Live In Baltimore 2010
, Bay Area experimental rapper Lil B's live set from the 2010 Whartscape festival, begins with the self-proclaimed "Based God" walking onstage shouting "swag" a whole bunch of times as M83's "Can't Stop" blasts from the speakers. It's actually pretty exhilarating--but it's all downhill from there. Most of the time, B isn't even rapping here, he's just shouting out the names of bloggers and other web media types, repeating the word "swag" over and over, and dispassionately rapping a line or two from the songs blasting behind him and moving on. The lack of energy is painfully clear when he waddles through a genuinely transcendent track like
or half-asses "Vans," the hit from his group, the Pack. Imagine Lou Reed's
Take No Prisoners
, if Lou sang even less, was in an annoyingly good mood, and didn't know he was acting like a total shitbag. Here's the thing: Lil B can be really good. Though the cult around him is obnoxious in a
Rocky Horror Picture Show
way--shouting lines back at him, wearing costumes, creating insider catchphrases--he's a charmingly sincere rapper, a lover of things airy and electronic, a genuine music weirdo, and there aren't too many of them right now. Just look at the cover to this thing (a pigeon in a field of grass) for evidence that B is completely on his own. And check out songs like
or
off the way-too-long, way-too-awesome
Red Flame
mixtape for further proof. Last time I checked, Sound Garden still had vinyl copies of Lil B's ambient, spoken-word album
Rain In England
. Spend some money on that and leave
Live In Baltimore 2010
Latest Baltimore City Paper
alone.
