane in his own, in that they both were able to create clever and memorable raps that largely revolved around superficial things, but often proved to be intelligent commentary about what they represented in their own culture. In other words, many people who don't 'get' their music and find it to be ignorant are usually not smart enough to pick up on its true meaning (i.e. hipsters listening to Gucci ironically can eat a dick).

The point of all this is that it takes a talented rapper to accept a beat that is created specifically for a particular subject matter and then completely go against that in his rhymes.

If someone were to rap about finding true love over "Luv Dem Gun Sounds" it would be dope as fuck.

Semi-related note: Lil B might have #secrete #rare beef with Soulja Boy. As a person on the internet this is extremely relevant to my interests. Even though they probably both weigh under a buck fifty I think Based God would win in a fight.