David Andrew Byrd. Who is that? You probably know him more for his stage persona, Lil Dicky or LD and his catchy, witty, self-demeaning and laugh out loud rap hits. They’re usually accompanied by a hilarious music video which you can’t quite decide if it left you offended or laughing like a baboon.
While his songs are usually assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical i.e. “Pillow Talk” and “Professional Rapper”, many people don’t know much about his life before his releases. LD grew up in a small town in Philadelphia and continued on to earn a degree in business from the University of Virginia.
After relocating to San Francisco and working at an advertising agency, his creativity began to get him noticed- LD created rap videos to function as his monthly progress reports. This led him to get work in the creative department, where he continued to work full-time while developing his first mixtape, So Hard in 2011.
His music video for the single “Ex-Boyfriend” was a huge viral success in 2013, gaining one million views in 24 hours after being posted on YouTube. Most of his early recordings were done with a relatively cheap microphone and a MacBook. He continued to proliferate music, but lacked a lot of necessary funding.
This led him to launch a KickStarter to fundraise money so he could produce more music and music videos. With an initial goal of $70,000, it raised $113,000. Since then, the artist has continued to make use of his comedic genius and rap skills to work amongst the likes of Snoop Dogg, Fetty Wap and most recently, Chris Brown. LD recently announced a tour for 2018 in Australia.