Written on 14 January 2019
I've been writing profiles of prominent people for the better half of three decades, and I always manage to find at least one layer beneath the media trained, faux humble surface.
This can be their motivations, like wanting to please a parent or loved one, or straight up corporate greed. It can be an emotional revelation, like occasional loneliness, or struggling with loss. It can be an annoyance with me, the interviewer, trying to peel back that layer, as I can be rather persistent when writing pieces that really represent the person I'm profiling.
Everyone has at least one layer. That's what makes LiveBae such an interesting, unique exception. His all-encompassing density.
LiveBae, formerly LivingBae, formerly KayBae, formerly DeadBea, Formerly DeadBoy, formerly Dennis Simpson, is a YouTube star and Instagram influencer from upstate New York.
He rose to prominence through his Vlogs, the most popular of which “Nike can suck Adidases D*ck” has received over 400million views.
“Ah yeah. That was dope.” He told me when we met at The Ritz ahead of his sold out show at the Palladium. “I stand by it. As far as I'm concerned, Nike can chow down.” He says, pointing to his genitals.
LiveBae is decked out head to toe in custom Adidas, a gift from the receivers of the brand felatio. He reliably tells me, at least four times, that he has received over $100,000 of free garb from Adidas over the last few years.
“The thing is, I think people see me, see my clothes, see me playing Xbox, and they think, wow that guy is just like me, but richer, you know?”
Rich is right. From a wealthy background, the now 26-year-old started Vlogging 9 years ago, mostly talking about “High School poon”. Forbes now estimates his net worth to be $26 million just from YouTube and other social media.
I tried, I really did, to get something out of my conversation with LiveBae. We talked about his upbringing “my parents let me smoke weed”, his fame “People shout at me on the street. I'm like ‘whaaaat'”, his relationships “I love my female fans. I still get mad kissy, though. Girls just come up to me.”, and his live shows “It's just like a version of my YouTube show. It's dope.”
So why is this dim, uninspiring young man so popular? It came to me when a fan approached him for an autograph during our interview. He signed three different scraps of paper, posed for several selfies, chatted animatedly with them and grinned stupidly all the way through. This guy is nice.
A little shallow, sure, perhaps a touch aggressive when talking about his hatred for Nike, but throughout our chat, throughout his videos, he seems genuinely happy and a nice guy.
Kids like him exactly because he's vacuous. LiveBae is so shudderingly unambiguous you feel you know him in just a few minutes of one of his videos.
Kids are lied to, a lot. In this angry world, what's wrong with someone who's nice, and honest, even if what he says is almost entirely pointless? Let it Bae.