S. Samuel
West Coast rapper Lil B continues to push hip-hop's boundaries by releasing a classical music album called Choices & Flowers seemingly overnight and currently available for purchase.
Lil B broke the news of his new album Tuesday (May 22) night and made it immediately available on digital outlet iTunes.
Entitled Choices And Flowers, Lil B, recording here under his well-known moniker The Based God, announced the release on Twitter last night (May 22) with an ultra-positive pronouncement of its historical importance. “THE BASEDGOD HAS MADE HISTORY TODAY HE PRODUCED AND COMPOSED HIS WHOLE CLASSICAL MUSIC ALBUM,” he wrote. With song titles like “Happy To Live,” “Lessons From The Wind” and “Exhale With Love In Your Chest,” the Bay Area cult artist is not exactly pulling a Beethoven on the release. He still raps, focusing on minimal (mostly piano-based) production and a loose, spoken-word style. (RapFix)
The West Coast rapper has already started putting out visuals for the music.
But how does Choices and Flowers sound? Check out “All My Life,” below, which basically consists of B’s tune-and-rhyme-challenged rapping (we say this affectionately), three notes on a piano, and a chorus around 1:50 where he bleats “All My Life” like a sheep halfway through its slaughter. We can’t decide which is the better visual highlight: those shots of B at the piano, wearing triangle earrings and pastel vest, trying to pull a Billy Joel, or the part where he glares moodily at the camera, making no movement, for what feels like more than a minute. (SF Weekly)
Last summer, Lil B’s I’m Gay (I’m Happy) album suffered low opening week record sales.
Young up-starter, Lil’ B’s, album I’m Gay (I’m Happy) dropped last week without warning and despite the amount of controversy and hooplah surrounding the Based God’s release, the project only sold a surprising 1,700 units as first week sales come to a close. (VIBE)
Despite the low purchases, Grammy-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco caught wind of the LP and reviewed it.
“I won’t carry on much longer but I did want to get to the content. Now normally reviewers delve deeply or comparatively lightly when talking about an album. They mention favorite songs or less than favorites for that matter, maybe even breaking them down and bringing finer points of production or lyrical execution to light. Well I’m not going to mess about with any of that. At the end of the day it’s all opinion and one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. If you like it you like it if you don’t you don’t. The reason I give this album entrance into my “Liberation Rock” library hangs on the power and impact of just one single, solitary line uttered by Lil B in the midst of the entire work that is “I’m Gay.” (Lupe Fiasco’s Blog)
Check out Lil B’s “All My Life” music video below:
