This year’s NBA Playoffs has drawn in two types of viewers: those who actually give a damn about basketball, and the ones who just want to see if the forces of the Based God can actually halt the Houston Rockets’ race to the Finals. If the latter is true, Lil B is James Harden’s worst nightmare.
Following Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, rapper Lil B had to unleash the same curse he placed upon Kevin Durant in 2011. After the OKC forward publicly questioned Lil B’s music and overall relevance, Lil B then vowed that under “The BasedGod’s Curse,” he would never win a title “after he said ‘Lil B’ is a wack rapper.”
Fast forward to Harden, who used Lil B’s “cooking dance” as a celebratory move without giving the rapper his due credit, therefore invoking the curse upon himself. According to Lil B, Harden’s curse is a little less severe than KD’s, who ’til this day hasn’t won an NBA title and is currently out with a foot injury. Even the Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have publicly acknowledged the BasedGod. But Harden could’ve avoided his fate:
Go warriors @warriors and let James harden no he doing the Lil B cooking dance if he doing that flickin wrist or whipping he mark – Lil B
— Lil B From The Pack (@LILBTHEBASEDGOD) May 21, 2015
People that steal from Lil B will pay now or later all you have to do is pay respect to the original and the leader blind ones will – Lil B
— Lil B From The Pack (@LILBTHEBASEDGOD) May 22, 2015
"THE BASEDGOD" speaks… He told Lil B James harden is not cursed but he has been warned and questioned .. Lil B cooking dance? TOPO – Lil B
— Lil B From The Pack (@LILBTHEBASEDGOD) May 22, 2015
All is not lost for Durant or Harden. With Houston’s staying power in the Playoffs riding on tonight’s Game 5—for which Lil B will be in attendance at Oakland’s Oracle Arena—the rapper tells VIBE how the two can get back in the BasedGod’s good graces. —Stacy-Ann Ellis
VIBE: What are your thoughts on this year’s NBA Playoffs and the fact that your name is in the center of the conversation?
Lil B: This is crazy, being that the BasedGod gave me the information and the strength to put that out there with this James Harden incident. Because me being an unsigned artist and independent doing everything myself for right now. No management, no label, no nothing. Everything I do myself. When you do everything yourself, it’s like there’s a lot of corporations and other people that like to steal from you and not give the creator and the artist the true respect and pay homage. That’s all it really was, just having Harden come out and say what he’s doing. Now, Kevin Durant is a different thing because he actually said something about Lil B and Lil B’s music. He actually did agree to play one-on-one with me, which would actually stop the curse, but then he went back on his word. How he can get back and redeem himself is if he plays me one-on-one. James Harden, on the other hand, his curse isn’t as severe as Kevin Durant’s from what I hear from the BasedGod. All this is for the Playoffs series. He just wants to hear credit on the celebration that he’s doing because the dance that he is doing is the Lil B cooking dance.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mH6h2TKDN6k
So it’s really just about him attributing the dance move?
Exactly. If he got it from the wrong artist or he got it from somebody else that might’ve taken it from the Lil B dance, he needs to say so. ESPN is talking about it, Fox Sports, CBS, they’re letting them know Lil B invented the Lil B cooking dance. It’s in sports games, every sports game you can think of from football to soccer to basketball. I mean even baseball, there are baseball players that do that. It comes to a point in time where you gotta just let the people know that’s going on, because it’s getting out of hand. People are calling it the Harden’s stir dance and other stuff like that. I just want to see what type of person Harden is and if he pays homage. Does he got heart?
Has he reached out to you about it, or have you spoken to him prior to the curse?
Nah, not that I know of. Somebody said that he put a tweet that he was listening to my verse on Lil Wayne’s mixtape Sorry 4 The Wait. I never saw that tweet, though. But he never reached out to me.
SEE ALSO: Lil Wayne Taps Drake, 2 Chainz, Christina Milian And More On ‘Sorry 4 The Wait 2?
So how long does a curse usually last? Has anybody else besides Kevin Durant and Harden been cursed by BasedGod?
