The VICE Guide to #Based Music

The Vice Guide to Everything - MTV Shows

Over the past few weeks, I've had trouble ignoring the phenomenon that is Lil' B the Based God. The Bay Area native has a choke hold on the internet's fickle throat, and with his #based moniker he's made Twitter his personal stomping ground in little more than a year. That said, his music has always gone over my head, either due to my own doubting his musical ability or general ire towards his 'so ridiculous, it's genius' modus operandi. You can't deny the man's work ethic or his overall intelligence. Lately I've been seeing Lil' B tweets popping up on my timeline, and instead of questioning them, I found myself nodding in agreement. Maybe I'll never be a Lil' B fan. Maybe #based music is little more than a fad. Whatever the case, he has my ears, and after this feature with MTV's VICE, he might have a lot more in 2011. Check out exactly what #based music is, and the inspiration for his seemingly random song titles...

Dear Swag

I can't deny, this ish is hilarious!! Too bad swagger had to die...

It's funny how terminology and slang can one day be remotely cool, and then the next day, that same slang is played out. I remember the last time I heard someone say 'phat'. I don't think I would to see the day when you, 'swagger', and all your variants (swagg, swagged, swagnificence, swaggerific, etc.) became obsolete. It's funny that you're even slang, considering a good amount of slang aren't even words. I guess that made you all the harder to get rid of. Since around 2006, swag, you've been the word everyone, their mom, pop, aunt, uncle, best friend, cousin and sister used for at least a week. People were changing their Facebook and Myspace names, making up new words (see above) and finding every possible way to include you in their conversations, no matter how out of place you were. Then came these guys:



And these guys, who turned from an already butchered word into a nonsensical idiom...



Finally, these guys turned you out into the whore of a word you are today, though I guess the Grammy's were a dope coming out party...



Let's just say this, swagger... Most, if not all slang, is done in by the same thing that makes slang in the first place: word of mouth. At least in the subcultures that create slang, it catches on like wildfire and soon entire cities (states, regions, etc.) are saying it. You were no different, swag. New York was your birthplace, and as Dip Set videos and songs circulated the mixtape game, everyone wanted a piece of you. Now, you're reduced to being a ploy for Toyota to cater to suburban mothers, minority crowds and people who are late on fads. Auto-tune suffered the same fate, and I have yet to hear anyone use it in a song since (where is T-Pain??). I don't think you'll last as long either, though you'll definitely live on in forgotten Twitter names... RIP SWAG