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When Lil B announced a few months back that he was planning to release an album called I'm Gay, the natural assumption was that, based on its controversial title, the disc would take his weirdo brand of stream-of-consciousness, descended-from-outer-space rap to new extremes. But what he's given us instead is proof that he's versatile and talented enough to land solidly on more accessible ground. Gone are the endless declarations of hoes on his dick in groups of 30 and 100; gone are the claims that he is everyone from Ellen Degeneres to Miley Cyrus. There's not a single one of his signature, "Swag! Swag! Woop! Woop!" loops to be found. In their place we find more deliberate, precise flows addressing topics from self-hatred to respecting women to electing a black president, all over boom-bap production and cleverly chosen samples. The thread that tethers I'm Gay to the rest of Lil B's immense, sprawling catalogue is his earnest loyalty to the central tenets of the "based" movement: love and positivity in the face of adversity. "Man, just live however you do it. . . . Just make sure that you smile," he advises on the soaring "Unchain Me." That's the type of message that all of us — even those who favor Lil B's more avant-garde iterations — can get behind.
