Holy Combat (BasedGod Interview)

Frank: Aite so, imma have my Red Bull. This ain't really relaxing, but okay. So, umm, first of all, thank you for your time, BasedGod.

BasedGod: Mr. Ocean, yes sir, thank you.

Frank: You never know what someone's going through, they say. What would you say the average commenter looks like on the internet? Let's say you put out a song in like two hours, and you go on a blog, and there's a hundred comments already… I'm tryna understand what that person is, who is it? Is it everyone around me secretly? I don't know that I know any of them. (Laughter)

BasedGod: When it comes down, it's like, who?? And I wonder that too. I can speak from personal experience, one of my people that I know, he had a video on Worldstar and I wrote some comments and I hated!

Frank: So it was you?! (Laughter) Alrite fsho.

BasedGod: So if you have some comments and they might be a lil personal, it might be your friend.

Frank: So these people are playing, it's just something to do. Not serious.

BasedGod: The scary thing is that some of these people are serious. (Laughter) That's what's scary. The comments give people the chance to say something anonymously, to put whatever they want, frustrations, anything. They could've come back from a long day and just wanna let loose on somebody. This is a real experiment, and it shows you how people are. I know you've heard about the experiment where they test people to see if they would beat up someone who's in jail, and they see if the people would shock someone else if they had the chance and the other person wouldn't know. People were actually shocking other people if they did something wrong, because you didn't see them. They would shock them, but if you could see them, then they weren't doing that. It's a scary thing when you feel like you don't have to see anybody or you have these layers of protection.

Mikey: It's a scary thing.

Frank: That's the real them. That's the real person. At the same time though, people are complicated to the point that nobody is any one thing. Given the opportunity you could be five different Brandons and I could be five different versions of myself—or more. Five is an arbitrary number. The internet is just another experiment showing us more sides of us.

BasedGod: You'll see some girl in the street who's really nice but on the internet is hating. (Laughter)

Frank: Okay, so we were talking about putting out music and I was saying your approach to it is modern. You aren't pinned down by the house rules or…

BasedGod: The norm.

Frank: That corporate America music shit, you know? I feel like the 'Based Way' is a lot healthier, because it's in a flow, unencumbered. To be able to take time and prepare a body of work is great, but overall being free-form with our output is better in the long run, I think. I'd like to be like that.

BasedGod: Congratulations.

Frank: Huh? (Laughter) Thank you.

BasedGod: I come from the traditional sense of music and I did that and I do that, that's what I love doing. I love that. Getting in the studio like where we at right now and doing what we doing, this is what I love. This is legendary. Also I come from making music however it comes because you know it's motherfuckers that need the music because that's all they got and that's what they got. You know we not worried about if it's for club quality. We gon play that full blast in our car or full blast at the house, and shit the club gon play it too, eventually, you know what I'm saying? The hood parties you know, or the local, the local parties or the people gon fuck with you. You know the people gon make that. (Runner brings in a bottle of Johnnie Walker)

Frank: Aye! Thank you.

BasedGod: Shall I open this for you, sir?

Frank: There you go, corporate backing.

BasedGod: You know what I'm saying?! That's what that corporate backing will do forreal!

Frank: You know they'll have that ass on the Johnnie Walker advert.

BasedGod: You gotta put that away, look, if you got some stock in it I'm fuckn w you.

Frank: I don't even know if they did the IPO like that. Nah they over there in Scotland. They got the address on the box right here. We should go see em.

BasedGod: So, look you gotta tell me, cus you be saying words I don't even know. IPO, what does that mean?

Frank: IPO stands for Initial Public Offering, it's when a company makes their product available for trade on the stock market. When they 'go public' so to speak. This comes with letting people know your business, like you gotta tell your shareholders how you did that quarter of that year, you know? You've got people to answer to.

