Lil B hasn’t arrived by way of some major label trying to ram him down your throat with massive ad campaigns, or by buying up radio slots across the country. He’s not here by way of some carefully crafted gimmick made up to take the mainstream by storm. Lil B has arrived by hard work and grassroots grinding, pure and simple. It’s clear that he’s marching to his own beat machine. Fuck what you may think about his music, if you’re an independent artist trying to make it, there’s a lot to be learned here. I encourage you study some of the things that worked for him and incorporate them into your own strategy…
- Started rapping at age 14 with a rap group called The Pack, from Berkley, California, that consisted of 3 other members he met while in high school.
- During the first year of recording together, this group would record and release and EP and 2 mixtapes
- A sound in the Bay area called “Hyphy” was starting to get noticed around the country. And it was their hyphy single, Vans, off their EP, Skateboards 2 Scrapers, that started a huge buzz after being released on Myspace in 2006.
- This single got the attention of legendary Oakland rapper Too Short who signed them to his Up All Night label, that was distributed by Jive Records.
- The pack went on to release their full length album, Based Boys, which also contained the Vans single.
- The single was number 23 on the top 30 hip hop charts, and was also listed at No.5 on Rolling Stone’s “Best songs of 2006”.
- In 2008 The Pack was dropped from Jive Records as a result of not meeting sales expectations from their album.
- Lil B began to focus his sights on a solo career.
- He started using Mypace as a way to distribute massive amounts of music. He created over 150 profile pages to distribute over thousands of songs that he would release over a short period of time.
- Began releasing a large number of YouTube videos, uploading 20 in 2 weeks once upon a time.
- Once Mypace hit the skids, Lil B started setting his sites on Twitter, using it effectively to further build and connect with his fanbase.
- Met Soulja Boy though Twitter which led to a signing to Soulja’s SODMG inprint
- Lil B continued to build his build and signed a multi album deal with a privately owned company called Amalgam Digital in 2010
- Was named one of The 2011 XXL Freshmen
Here’s Lil B, in his own words, describing his approach to social media:
