With this single statement, Lil B calmly detonated a flower-power land mine in the center of what is arguably rap's most tortured, combustible political arena.
And then he announced at Coachella he was going to name his next album I'm Gay. The result was a hip-hop comedy of manners: as XXL included him on their Freshmen 2011 list alongside industry non-entities like Mac Miller and Lil Twist and Lupe Fiasco publicly congratulated himself for 'getting it,' B basically continued whistling his tune, collaborating with Lil Wayne and Jean Grae and Tony Yayo and rapping over How to Dress Well instrumentals. It's a self-contained musical universe, located at the vanishing point on the 'all-or-nothing' spectrum, and its cult of faithful has been steadily building to the point where the mainstream rap industry has been forced to contend with him.