BasedGod: Like why that drop?! Your investment niggas might fake on you. OG like 'Oh, you dropped five percent… I'm leaving,' and you like 'I thought you fucked with me, I thoughtu was my patna?' he like, 'Hmm…'

Frank: It's true though, fiscal responsibility. You've got a board. You could get kicked off the board even if you started it!

BasedGod: That shit's crazy, bruh.

Mikey: They tried to get Bill Gates in trouble, because when he took Microsoft public he bought 35 percent of the shares. He wasn't supposed to do that. I think you're only supposed to be able to get a quarter.

Frank: He needed that.

BasedGod: That's bossed up. So what would be the motivation of making your stock public and then buying 35 percent of it, if you already own it?

Frank: I don't know. More money equals more control I guess.

BasedGod: I'm 'bout to force myself to start loving money.

Frank: I had a conversation recently and the question came up, is money sexy?

BasedGod: You a real one for that bruh, I never.

Frank: My first thing was, 'Yes, money's sexy as fuck.' and my friend's saying, 'Nah, money is gross, it changes hands, it's filthy. People wear it wrong etc.' And I was thinking, 'Sure.' but no, I don't agree with that.

Mikey: I don't either, money is the fuel for options.

BasedGod: I was waiting for that and we can't forget that my brother, we cannot forget. Me, my problem sometimes, you know we all artists in here, and sometimes I'll just be so into my art and just my brand and shit, so fulfilled off getting the art and doing what I do that you forget that you're running a business also. You've got operations and things to keep this business going and to do that you gotta have money, you gotta be making money. You know it costs money to be in this studio. And I'm not the guy that's always putting it on my fans like, 'Hey fuck with me on my PayPal.' putting it on Twitter, you know, 'Help the boy!' But it's a blessing too, because when you believe in your brand and you stay solid through the hard days and the times where you might be like, 'I don't know what's goin on dude,' or 'I don't know what's gonna happen,' and people might be saying 'Aww, you fell off.' and shit like that, and you keep going, and you know, then that big paycheck comes out, and you be like, 'Damn!' or, you know, these companies or individuals might come support you. I've been blessed with that. With hard work and stuff, if you really care about what you're doing, people will pay for that and they gon pay that price. And the show money has been going up for me. It's hard because you don't wanna get complacent. You know, 50 grand shows 15,000 something like that, and you unsigned. And you know you gotta split some money up, get your team and business costs to make the show happen. And I'm paying taxes than a motherfucker.

Frank: We all paying em. Trust. (Laughter)

BasedGod: Yea we all are. You just don't wanna be complacent because at first I was just worrying about paying bills. And now bills are paid and motherfuckers is owning things and now it's the next level of career and worldwide.

Frank: Worldwide. Yes.

BasedGod: Yes sir. Pop. You know I feel like I'm embedded in pop culture right now on this level, and that's a blessing where and how far we've come from. A lot of the beautiful people holding me down too. And especially people like ya'll that's just taking ya'll position and not afraid to show love and when ya'll are like on top still show love to people. Because everybody won't do that. Everybody won't be like, 'We still fuck wit B.' I'm like that though, always, anybody that inspires me… I mean you see I followed a million something people by my hand. You know what I'm saying? So it's like niggas can reach me. I made sure. I followed a million (knocks on the table) this hand bruh, I gotta gold-plate it! This is a hand that's followed a million niggas and then wrote a lot. A motherfucker can come talk to me, and I made that so. Cus I'm paying homage too, so I put that out there—anybody can come talk. If you gotta problem or nigga it's real, come talk to me. That's how I feel sir.

Mikey: Influence, also a big marker of success. When you wear something and then hella people wear it you're successful.

