Kendrick Lamar thanks Lil B, and here is why MUSIC NOTEBOOK How the underground artist has transformed rap music’s landscape By SHAYAN SHAFII For The Daily Kendrick Lamar almost never tweets. When he does, it usually has something to do with either his music or one of his TDE label- mates. But this week, he gave a completely unprompted shou- tout to Bay Area rapper Lil B on twitter. The phrase “Thank you BasedGod” appeared not once, but twice in the less than 140 characters tweet, where Ken- drick showered Lil B and Lil Wayne with praise. The tweet leaves many conservative hip hop heads with mixed feelings: why is the creator of To Pimp a But- terfly showing love for the dude with songs titled “Pretty Bitch” and “What Dat Mouth Do?” According to Kendrick himself, for “teaching us how to swagg in videos”. And he’s right. Under- ground rap before Lil B looked like shit. Back in 2009, popular mixtape-hosting website Dat- piff was cluttered with backpack rappers who oddly competed for the worst Nas impersonation. The advent of Lil B, although met with strong resistance, forced cli- ché mixtape rappers to reconcile with the fact that rap was chang- ing. Looking back from 2015, the current hip hop climate has been largely built by an unsung hero in the form of a guy with dirty vans and zero radio hits. Before even getting into the music, it’s important to trace the evolution of visuals in rap music over the past six years. Lil B has been on twitter since 2009, and he’s had the same avatar since. It’s a photo of him wearing a multicol- or silk coat with no shirt under- neath; he gives a faint smile while flexing his iced out ring and now iconic tats. Virtually every quirky, bizarre Internet rapper that’s come out since has been nothing but an attempt to recreate that photo in life and song. All you have to do is watch a Migos video, a Riff Raff vine or any photo of Young Thug fully clothed. B has also been wearing gender-breaking fits from the start, but no one made a fuss of rappers wearing women’s clothes until Kanye West wore a women’s Céline shirt during his 2011 Coachella performance, or a skirt (kilt?) during his Watch The Throne tour the same year. Based- God had quietly been curating these developments in rap years earlier. Furthermore, the only time Lil B has had the nation’s attention was last week when he appeared on ESPN’s SportsNation, donning earrings, a sun hat and a white lace top. And then there are the videos. Earlier in the summer, A$AP Rocky dropped his drugged out visuals for L$D, but guess who premiered it on his behalf? Pay- ing homage, Rakim got Lil B to premier the video by being the first to tweet the link. The video itself, with Rocky roaming the streets in exaggerated colors and warped depth can draw direct comparisons to many of Lil B’s earlier videos, but it’s not the first time Rocky’s art could be described as based. Rocky (and subsequently the rest of the A$AP Mob) blew up after the 2011 release of Live.Love.A$AP, which Clams Casino (prominent Lil B collaborator) produced a third of. One of the foremost identifying features of Rocky on this tape is his perception of himself: a self-described “pretty boy” who signed a three million- dollar deal off Internet buzz. Naturally, this poses questions that are difficult to answer. Why do so many artists get away with based tendencies while catching mainstream success? Why is Lil B celebrated only ironically while the artists that spawned in his wake climb the Billboard charts? Why do people hate Lil B while their favorite rappers adore him? We know the answer isn’t behav- ioral, because so many of his fledg- lings exhibit the same behavior while gaining widespread respect. Thus, the answer lies somewhere in his rugged, sprawling, unpol- ished discography. The problem with Lil B is accessibility. His Wikipedia page lists 58 different mixtapes, solo albums and collaborative efforts, but that doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface. The reality is he has hundreds of projects floating around the Internet, some boasting over 100 songs. I routinely download 5 mixtapes at a time and don’t discover hid- den gems until months later. For fans, the act of following his music is almost as fun as listen- ing. The excitement of keeping up with Lil B’s output is part of what creates his cult fan base; there’s a new music video every week, a new song every day, and a new tweet every hour. This is ultimately what distinguishes him from the likes of A$AP Rocky and ILoveMakonnen: there are barriers to entry. You can’t just YouTube him and settle on knowing Wonton Soup. He has so much content on the Internet, that he makes you work to be a truly informed fan. There’s no such thing as a lazy Lil B fan. The man has a ridiculous work ethic, but his downfall in achieving mainstream success is that he does not entertain the notion of quality control (which is not a bad thing artistically). He doesn’t even stop and fix a song if he messes up recording. There are countless instances of Lil B losing his place, or outright bringing