Earlier this year my 15-year-old son tried to put me on to Lil Dicky but I wasn’t ready. I told him I’d look him up but didn’t. My guilty rap obsession however, is Fetty Wap’s sing song flow. In downloading a ton of songs of and featuring Fetty Wap, I discovered Lil Dicky. I was shocked and amazed. I’m not that young, I’m 35 so I grew up in the 90’s with real hip hop and rap far different than popular music today.
Lil Dicky is just what the music industry needs, a breath of fresh air. Since discovering that he was the rapper who sang the majority of the song “Save Dat Money” featuring Fetty Wap and Rich Homie Quan I’ve been putting all my friends, younger and older than myself, on to him. His songs are absolutely hilarious, with the exception of Molly, which broke my heart almost. Though his songs are hilarious enough on their own, the videos that accommodate them tend to be even more comical.
The Philadelphia native has created his own niche of music genres, he raps about 100% realities instead of the bling bling bottle popping and big booty hoes that generally permeate modern day rap. In fact his song “Save Dat Money” went gold and it’s all about NOT blowing major dollars like rap stars generally do. The comedic rapper at one point in the song references the hardship up and coming rappers go through saying “Dirty drawers getting worn, can you blame me now? You think I got $4.50 up in quarters on me? Well I fuc#%ing don’t” highlighting the plight of many up and coming rappers just in keeping their clothes clean while out here chasing their dreams. His partner on the song, Fetty Wap sure could relate, he was homeless, sleeping in his car before his single ‘Trap Queen’ became a hit and changed his life.
Recently Lil Dicky has become the center of controversy in the rap world. The white Jewish rapper is featured along with 9 other up and coming rappers on the XXL’s Freshman 16 cover. Many hip-hop lovers seem outraged. Black twitter went crazy, suddenly people who have never heard the name Lil Dicky are judging him based on his appearance, ancestry and lack of “thug quality” to his music. If you ask Me he is in many way a paler drake, only differing in the fact that he is fully white, not of mixed heritage. He even shares Dake’s cute quirkiness.
While some are angry that he made it on the cover, I think they’re nuts, he earned it.
WHO IS LIL DICKY?
Though many are just discovering this highly intelligent and creative artist, he is no newcomer to the music making game. Lil Dicky, David Andrew Burd, as he is known to friends and family, considers himself a rapper and comedian. He aspires to be like the comedian and comedy writer Donald Glover who also has a successful rap career under the name Childish Gambino.
Being a rapper was not one of Burd’s initial goals. The rapper grew up in an upper middle class Jewish family in northern Pennsylvania. When he graduated from high school he moved on to the University of Richmond, where he graduated second in his class. After college he moved to California and started a career in advertising in the account management department. A rap video he made to showcase his work for his bosses led to him being reassigned to a major advertising position in the creative department.
Lil Dicky says he got into rapping as a way to garner attention so he could become a comedian and comedy writer, somehow along the way he fell in love with rapping though and just couldn’t give it up. The rapper with marketing and advertising experience, spent two years writing music and recording videos before he released his first video on youtube in 2013. His song “Ex-Boyfriend” was an instant smash garnering over 1 million views in just 24 hours. The song and video are so hilarious I must admit I’ve watched more than 5 times. You have to look it up.
According to Wikipedia, Lil Dicky describes his style as a response to the excessive egotistical nature of rap today: “I really wanted to embody the exact opposite of that, and I think people are appreciating it. There just hasn’t been a voice for that normal dude when it comes to rap.”[7] He added, “I think a lot of rap is just escalated to a place that many people can’t relate to… My niche is that I’m relatable. I don’t rap about going to the club and popping bottles.”
Once a week for five months Lil Dicky released a new song or video. He became aan internet sensation and his videos started doing numbers, getting him paid through youtube and gaining him sponsors. At one point, after financing himself to the point of broke, he started a kick starter campaign, hoping to make enough money to continue his rap career. He was attempting to raise $70,000, in just one month’s time he collected over $113,000.
The rapper release his debut album last year. I’ve been spending a lot of time catching up on him, his music and videos and I must say, the more I look into him, the more impressed I am. I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on him so long. He has this one song that piqued my interest the minute I saw the title, “Jewish Flow.” I’m like huh? I was not ready for what I discovered as I watched the video. He made a video basically celebrating his Jewish heritage, wearing a F$^k Hitler T-shirt. Much of the video is shot in Black and white and he has had himself superimposed into footage of Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler giving a speech. It appears the two are having a rap battle and as Lil Dicky deals the final lyrical death blow Hitler slinks away in defeat. His flow on the song is so sick there is no way to describe it to you. You MUST see for yourself.
For anyone who thinks Lil Dicky doesn’t belong on the cover of XXL with the group that comprised the freshman 16 I say you’re right, he doesn’t. He belongs on the cover by himself because he is sensational. He is a cover story himself who deserves full acknowledgement for the work he has done over the years, the crowd he gathered behind him supporting his work and innovative music.