BasedGod: Yes, sir. Bless you my love. And thank you. And that's what I've been too. I've been having to deal with that like it's crazy, because I've been so under a microscope it's like… like me, creating a lot of these ideas. And it hurts me as an individual artist, because you'll see people—and I understand this is life though too you know—but you'll see people like an idea that you might've been thinking years on with the music or a brand that you've worked on extremely hard like with the 'Thank you BasedGod' or something like that and then you see motherfuckers stealing shirts and using the brand and not licensing it and not coming to me directly and doing this, and you know, just messing up the brand… I've got trademarks and shit too, so I'm not just out, but I haven't put lawyers on niggas because I'm just seeing how people doing me. And you seeing how people doing me. And that's not right. For me, I don't remember listening to Lil Wayne and being like, 'Alrite imma make a fucking Wayne T-shirt then sell it.' I never been like that. Wayne can do that, I can't and then people got the nerve too. (Laughter)

Frank: They do, they've got the nerve. That's what Mikey's talking about, that's success. Even that, even in that negative, that's a positive. People bootlegging because it means something, it's valuable, on whichever level.

BasedGod: And if you ain't givin' it to em!

Frank: My last record, I didn't make a vinyl. But somebody did and sold a whole lot of vinyl. They had MP3s on it, not properly done at all. Still they'll win because there's a demand for it. That goes back to the business talk we were having about covering your ass. Make sure you can profit from it not just for the sake of profit, but so you can convert that energy to build up your next ideas.

BasedGod: That's truth, bruh.

Frank: Random, but sometimes I prefer my childhood over all this serious adulthood shit.

BasedGod: Hell yeah.

Frank: Not saying I wish I was a kid again but…

BasedGod: Well, you know what's crazy? I wouldn't be mad to look like a kid and have the adult mind. You know what I'm sayin? Keep the youthful skin. But you know I love it. I love it. I've finally accepted becoming an adult and really feeling what it means to have knowledge from experience. And for a long time I was really being hard on me. 25 used to always be old to me.  I used to say 'When I'm 25…' and things like that. You know it finally got there, and I'm getting a little further away from the high school. I've been out of high school (counts) I gotta count on my hands!

Frank: Yea man, believe it.

Frank: What year did you write your first book?

BasedGod: I was 19 so that was—uh…

Mikey: 2009.

BasedGod: Yes sir. Good math. He getting that money. Niggas know, I need my assistant nigga. Nigga gotta count for me (Laughter)

Frank: You're an author though. Are you gonna write another one?

BasedGod: Yea, yes I am. I'm definitely—I already got the title.

Frank: You don't gotta give that up right now.

BasedGod: The next interview, when it's closer.

BasedGod: It's gonna be powerful, so I really wanna get back to writing that. Like I just been so excited about making music bruh and like all the shit that I got planned.

Frank: Yea. Are you doing any more lectures anytime soon?

BasedGod: Man, thank you. Well um…

Frank: That's very ahead by the way.

BasedGod: Thank you, I love you for that, thank you. It's the caliber of people that like Lil B, so it's dope people—people in the school system that are smart and that understand the art aspect of it like you said. The modern way I'm distributing art, that was a beautiful way that you worded that… and these people they're getting it, the future. It started at NYU, I got my email out online and the people hit me up and they inquired and every lecture situation was inquired. Like I said, I don't gotta booking agent or manager and stuff like that so I don't have people actively trying to book like, 'Hey, can we book Lil B.' So anybody that wants to book a show from me, they're contacting me personally by email. It started at NYU and that was a huge stepping stone and deep down inside I really felt really good.

Frank: Yea, it was awesome.

BasedGod: Thank you bruh. I'm sounding modest and cool right now, but deep down inside, yea like, especially the MIT one I was really happy, because for me coming up, dude and this is a real emotional thing too. It used to hurt my feelings when people called me stupid back then because I wasn't in school all the time. I was doing what I wanted to do. But I loved science, I loved history and I loved teachers. I can't say I loved all history, but I loved science, off top science, I loved that no matter what. But I also loved teachers that really loved to teach me. And I had a lot of problems early on because I wanted to be a star in the classroom. That's why it makes sense that I'm a rapper because I was always looking for attention. When I raised my hand I knew it was my time in class, you know what I'm saying? I was like, 'Ooh, I can make a joke right now, aww the whole class is looking. I can say something in front of the teacher.' So I was always that guy pulling the school bells and little things like that, getting my respect and freeing the kids. I was freeing all of us. Because I wasn't understanding the magnitude… and the beautiful magnitude, of education. But I did. But it was like when you're a kid, dude… nigga, they got you in there for hours and shit.