his rapping to halt mid- track to collect his thoughts. But if Lil B had a leaner discography, he still wouldn’t have become a relevant figure in mainstream rap. The nature of his influence on modern rap is in his relentless output and all the crazy shit that comes with it: the inspiration to be yourself, coming from a dude who thinks he’s Ellen Degeneres, Miley Cyrus and Jesus Christ at the same time. Sadly, this was the only way it could have hap- pened. The man who fathers most of the rappers and trends in the game, is inherently unable to enjoy the same mainstream suc- cess as his successors. While Lil B remains a villain in conserva- tive circles of hip hop culture and an enigma to casual rap fans, those who can accept the shift- ing face of rap truly appreciate what he’s done for the culture. Thank you BasedGod. ‘Human,’ maybe TV REVIEW By KIM BATCHELOR Daily Arts Writer The British-American science- fiction series, “Humans,” follows a group of artificially intelligent robots called Synths who are different from the other Synths who are manufactured and sold com- mercially. These Synths are spe- cial because they have the ability to think on their own and to feel. The episode is a bit of a slow burn, focusing on the intro- duction of the world in which Synths exist and the characters rather than action. The dialogue is important, though, and if the audience has difficulty under- standing English accents one ought to consider closed captions. The interpersonal interactions are what drive the show. The main protagonist, Anita (Gemma Chan, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl”), is a member of a special group of Synths who have been kidnapped and reprogrammed. She is struggling with resurgent memories and emotions dur- ing her assignment to a family. Gemma plays the role with dig- nity and poise, making her perfor- mance believable. Despite this, she invokes an emotional response in the viewer as we sympathize with Anita’s plight. Colin Morgan (“The Fall”) plays a Synth supporter named Leo who travels with and protects the group of Synths as his fam- ily. In fact, it was his father who created these Synths. His char- acter is hard to get a read on as Leo plays everything close to his chest. This is a self-preservation technique, but as a result it is diffi- cult to figure out what his motiva- tions are as a character and access him emotionally. He comes off as stand-offish and vaguely threat- ening. Hopefully, more backstory will be given on why these Synths are different, how they are related to Leo and why they are on the run in the first place. The family dynamic built by the Hawkins family, consisting of Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill, “Mr. Selfridge”), Laura (Katherine Par- kinson, “The IT Crowd”) and their three kids is humble and believ- able. Because of the subtlety with which these actors perform, the dialogue between the parents and their kids isn’t forced. This is particularly true for Lucy Car- less (“Code of a Killer”) in her portrayal of teenage Mattie. Mat- tie is a brilliant hacker with a bad attitude towards Synths. Despite her typical teen angst she actually really loves her family and it’s her character that forms the glue that bonds the Hawkins together. Also, Sophie (Pixie Davies, “Utopia”) is incredibly adorable. The father and son relation- ship built between George Millican (William Hurt, “Dam- ages”) and his Synth, Odi (Will Tudor, “Game of Thrones”) is heartbreaking. George relies on Odi’s memories of his deceased wife, Mary, because he can- not remember her himself, but Odi is getting older and begin- ning to breakdown. Despite Odi’s inability to connect with George on an emotional level, the viewer can’t help but root for the pair to stay together. To lose Odi would be, for George, to lose the rest of his family. A stand out performance comes from Emily Berrington (“24: Live Another Day”) in the role of Niska, a Synth who was stolen along with Anita and forced into the role of Sex Worker. Despite the fact that it must be both physi- cally and emotionally painful for her, Niska refuses to turn off her pain receptors, stating, “I was meant to feel.” And as she feels pain, so does the audience. “Humans” has many referenc- es to classical AI/Robot theory and literature, sighting the Three Laws of Robotics by Issac Asimov, which prevent a robot from harm- ing a human, and the Technologi- cal Singularity, in which AI is capable of recursive self-improve- ment and humanity is made obso- lete. Beyond this it also brings up moral and ethical philosophical debates to consider. For example, already in our own world robot girls are being created in Japan, are sexbots in our future too? And at what point would a robot be considered conscious enough for such an act to be considered rape, as it surely was to the character Niska? What is consciousness? What is a human and who has rights? What makes us different from machine? 6 Thursday, July 2, 2015 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS A- Humans AMC Series Premiere