In a series of since deleted tweets, he said “plenty of art is offensive, that doesn’t mean it should be censored” and “I shouldn't have to water down or censor my perspective just to stay on a website.” He then went on further explaining that as a mixed-race Indian American, he didn’t identify with a particular race. “Race is not real,” he tweeted in early January of this year, “fuck you shut up, I’m really fucking tired of it.”

Lil Darkie is not necessarily a grifter but he’s ideologically impossible to pin down—an American emblematic of our melting pot ideology who doesn’t cleanly fit into any particular category whether it’s social, sexual, political. I’ve had the chance to speak with Lil Darkie, and I can say that although I only knew him for a hour, (not that one can pretend to really know this engimatic artist who seemingly changes by the day), I got the sense that his intentions were wholesome, and that his character was his and his audience’s outlet to express their frustrations and animosities. “Everyone wants to be an individual but no one has the balls to actually do it,” he said. “That’s why I do this. People love it, so I like that I can be positive in peoples’ lives.”

[Industry Plant: The Decline and Fall of Kid Buu]

It was clear, too, that Joshua was stressed out. He mentioned he was reducing his drug intake and trying to clear his mind. I can understand that—becoming the nexus of angst for wanton figures across the internet brings with it a lot of pressure. I got the sense that the fame that comes with taking on “the system” at large, whether it be through music or politics, can be draining. It’s not easy to be known as a villain—especially if inside you harbor a more positive soul.

Since his rise, Joshua followed in the foosteps of other young phenoms like X, Tyler, and Peep, and created his own music group, Spider Gang, which is is made up of Wendigo, Cxrpse, BRUHMANEGOD, Lil Cubensis, Christ Dillinger, AFourteen, & others, who all compliment Lil Darkie’s sensationalist brand of internet depravity. Yet one thing is clear—they orbit Darkie, who, like X, Tyler, and Peep, carries his group forward as the frontman.