Lil B

Brandon Christopher McCartney, known professionally as Lil B and Lil B The BasedGod, is an American rapper, songwriter, and media personality. He has recorded both solo and as a member of the Berkeley, California-based hip hop group the Pack. His solo work spans several genres, including hip hop, new age, jazz, indie rock and choral music. He calls his alter ego the BasedGod and describes his work as "based"—a term he coined, which denotes a lifestyle of positivity and boldness—and is noted for his extensive use of social media to build an online cult following. McCartney was born on August 17, 1989, in Berkeley, California, and attended high school at Albany High in Albany. He adopted the name Lil B, and began rapping at age 15 with San Francisco Bay Area based hip hop group The Pack. After two locally successful mixtapes, at the peak of the Bay Area's hyphy movement, the group's song "Vans" became a surprise hit. The song was ranked as the fifth best of 2006 by Rolling Stone magazine. The strength of "Vans" led the group to release the Skateboards 2 Scrapers EP, featuring a "Vans" remix with Bay Area rappers Too $hort and Mistah F.A.B. In 2007, McCartney and The Pack released their first album, Based Boys.