Never, never. One thing about Lil B and I know about the Based God is that Lil B’s all about positivity and wanting to see people do good and be happy, not any curses or anything like that. When someone is cursed, it’s just for extreme drastic measures. They had to either disrespect Lil B or steal from Lil B and not pay homage. Those are the only two people and I don’t want anymore. This is not what we aim for.
Did you see the Twitter plea from the Atlanta Hawks asking you to spare them and the thank you tweet from the Golden State Warriors?
Yeah. I definitely got them all together. I got the Hawks and the Warriors together and let them all know that we’re all family and that we’re squaded up. The Warriors organization and the Atlanta Hawks all follow me and we’re all talking. So it’s just all love. We’re just bringing people together. Shout outs to the Oracle Arena in Oakland. Major love for supporting Lil B and showing me love. And they’ve been showing me love for a while. It’s all good, I’m definitely supporting these teams, organizations and the players, and we’re gonna keep it going for things in the future.
I like that, despite the curses, you have this overarching message of positivity still in the mix.
I even have questions on the Olympics because I don’t like the flags and people separating. I’m not the biggest fan of violent sports. And what I mean by violent sports is boxing and stuff like that. It’s cool that they make a lot of money but I’m not a big fan of watching people get beat up. I don’t get off on that. But it’s alright. But you know what, truthfully, it’s not alright. I’m not a fool, so I’m not gonna say it’s okay. Now to the masses of the world, it might be okay with them because they’re sleep and they love violence. But for me, nah.
So does that mean you didn’t watch the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight?
Well, I had to watch that. It was one of those things where you had to. This was one of the most electrifying fights in… ever, but the reasons why I watched it weren’t for the best reasons. That’s something that I’ll probably talk about in the future. I think most of the people that watched that fight didn’t watch it for the best reasons. They might’ve been betting money. It might’ve been racial. It might’ve been a list of reasons, and it could be a small percentage of people who are just fans of boxing that just love to see the sport of boxing. But why do people want to see people get beat up?
Or just to watch it to be knowledgeable for discussions later.
Exactly. We all fall into the trap where we do everything that everybody else is doing sometimes, but as long as you’re conscious about what you’re doing that’s fine.
Who do you think is going to walk away as champs in the Finals and who are teams you think were playing really well this season?
Right now I’m not too sure of who’s going to walk away with everything, but the Warriors are the best team in the NBA and they got my full support. As far as players that have been stepping up this season in the playoffs, shout outs to Steph Curry of course, Klay Thompson, Andrew Bogut, David Lee, Harrison Barnes, Marreese Speights, the whole Warriors team. Andre Iguodala. Everyone over there is doing great and I’m very proud of them. Their head coach and the old coach Mark Jackson. The entire Warriors organization. I’m really proud of Derrick Rose. Shout out to [Maurice] Harkless on the Magic. And Russ Smith [of the Memphis Grizzlies], I’m real proud of him. It’s a lot of people that are doing real big things. Just keep going.
What big plans can we expect from Lil B this year?
I’ve been having talks with some major labels and major partners. I got new iPhone applications that I’ve been working on and developing. And doing a lot more music. I got my drawings and paintings that I’ve been doing. I’ve been taking some beautiful pictures, some extremely personal pictures that I’m actually going to be releasing in a picture album that you can only buy from me personally. Like, you have to come see me in person and that’s the only way that they’ll be able to purchase these photos from me that I’ve taken. Because it’s just extremely personal and close to me and this would be for people to get a vision of what I’m seeing. I’m just real excited about the art. Just getting back working in the studio and working on this Lil B music. Lil B produced by Lil B. Lil B Beats as well as working with the BasedGod. I wish to get some original production from the Based God, which is ambient new age classical. We got the lectures coming up this Thursday at UCLA. I’ve already lectured at Virginia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, NYU, UC Riverside, and now we got UCLA. I appreciate people supporting me and these universities, the staff, the students that are really pushing for me to be in there and the schools that accept me to come and that okay it. It’s a blessing.
Photo Credit: Stacy-Ann Ellis