Lil Dicky

Early life

Burd grew up in an upper middle class Jewish family in the Elkins Park neighborhood of Cheltenham Township, a township on the north border of Philadelphia. He attended Cheltenham High School. Speaking about his time in high school, Burd said "I was a pussy. I was really awkward looking. I wasn’t getting any girls at all, but I was very class-clownish and I got good grades.” After graduating from High School, Burd began attending the University of Richmond where fellow 2016 XXL Freshman and rapper Dave East also attended at the same time. Burd graduated summa cum laude with a 3.30 GPA from the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business. He then relocated to San Francisco, California, where he worked in account management at the advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. After reimagining his monthly progress report as a rap video, the company brought him to work in their creative department, where he wrote copy for ads such as the NBA's "BIG" campaign.

Burd's interest in music started when he was a child, listening to hip-hop music and alternative rock, Burd began rapping in the fifth grade after doing a history report on Alexander Pushkin using rap music. Growing up, Burd listened to Nas and Jay-Z mainly when it came to hip-hop.

Career

Burd says he initiated his rap career "simply to get attention comedically, so I could write movies, write TV shows and act". However, he "fell in love with rapping" and says he's "not leaving that game until [he's] proved [his] point".

Burd began working on his debut mixtape, So Hard in 2011. The mixtape took Burd over two years to finish due to Burd still having his full-time job at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners during the development of the mixtape. Burd recorded a majority of his early material for So Hard on his MacBook Pro and a $400 microphone and in 2013, began releasing one song a week for five months straight. On April 23, 2013, Burd released the music video for his song "Ex-Boyfriend", the mixtape's leading single. The music video went viral almost instantly, receiving one million views within 24 hours of being posted on YouTube. Burd released a new song or music video, in a series titled Hump Days. Following the release of 32 songs and 15 music videos, Burd launched a Kickstarter, stating, "I've officially run out of money... In a nutshell, you are funding phase two my rap career." The month-long crowdfunding period began on November 20, 2013, with the goal of raising $70,000 in order to enable Lil Dicky to create and produce more music, music videos, and go touring. The Kickstarter well exceeded its target, raising $113,000.

Lil Dicky held his first live concert at TLA in Philadelphia on February 19, 2014. Burd has signed with CMSN, who also manages Tyga, Chiddy Bang and others. He plans "on having two concurrent careers going on, as a rapper, and as a comedian/actor/writer".

Burd released his debut album Professional Rapper on July 31, 2015, and features artists Snoop Dogg, T-Pain, Rich Homie Quan, Fetty Wap, Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco), RetroJace and Hannibal Buress.

Lil Dicky appeared in a 2016 Funny or Die video "Watch Yo Self" with Mystikal and Trinidad James.

On June 13, 2016, XXL Magazine released the 2016 Freshmen line-up. It included Lil Dicky, along with Anderson .Paak, Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, Dave East, Denzel Curry, Desiigner, G Herbo, and Lil Yachty.

On April 12, 2017, Lil Dicky released a music video for "Pillow Talking". Its special effects made it the 49th most expensive music video ever created. In an interview with XXL in April 2017, Burd mentioned that he was creating a new project and that he was also attempting to pitch a TV show to networks.

In September 2017, Lil Dicky released an EP under his alter ego Brain, I'm Brain.

Musical style and influences

Lil Dicky's style blends the comical with the relatable. According to Boston magazine, "Content-wise, Lil Dicky comes up with his material from everyday occurrences and everyday experiences. From there, he crafts his videos around those topics to create a visual narrative that accompanies his talent as an emcee. 'It's like a comedian. They are out in the world, and writing things down,' he said. What followed 'Ex-Boyfriend' was a series of other videos that covered similarly average everyday experiences—songs about staying in for the night, songs about being a Jewish kid—he even has a rap battle with Adolf Hitler in one of his videos."

He says his style is 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." 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." In terms of his rapping skills, Lil Dicky is able "to manipulate words at an excessive speed, and weave rhyme patterns together in a way that's funny while also making viewers want to rewind parts of his videos".

Burd says his musical inspirations are J. Cole and A$AP Rocky, as well as Childish Gambino "as a guy with similar aspirations".

Burd is rumoured to have said during his time in Melbourne, Australia, that Umar Khasanov, close friend, aided his decision to become a rapper.