The Origins & Multiple Contemporary Vernacular (Slang) Meanings Of The Word "Based"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents information about the origins and the multiple vernacular (slang) meanings of the English word "based".

The content of this post is presented for linguistics, historical, and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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INFORMATION ABOUT LIL B, THE FIRST PERSON TO COIN A VERNACULAR MEANING FOR THE WORD "BASED"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil_B (retrieved October 11, 2025)
"Brandon Christopher McCartney (born August 17, 1989),[1][2] known professionally as Lil B and Lil B The BasedGod, is an American rapper and record producer. He began his career as a member of the Berkeley, California-based hip hop group the Pack in 2005, who signed with Too Short's Up All Nite Records, an imprint of Jive Records the following year. The group became best known for their hit song "Vans", their sole entry on the Billboard Hot 100, later releasing two studio albums before disbanding in 2010.

McCartney's extensive use of social media in his solo career and online persona has yielded a cult following. His work spans several genres, including comedy hip-hop, new age, jazz, indie rock and choral music. He calls his alter ego the BasedGod, and is credited with having coined the slang term "based", which originally denoted a lifestyle of positivity, impudence or boldness. By the late 2010s, the phrase had been used to describe stances or actions that negate political correctness; by the 2020s, the term had entered the mainstream and regained a neutral connotation.[3][4][5]

Lil B has been credited as "the godfather of internet rap" as well as one of the "most influential rappers" of the 2010s, influencing artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Playboi Carti, Young Thug, Lil Yachty, Chief Keef, Chance the Rapper, Yung Lean, Earl Sweatshirt, Black Kray, Bladee, Xaviersobased, and Tyler, the Creator, as well as actor Timothée Chalamet.

[…]

Artistry

McCartney and music critics refer to his rapping style as "based", a word that McCartney also uses to describe a positive, bold lifestyle. "Based" is a reclaimed word, as described by McCartney in Complex:[39][40]

Based means being yourself. Not being scared of what people think about you. Not being afraid to do what you wanna do. Being positive. When I was younger, based was a negative term that meant like dopehead, or basehead. People used to make fun of me. They was like, "You're based." They'd use it as a negative. And what I did was turn that negative into a positive. I started embracing it like, "Yeah, I'm based." I made it mine. I embedded it in my head. Based is positive."...

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SELECTED INTERNET QUOTES ABOUT THE VERNACULAR (SLANG) MEANINGS OF "BASED"
These quotes are numbered for referencing purposes only.

SOURCE #1
From https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/based/ Slang dictionary: based [beysd], September 6, 2018
"What does based mean?

Based is a slang term that originally meant to be addicted to crack cocaine (or acting like you were), but was reclaimed by rapper Lil B for being yourself and not caring what others think of you—to carry yourself with swagger.

Based has been appropriated by the alt-right online as a general term of praise, as if “un-woke.”

Where does based come from?

Based comes from the slang basehead, a term from the 1980s to describe people addicted to freebasing cocaine, a method which makes the drug smokable. The term basehead became synonymous with the crack epidemic that swept the United States at the time. Over time, calling someone based was a way of saying that they were a crack addict, or acting like one, especially in West Coast street slang.

In the way slang things go, people acting eccentric or abnormal were labelled based. At least that’s what seems to have happened with quirky West Coast rapper Brandon “Lil B” McCartney. In reaction to people calling him based, Lil B decided to redefine the term. In 2007, his group, The Pack, released their debut album, Based Boys. In a 2010 interview in Complex magazine, Lil B described his new definition of based: “Based means being yourself. Not being scared of what people think about you. Not being afraid to do what you wanna do.”

It’s not clear when Lil B started calling himself Based God, but by 2011 that nickname was firmly associated with him. Eventually, a cosmology of Based God (or BasedGod) emerged, referring to becoming a sort of higher power that Lil B could access, allowing him special abilities, such as the power to curse basketball player Kevin Durant.

