Everyone Wants To Be Him
Lil Pump has decided that everyone wants to be him, and the new video for Be Like Me
proves it. Retirees, animals, that kid who does celebrity impressions—they all want the dreadlocks, the face tattoos, whatever he’s got. It’s a funny concept, and it works because Pump himself is funny without trying to be. He’s just completely, unselfconsciously himself.
The kid from Florida went from literally nobody to having Gucci Gang
looping in suburban kids’ heads in maybe six months. That song came out in August 2017 and it’s now platinum four times over, which is wild for a track that’s basically one phrase repeated for four minutes. But there’s something about it—the production, his delivery, the confidence of a teenager yelling about designer goods with absolute zero irony—that just landed.
Now he’s got an album, Harverd Dropout
(the cover art has it embroidered on a graduation gown), and he’s collaborated with Lil Wayne, done TV with Fallon and Ellen, had his Mad Max video with flamethrowers and desert amazons. The trajectory is unreal. Most rappers work for years before they get one hit. Pump went from nothing to everywhere in what feels like a day.
What’s interesting is that he actually believes it. He’s not doing the humble thing. In interviews he talks about being the biggest thing, about his path being crazy, about just getting started. And he sounds like he means it—not in an obnoxious way, just matter-of-fact. He’s eighteen and he’s already won. So why not be like him?
The video’s bright and colorful and kind of dumb in the best way. Sophie Muller directed it, which is weird because she’s directed actual Beyoncé and Coldplay videos, but that’s where we are now. Everyone’s collaborating with everyone because the whole thing is moving too fast to say no.
I don’t know if Be Like Me
hits as hard as Gucci Gang.
Probably not. But there’s something you have to respect about a kid who figured out the formula—don’t overthink it, just be yourself, let the confidence do the work—and then actually stuck to it. The video’s premise is absurd. His whole existence is kind of absurd. And somehow that’s the only real thing going on right now.