Lil B stops by the day after the Pomona show. While uploading a new video on his laptop, he estimates he’s online 22 hours a day. “The other two I’m sleeping and being a perv.” He describes his ambitious plans for his Based World empire. “I want to continue to build a brand, I want to become a very reliable brand, like Whole Foods,” he says. “I want Based World and everything that goes around with Based, everything that means‚ I want people to see that and think of that like the ASPCA, a real peaceful and trusted brand.” Thanks to YouTube Insights, he knows where the pockets of fans are. “I got a lot of stuff in Europe, nice percentages in Poland and Yugoslavia. We’re going to take it there. We’re going to turn it up. I’ve been talking to people overseas and trying to lock down these tours,” he says.

While uploading a new video on his laptop, Lil B estimates he’s online 22 hours a day.

As always, Lil B is on the hustle. He professes admiration for the genre-busting showmanship of acts like Antony & the Johnsons and Ariel Pink, and tells me about Dior Paint, the most recent of his various personae, who was unveiled on a new ambient recording called Rain in London (a radical departure from traditional Lil B territory). There is now an entire Based World populated by fragments and versions of himself. He breaks them down. “Brandon McCartney, that’s like me‚ the nerd, cool, hip, thug-but-not-thug-at-all, smart, loving dude. Lil B is fearless, mighty, a lot of heart, well-spoken, smooth. The Based God is almighty, untouchable, praised, knowledgeable, a healer. Dior Paint is a stylist, fashion savvy, the composer, the princess, the diva. Dior Paint is the real love pizazz.” When the video finishes uploading, he packs up his laptop and heads back on his way.

Later that week in Los Angeles, it’s late and raining on a school night, but people are packed body-to-body to see Odd Future take it actual at the Low End Theory party at the Airliner. They’ve had shows before, but Syd says this one’s different. Who cares about the fame party when you can watch a full-on fang battle? Odd Future comes out and the crowd surges like a minor ocean. Shouts of “Golf Wang!” and “Swag!” and “Fuck Steve Harvey!” ping-pong across the room. The dudes are all up there‚ Tyler, Left Brain, Hodgy, Mike G, Jasper‚ and everyone gets his moment under the hot lights. Tonight they’re full of swagger, killing it live in the flesh, they’re rock stars, and in a few minutes the room has so much steam they dispense with their shirts. For a moment, anyway, laptops and labels and branding and business managers have nothing to do with it. Right now they’re young and bulletproof, and it’s hard not to wish their summer would be endless.