The re-invented based, as a signal of power and swagger, was picked up by the alt-right/white nationalist community online in the 2010s. In 2014, during a controversy over female video-game reviewers known as Gamergate, conservative commentator Christina Hoff Sommers was referred to as Based Mom for pushing back against criticisms that video games and their culture are sexist. Since then, referring to alt-right or right-wing conservative figures as based has become a sign of approval in online social-media forums like the pro-Trump subreddit, r/The_Donald.

Examples of based

"Since Lil B claims to have access to this higher power known as TheBasedGod, he was able to curse Durant after the Thunder All-Star disparaged his music in 2011".- Ananth Pandian, CBS Sports, June, 2016

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"I’m enjoying the #based life. Living my best life!"
-@d4d4t24sh, August, 2018

Who uses based?

Being based is a core part of Lil B’s brand, and so it’s no wonder he—and his fans—are all about that based life. In this hip-hop subculture, it’s all about being a based God—someone with “maximum swagger, a mansion, sports cars… we think the point is that you can have whatever you want.

[…]

A catch phrase for Lil B fans is Thank You Based God—a sort of tongue-in-cheek conflation of a sincere thanks to God and an expression of Based God fandom. It even has its own acronym: TYBG. This catchphrase is a popular meme, typically shown over image macros of someone crying dramatically.

On the other side of the spectrum, alt-right, white nationalist, and other Trump supporters online have, incongruously, adopted based for their own purposes. They routinely post on forums like Reddit with headlines describing someone whose actions they approve of as based (e.g. “Based Boris Johnson refuses to apologize for saying women in burkas look like letterboxes.”).

In 2016, Slate writer Ben Mathis-Lilley perhaps best summed up this strange turn of events with based, worth quoting at length:

 “So what we have here, then, is a word that was created amid an addiction epidemic in urban communities being adopted by bigoted fans of a presidential candidate who was demonstrated unprecedented contempt for, and ignorance of, said communities.” 

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SOURCE #2
From https://www.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/mrz4yx/can_anyone_help_me_understand_the_word_based/

1. "r/EnglishLearning

[deleted], 2020
"Can anyone help me understand the word "based"?

Of course I know its original meaning. But on reddit I often see some people comment with only a single word "based" and is actually upvoted which means it makes sense. But I have no idea what it means and I really want to figure it out. Is it a meme?"

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2. [deleted], 2020
From urban dictionary:

«A word used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize someone for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others think. Especially common in online political slang.

The opposite of cringe, some times the opposite of biased.»"
-snip-
There are at least two different commenters whose screen names were later "deleted" from this discussion thread. From the last quoted comment in this pancocojams compilation, it appears that "luke_duck" was the screen name of most if not all of the other comments ascribed to "deleted" except for comment #1. 

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3. theGoodDrSan, 2020
"More or less, yeah. It's originally a reference to Lil B, the Based God, and it basically came from his fans"

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4. [deleted], 2020
“Based pretty much means “I agree” but of course it can also be used ironically/sarcastically.”

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5. [deleted], 2021
"It definitely used to be incel rhetoric - I remember seeing it in screenshots of incel forums years ago and back then it was used for agreeing with a view that’s generally unpopular outside of those forums, but popular within them (eg “based and redpilled”). But I would say these days it’s moved away from that and is used by the general population to mean “something I agree with”.

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6. SpookySovl, 2022
"Before it was used by the incels it came from hip hop. Lil B popularized it by being the "Based God" (he says he took the name from people who did freebase cocaine because they were called baseheads so he turned it into the word based and rolled with it)."

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7. Bulletbling,2022
“Everyone my age (in their 20s) uses it this way: "he's based". It's an adjective used to say that someone basically isn't afraid to speak their mind and speaks the truth (or speaks facts).”

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8. STIGANDR8, 2021
"No it doesn't. It's a right wing word meaning the opposite of Woke.

Based is someone who is confident in their traditional opinions of the world and not swayed by the current zeitgeist of liberal thought. Aka: There are only 2 genders"

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9. TiggrrZ, 2021
"Not true. In common parlance, it generally means what u/luke_duck said. Maybe it's a generational thing but it is very common for people my age (young adult) to use it to mean that they agree with something and think it is cool. It's almost never a political thing from my experience."...

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