“I’m a weirdo. I’m a nerd.” bbno$ says this without a trace of irony—just quiet certainty. At this point in his career, that self-definition isn’t a revelation; it’s a flex. After years of meme-tier virality, DIY marketing blitzes, and genre-fluid bangers, the Vancouver artist has carved out a lane so specific, it couldn’t belong to anyone else. Now, with a 31-date world tour in motion, a new album on the way, and a custom Diablo II-inspired keyboard in his backpack, bbno$ is exactly where he wants to be: in his own world, and entirely online.
We caught up with him mid-tour to talk about masculinity, meme fluency, SoundCloud nostalgia, and the beauty of staying in your own lane.
You’re in the middle of your It’s Pronounced Baby No Money world tour—31 shows, 17 countries. What has the reception been like so far? Does touring feel like second nature, or is there still that “holy shit, I’m really doing this” moment when you step on stage?
Every so often I’m on stage it kind of blows my mind that I am doing what I’m doing, but I think that feeling of surrealism is a little bit gone obviously just from how much I’ve been done it. I have to treat it as a job. I have to show up to my fans and be very present and consistently energetic but I mean I still get to say ridiculous things on stage so I think the fundamentals of what I get to do is fantastic.
“Antidepressants” and “Check” just dropped, and they feel like a natural evolution of your sound while still being undeniably bbno$. Where are you at creatively right now? What’s exciting you musically?
I feel like my music is just getting faster and faster. I don’t know if that’s because music is just getting slower for me or I’m becoming less attached to pop music in this day and age. My music is for my live performance, everything I make I see how it would be in a music video and or on a stage. I’m very inspired by drum and bass and electronic music from Europe, but I’m keeping it very baby no money.
The whole “is bbno$ getting a Fortnite skin” thing blew up. You’ve always had this ability to translate your world into different spaces—memes, marketing, now gaming. Do you see gaming culture as a natural extension of what you do?
Gaming for me is how I understand the Internet and Meme space. I feel like Internet marketing is exclusively derived from online presence and gaming so yes, I totally think it’s a natural extension of what I do. It’s also a natural extension of my personality, and the things that I like. For instance; today I just collabed with the biggest keyboard creator in the world and he made me a Diablo 2 inspired keyboard that I cannot wait to sit down and play with. I think without my early access to the Internet I wouldn’t understand how to do my marketing.
You’ve built an entire world with Yung Gravy, but Baby Gravy 3 felt like a fully realized moment—bigger than just a joke or a bit. Do you think that project changed how people see what you and Gravy are doing?
I think this is the year that people culturally accept what Gravy and I have been doing and will be adapted more into the mainstream and popular culture. I don’t really care if we do or if we don’t. I am a weirdo. I’m a nerd who plans to stay in my lane and do exactly what I do while cultivating a diehard fan base and if that throws me into pop culture alongside the greats then so be it.
Vancouver’s music scene doesn’t always get the same industry attention as Toronto’s. Do you feel like the infrastructure in Canada supports independent artists like yourself, or do you think artists have to break outside of it first?
Vancouver‘s music scene is interesting. I’m very excited to be performing at Juno‘s as a local hometown boy. I have a bunch of really, really funny viral moments and stunts kind of already organized. I think the Canadian grant system provides a fantastic model and aid structure for artists to grow and it supported and still supports me incredibly well. I do think I had a lot of success breaking elsewhere before Canada, but I now feel like Canada’s my biggest market.
You’ve always been hyper-online, from the Tinder and Craigslist Lalala marketing to getting deep into meme culture. With TikTok constantly changing, do you ever feel like you have to keep adapting, or do you just make what you want and let the internet do its thing?
I think if you are apprehensive to adapt to the changes of social media and the changes of the algorithm you will be left behind. Albeit, I do think I try to do as much as humanly possible and accentuate my personality as much as possible in order to make it easy for me to adapt. I don’t really try to be someone else throughout the creation of my content. It’s all about authenticity!
You and Yung Gravy have always played with masculinity in a way that feels effortless—whether it’s the music, the humour, or even the way you two present yourselves online. Do you think people are finally loosening up about that kind of fluidity in rap, or is there still a way to go?
I don’t think people view me as much as a rapper as Yung Gravy per se, but I do think that fluidity is becoming more and more socially normalized, on social media, especially in Gen Z there’s a lot more awareness regarding comfortability in people‘s skins and sexualities. Although things are moving in a more progressive direction, I still think there is a massive way to go.
You’ve worked with everyone from Rich Brian to Vietnamese rappers like Low G and Anh Phan. Has there ever been a collaboration that pushed you musically in a way you didn’t expect?
You know I’ve always really expected to kind of encounter that, but I feel like I’m pretty versatile when creating music and just how my creativity flows with regards to different types of beats with different scenarios. I think collaborating can get you stuck. Depending on what either artists want or what you want to do on a song, but I definitely think collaborating with international acts make it really fun for me to go worldwide and make my global touring business a lot more successful.
Your music videos have always been a little surreal, a little absurd. How involved are you in crafting that visual identity, and is there a concept you’ve always wanted to pull off but haven’t yet?
I have to give my hat off to Shiraz Higgins (made you look at the media). He is my video director and visual content creator with regards to music videos. A lot of the time I just show up and he barely explains to me the music videos and the treatment and I just shoot. He has an eye for things that I don’t question, I think without him I am sure my music video game would not be where it’s at. He’s an incredibly useful asset in my business because like you just said we have very surreal, absurd, music videos that have given me such a prominent visual identity when it comes to the visuals. I do have a couple ideas. I wanna make a music video that is all based on phobias.
You came up in the SoundCloud era when things felt more experimental and unpredictable. Looking at the industry now, do you feel like artists have more freedom than before, or has streaming/social media boxed them in?
The SoundCloud era was really fun because we were constantly dropping out of nowhere. Collabing with random artists from across the world, tapping into their fan base, tapping into why they are becoming popular and growing collectively as a unit, very gamified. I do miss the peak of SoundCloud quite a bit. I feel one of the most fun parts of making music is having a very communal fan base that you can engage with, where as on Spotify that does not exist. I think that there’s more freedom now through having social media. It is a vastly underappreciated tool that is free for anyone to use to blow up off of. I do think it’s a little bit boxed in because if you don’t follow trends and you don’t follow this and that, you will not be rewarded and you get rewarded for doing what everyone else does which is the opposite of what artists should be doing.
Who are you listening to these days? Any artists you think people are sleeping on?
Jungle Bobby, Joost Klein THATS IT!
Can we expect any upcoming singles, collabs, or new projects soon? What’s next for bbno$?
I’m working on Album for October and there’s a bunch of banging singles on the way!!
Cody Rooney is the Editor in Chief and senior contributor at liminul.
He is a PhD candidate, digital content specialist, writer, editor, multi-media artist, and photographer.