Hip Hop’s Top Innovators (Part 1): Lil B – The Marketing Genius

Hip Hop’s Top Innovators: A written series focused on hip hop’s top innovators, individuals who have changed the hip hop industry through untraditional, original and creative ways.

Some people hate Lil B and some people love him. I respect him. I don’t think the self-proclaimed Based God is a great rapper by any means. Why would anyone? He has no lyrics or flow. There’s no concept or structure in his music. Not to mention, the sound quality is terrible! I really wouldn’t be surprised if he recorded in GarbageBand in his room on a Mac.

I could go on and on forever about how bad his music is. However, his music isn’t what makes him special. Its his innovation. I consider Lil B to be one of hip hop’s top innovators. In fact, I think he is a marketing genius.

Despite having a poor music product, the 22-year-old has one of the strongest movements in the music industry, no matter the genre. Through the utilization of free social media and the digital world as a whole, he has been able to capture the minds of a young and digitally driven generation and create the cult known as the Based World. In a time, where society stresses “quality over quantity,” Lil B is on the opposite end of the spectrum. He has released over 1,500 tracks (including a 676 song mixtape), created  a whooping 155 MySpace accounts and shot over 300 viral videos, gaining an amazing 62 million views. Not bad for a terrible rapper huh?

Besides flooding the internet, Lil B has realized that in our generation, if you do something that is unconventional, different, weird or anything along those lines, people will take notice. From the way he dresses to the unexplainable stuff he does to the outrageous stuff he says (see below), it’s completely different from anyone else. He is original.

Originality is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. Just as major companies such as Apple and Nike have branded themselves since their existence, Lil B has done the same. He has branded himself in a way that differentiates himself from everyone in the hip hop community to the point that people are almost forced to pay him attention. Who else can name their album, I’m Gay in a homophobic dominate industry such as hip hop and get away with it? Only Lil B. Not to mention, he actually benefited from it.

In a sense, Lil B has rewritten hip hop’s book of rules. He has shown that you don’t need great music to have success. But, what you really need is a strong marketing plan and he has that. His plan of choice involves flooding the internet, doing the unexpected and not caring what anyone thinks. In doing so, he comes off as being dumb and crazy, but I believe he knows exactly what he is doing. Alot of his peers seem to think so too. Diddy, J.Cole (watch below), Wiz Khalifa, Lupe Fiasco and 9th Wonder are just a few  household names that have co-signed the Based God, praising him for his genius movement.

You don’t have to like him or his music, but you do have to respect him. With no label, he took his career into his own hands and created his own lane, resulting in an unbelievable movement that consists of 420,000 twitter followers, sold out shows across the country and a net worth of $650,000. Although, I think his movement will eventually die out,  Lil B is definitely one of hip hop’s elite when it comes to innovation.

Top Five Reasons Why Lil B Is One Of Hip Hop’s Innovators:

  • Grown with the internet and technology, utilizing social media platforms to create attention for himself (420,000 twitter followers, 230,000 Facebook Fans, 155 MySpace and 62 million YouTube views)
  • Created one of the strongest movements in the music industry known as the Based World
  • Branched out into several other ventures including writing a book and lecturing at universities
  • Gone against traditional hip hop rules in every way
  • Has co-signs by some of  hip hop’s biggest acts including Diddy, Wiz Khalifa J.Cole, Lupe Fiasco and 9th Wonder
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Lindsey Gamble

Founder/Editor at HITPmusic.com
Lindsey Gamble is the Founder/Editor of Hard In The Paint. He also covers the Boston music scene for Arena.com and runs Pipedream Music Group, a Boston-based management brand, home to Boston Hip-Hop Artist/Producer/Engineer Mr. Fritz. Follow @Lindsey_Gamble | @HITPmusicblog | @PipedreamMusic

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