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Forget OKCupid or Match.com. For Brittany Frankso and her boyfriend Jebriel Teague, it was the obsessively prolific Bay-Area rapper known as Lil B-- and his thriving online community of fans-- that brought them true love. What began as a casual online friendship over shared affection for the rapper on Facebook blossomed into a deep romantic bond. Frankso, 21, recalls a period after a storm last summer when the electricity at her parents' home in New Jersey went out for days. She endured the dark, powerless nights in her car, talking to Teague over the phone. "I was hot and upset and scared and by myself in the pitch black," she says. "That's when we really started connecting."
She soon booked a trip to visit the 19-year-old Teague, and within three months she'd packed up and moved in with him and his brother in their Atlanta home. It's a decision that may seem rash to some (her mother initially disowned her for dating a black man), but Fransko is committed to Teague. "I wouldn't have moved my entire life if I didn't think it could be forever," she tells me. And their shared devotion to Lil B and the lifestyle he endorses-- his music, his positivity, his "Top Chef"-ready cooking dance-- continues to strengthen their connection. Frankso even dreams about the rapper playing officiant at their wedding. "Lil B can say, 'And you may now cook with the bride,'" she says, giggling.
What Lil B lacks in notoriety he makes up for with an all-encompassing worldview-- becoming a serious fan often accompanies a mentality makeover.
Lady Gaga has her Little Monsters, Nicki Minaj has her army of Barbz, Justin Bieber has his squealing Beliebers, Chris Brown has his perpetually misguided Team Breezy. And Lil B has his sprawling BasedWorld, a virtual-reality home to some of contemporary music's most fiercely loyal, spirited, interconnected, mobilized, internet-savvy fans. There is no single hub or message board-- instead, the community thrives primarily as a decentralized