In April 2012, internet rap cult hero gave a lecture at NYU that was instantly memed into oblivion. In one memorable moment, the Based God invited a fresh-faced teenage kid from the crowd onstage and bestowed his blessing upon the kid, more or less knighting him. That kid was 16-year-old actor Timothée Chalamet, now the hottest movie star on the planet. In a recent interview with Nardwuar The Human Serviette, Chalamet credits his success to that moment with Lil B.

As you are no doubt aware, Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan in the new biopic A Complete Unknown, and he’s currently on one of the all-time great press-blitz charm offensives. His promotional run recently took him to Record Surplus in Santa Monica, where he had a nearly hour-long conversation with Nardwuar while record shopping. Chalamet was visibly geeked the entire time, especially when Nardwuar mentioned Lil B.

When the subject of the Based God came up, Chalamet specifically recalled Nardwuar’s Lil B interview, and he said that Tyler, The Creator told him that he had the aura of someone who’d been knighted by Lil B. Here’s Chalamet’s story:

Lil B is a hugely formative artist in my life and career. He dropped an album called I’m Gay, and the rollout was very ambiguous about his sexuality or the meaning of the album. I was just inspired about the sense that wow, this guy’s just doing whatever the fuck he wants. It was just very cool to me at the time in the genre of hip-hop that he was just all over the place, you know?…

I met him at NYU. I had $50 from a commercial I did. I bribed a kid to give me his ticket. I was in there alone, front row to the right. I raised my hand. I got called on by him. I was telling him, I got a crush. He invited me onstage, and he knighted me. Honestly, he said that boy’s handsome and blessed, and from there my acting career took off. Thank you, Based God. I was struggling before that. I had just done Royal Pains, and then I was nominated for an Oscar by the time I was 22. Shout out Lil B. Nothing possible without Lil B.

LEGACY AND LOVE! – Lil B https://t.co/F8qBhJWz4m

— Lil B THE BASEDGOD (@LILBTHEBASEDGOD) December 27, 2024

Here’s the moment when it all happened for Chalamet:

Well today I learned Lil B knighted Timothée Chalamet https://t.co/vFXuZs07Zx pic.twitter.com/JImza0PijN

— no bells (@nobellsblog) March 9, 2023

During the interview, Chalamet gets slightly shook when he realizes that he’ll have to pay for all the vinyl that he’s picking out, and he tells himself and the world, “It’s OK, Dune did well.”

“dune did well” is killing meeee why is he like this pic.twitter.com/aivlDKuPZy

— lina (@evermoresivy) December 26, 2024

He also gave a lot of shoutouts.

shout out pic.twitter.com/X1I0Tl6xN3

— lo (@timchals) December 26, 2024

Here’s the full interview.

And here’s Chalamet dancing to the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” on Instagram Live the other day.

Timothée Chalamet randomly dancing to “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas on Instagram Live. pic.twitter.com/tWbOM23JKR

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) December 23, 2024

A Complete Unknown is in theaters now. Also, Timothée Chalamet turns 29 years old today. Happy birthday, Timmy!