The internet phenomenon known as Lil B just signed a sweet deal with Live Nation.
According to SFWeekly >>
Lil B recently inked a deal with tour giant Live Nation for a string of shows around the East Coast and the Midwest. He also lined up a headlining show at Mezzanine here in San Francisco, set for April 21.
"It's for sure the first [Bay Area] show of this new era of people being aware of Lil B," his manager, Sebastian Demian, tells SF Weekly. It might also be a sign of what's in the future for Brandon McCartney, a 21-year-old member of East Bay rap collective the Pack. The Live Nation deal is only four shows and two festival appearances, but Demian says he's hoping to expand that to a larger tour. And the fact that Live Nation made a deal with Lil B -- an independent artist who isn't signed to any label -- is surprising on its own. Demian says the people he worked with Live Nation couldn't remember making such an agreement before.
Though the rapper cherishes his independence -- and has risen to notoriety solely by crafting a ubiquitous presence online -- Demian says he's heard from multiple major labels interested in signing Lil B. We're in talks with some labels," Demian says. "We're very much excited about bossing up."
The next step, though, is taking Lil B's live shows -- which have received mixed-to-negative reviews -- to a bigger audience. Many of his fans are young, and finding an all-ages venue for the rapper (who is barely of drinking age himself) has been a challenge. But Lil B is approaching live shows the same way he approached social networking sites: the more, and the more frequently, the better: "We hope to take it all over the country and spread the message of based thinking," Demian says. "[He made] over 100 Myspace pages. Over 100 videos on YouTube last year. Now we'll do over 100 shows."
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