Frank: The whole fuckin day man. Missing the sunlight and everything in there (Laughter)

BasedGod: We was blessed cus we had the off campus lunch, so nigga I was gone. We had a chance to go and eat and leave school for lunch, bruh. And that was a blessing and it's a beautiful thing, because you always got to—it's all about the unconscious—unconsciously I always been doing this, however, whatever… it was always music near me. And it stayed to this day. My grades and shit wasn't reflecting how I felt inside, you know my grades if I would've went by grades, you know I… you know, right know I…. I knew. You know what I'm saying? And that's why I cry, you know? Like when I'm listening to my music or I cry for how where I'm at today. Because it's like by the standards I shouldn't be, by the standards… I should be working or something.

Mikey: That's beautiful.

BasedGod: God bless you man.

Mikey: That's like believing in yourself.

BasedGod: Yes sir and thank you. Yea, but back to the root, what was the root kinda. The root?

Frank: Nigga I forgot.

BasedGod: Yea I forgot too.

Frank: I don't know where I was reading it at, but the chain of command in your brain and how it's evolutionary… in the sense of you having a part of your brain that in the progress of human evolution was the first thing to be developed, the brain stem which is said to control involuntary function. Then you have the next level up, which is emotional and survival based, and then above that you have rationale, mathematics and creative writing—all the things we do for a living. That state of the art brain stuff. It was also talking about how it, let's say we were nomads again and we were out here hunting for a living and we were confronted in the woods by a predator, you'll be literally cut off from access to the higher levels. Your brain is designed to cut off reasoning and to go straight to the mode of survival so you don't waste precious time tryna delineate, you just go straight into survival—the real fucked-up part about it is rarely, if ever are we now encountering a bear, but you might encounter a scenario that's actually not life-threatening but that scares you enough to initiate that sort of response and go straight to this lesser developed part of the brain.

BasedGod: Nah, that's the truth. Quote unquote a man and being quote unquote a man and what that means in society and that's what's hard for us. I really wanna protect the women and protect the kids, make sure that ladies know that you can wear gym shorts and not or don't have to feel like you're forced to, because sometimes I wonder if these fashions, these styles that we think are normal are normal… we should be able to see people anyway they wanna be seen and not fantasize about them or fetishize how they look. So it's like, a girl, she might be hot and she has a bunch of hot pictures on Instagram, and I look and be like, 'Oh, she's hot.' and she might put a funny face picture up and I'm like, 'Ew,' like some weird, you know. Just being herself, you know how the girls be doing that just to do some shit and uhh, I had to look at myself and ask, 'What the hell is my problem?' she's human, we're human. Like, because I do the shit too. I put pictures up—and especially now—I'm more comfortable with myself than ever so. You'll put some shit up and it might be an angle or something you not gon try, you not gon take 15 pics. You gon take that one and just put that motherfucker up and let the world see you. We just gotta keep protecting the young me, the young women and also the older people. You can't forget about the older people too. And try to let them know. Just keep on moving these walls and barriers of what it means to be a man or a woman because that shit'll kill you too. If you really try to live by that, you know, being a masculine man like, 'Oh, I gotta protect my wife,' like 'I gotta go hunt for some food.' Why can't she hunt? Or not, and I'm not saying that and imma tell ya'll like this. I been punched by a girl. Girls done punched me. I'll never hit em and that's what's funny to me because you see I'm not the biggest guy and shit—that shit hurt. When the females hit me, that shit hurt. I never hit them back but all this law bullshit they talking about 'A girls. Don't hit girls and shit'… Well, you know what? I never hit a girl before, and they almost knock my ass out and I might have to hit em and sleep they ass because she almost knocked my ass out, so it's like, you know. And trust me I never hit a girl first, ever, ever, never. It was always a girl slapped me because we might be making fun of each other or something—my play sister she slapped the shit outta my ass for making fun of her. And another girl when I was at the club she slapped the shit outta my ass. I didn't know how the club rules worked (Laughter). I was at a strip club or whatever, and I was at the front part and she was dancing, and I wasn't paying I was just looking and I was with my friend, and I think it was my friend's birthday, I took him out on his birthday. This when I was younger I felt I was doing it big, rented the limo and everything, took him out, and man, she smack!

