Some (perhaps most) of his music sucks. Unequivocally, undeniably, just not that good. By that’s mainly okay. He’s 22 years old and has already released a ton of it, so that is not surprising or damning. It used to shock me that Lil’ B was so revered by such a vast and unassuming audience. But after reading this transcript, I am less surprised. Yesterday, in front of 500 Students at NYU, the rapper from Berkeley, CA delivered a compelling unscripted lecture/diatribe at the Kimmel Center. 

As always, people-haters- will try to marginalize his words as they may not seem to be completely congruent with his lyrics. This is how rappers are discredited, even though artists in every other genre and capacity are free to make lewd and/or unsavory satirical/political commentary without the same suppression when opinions are put forth. But we already knew that…

More importantly, and what’s impressive, is that he actually does have a message. You read this transcript and it is relentless. He is unwavering in his dialog on love and positivity. It is pervasive in each of his sentences and he says it so often and so authentically, that you start to believe Lil’ B is the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama or something. It is fascinating to me that a rapper has the strength to speak so vociferously on love, tolerance and positivity. And so young. I’m wildly optimistic about his career-if only for his innate talent of connecting with people. It is worth reading all of this. 

Stephen Satterfield