Frank: For not paying?

BasedGod: Yea, lip was bleeding and shit like that. And you know I acted like I was gonna do something, you know what I'm saying? Like I got up and 'Oh okay', and I picked up the chair, looking cool. Picked up the chair like I was gonna do something. And you know, deep down inside I didn't wanna do nothing. You know I wasn't gonna beat her up. But I still did something, I was like 'What?' Security got my ass out fast than anything, so I really couldn't do nothing anyway.

Frank: I never heard of that. Yea, she was wildin. That's why you came out w the 'Stealing from Strippers' song? (Laughter)

BasedGod: Wildin, that was early. That's why people's wondering why I come out with the song. I got some shit that's gon come out sooner, and it's gonna be like, motherfuckers like, people are gonna be like 'Wow', you know, this 'Thugged Out, Pissed Off' gonna be talking about that, you know beating up bitches and things of that nature, because now to the outside people they might be like, 'Oh, this is horrible.' or misogynistic or whatever it is, but then once you talk to me… this guy never hit a woman but he's been attacked and what he's been through, and then you gotta be like, hmmm well, you know what? I'll speak on shit and then motherfuckers will hit me like, 'Well, you can't speak on shit because you've never been through it.' But you don't know, motherfuckers don't know. Niggas don't know what a motherfucker survived through.

Frank: Yea, true. You know, I've been thinking about something. I've been talking about moving to London since 2012. The only reason I bring that up is because I was always thinking man—this example is stupid, but today I was leaving the hotel, and I was at the elevator and something told me to go back to my room and get some Kleenex because I'm a lil sick and I'll be in the car sneezing and get snot all on my fuckin sleeves and be upset. (Laughter) It's a very simple thing to just go back to the room and get the Kleenex. Yes, I know, I'm already at the elevator, but it's a very simple thing to just turn around and go back to the hotel room get some Kleenex and head back down to the car. A lot of the times though, I'd say, 'Well, self, I'm already over here at this elevator, so im not finna do that.' Then the next thing I know, I'm in the car sneezing and I got snot all on my sleeves. I feel like we know what we're supposed to do, we've got the supreme wisdom. With the whole relocation to London thing, my mind was playing tricks on me. I started to think if I had moved when my intuition first told me to move… then certain shit wouldn't have happened. So now, I always go back to the hotel room.

BasedGod: Okay, peep this: I was at Starbucks I was getting over this cold naturally I was drinking chamomile tea every day. I don't know what made me buy chamomile tea every day idk. I was like imma buy this everyday just getting over this cold. I was going through the drive thru every day and it was normal for me it became the normal thing so something told me to go inside Starbucks and something made me walk inside and I tried something new, I went and I said lemme try peppermint tea, which changed my life. Healed my cold asap. And I'm like why the fuck I was so stuck on drive thru chamomile tea, and something told me to try something new, and I did it and it felt amazing, and that was my new breakthrough, and when I did it a thought came to my head, and it was about manhood and lifehood and seeing how it's not easy for anybody, like our parents, because they were all our age and they all were just acquiring habits of living, and I was just trying to live when I was buying this chamomile tea every day, I'm like I'm livin, just surviving the day, we're not perfect. You know what I'm saying? So you know you'll give that game to your kids too, you might be drinking chamomile tea every day and if it works for you, you gon tell your son, 'Hey drink this every day. You can drink the chamomile too.' but it showed me when I took the other choice, make sure that you see other options and don't stay just on that one, you know what I'm saying? And don't stay so strict on that one.

Frank: That reminds me, there's an engineer named Jason I worked with on this album. He'll be eating barley you know, raw barley and he'll have the drops on hand to put in the water to make the ph balance and the minerals or whatever, and it occurred to me… see I have friends who are really curious and so whenever they're around new people they tend to ask a lot of questions and like really try and get to know people. As for me, I can be aloof. Not in any cold way I hope, let's say I'm big on giving people their space and not getting all in people's mix, and it just occurred to me recently that I should ask people more questions (Laughter) like 'Jason, when you're not at work what's your breakfast lunch and dinner game plan?' And then he'll say some shit that I didn't know, something I might wanna use for my daily lifestyle. Or what someone is reading, he reads a lot of artist biographies and I'd never asked him, 'Which autobiographies have you read?' like why have I never asked him that, I'm always reading and tryna learn from people who aren't right next to me. Discrimination based off proximity. (Laughter)

Mikey: You know it's a crazy wives' tale about how you wanna start moving on in your career and stuff, doing more and have some more sponsors and people were saying how it's hella easy, like usually you could ask me and you don't even know it. So there's an old wives' tale about diamond mining and this dude found this big old diamond and everybody gathers around him, and are like, 'What the hell? Where'd you find that?' 'It's a big nice diamond. I'm not telling you where I found this,' so everyone starts going to mountains, trees and they start doing crazy stuff, killing animals, opening their stomachs, when really diamonds are right here in the ground. It's crazy that thought sometimes that makes it go crazy.

BasedGod: Just those situations, you know, fuckin w anybody… not being scared to talk to people and ask, you know what I'm saying? Cus when I was overseas and in these other places you know Harlem—Harlem Netherlands or something like that—I was just walking in the shit because I'm foreign, and I didn't care, and it's cool, like a nigga would walk and out here and I have to remember that. Because I feel like there's so many barriers. Niggas was asking me to pull my pants up for so long so I always had these barriers. And I finally had to break the shit down, I'm not different. We're not different. No matter how motherfuckers might try to make you feel. You a legend bruh. You gotta realize I just got comfortable walking in random places, cus like I got money I could do what I want. Like in a way, to an extent, but like for the Base level, you know like niggas could go in anywhere and we could do, even to eat, just say, to eat. So my thing was I was so wrapped up in how I look or how I thought I looked but, nigga like, we should be able to go in any restaurant any place. I used to think and be so into my head and worry about what people thought about me and that used to hinder me. I used to not do as much as I could. Like my nigga why am I still eating fast food? I'm eating fruit all time now, you know it's beautiful, we got the fruit downstairs.

Frank: Yea you told me you went to Whole Foods before you came here. Said you were a lil late because you had to stop at the market and get those fruits and vegetables. (Laughter)

BasedGod: I got another one, here it goes, I ordered a sandwich. I was a little hungry and I automatically flipped on dude like before I even opened it. Like 'Why the fuck is this sandwich not cut?' I opened it a lil bit and it was cut. You just gotta wait sometimes. I tripped like, 'What the fuck. Niggas can't get shit right. This dude.' I just opened it a little bit just waited, wait. Not expecting the worse. And I'm just like 'Boom!'… I'm just a fucking ass

Frank: Dog, what? (Laughter)

Frank: I think we got it man. (Laughter)

BasedGod: This is so great. I'm so glad you made this happen bro.

BasedGod: This was a good one my brother.

Frank: Peace to the God. Thanks a lot. It was great to see you in the flesh.

BasedGod: You think I could take a picture of you bruh on the professional camera?

BasedGod: I'm on my Terry Richardson.