Bbno$

Alexander Leon Gumuchian ( gə-MOO-chee-ən; born June 30, 1995), known professionally as bbno$ ("baby no money"), is a Canadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. He became widely known for his 2019 single "Lalala" (featuring Y2K). He continued this success through collaborations with artists including Yung Gravy and his 2021 single "Edamame". In 2025 and 2026, he won the Juno Fan Choice Award.

Early life

Alexander Leon Gumuchian was born in Vancouver on June 30, 1995, the son of an Armenian father from Egypt and a Danish-Swiss mother. He was homeschooled before he began high school. He was a competitive swimmer during high school. While growing up, his mother had encouraged him to learn piano, but he struggled with music theory. He has said that he was good with rhythm and enjoyed playing the djembe, but did not listen to music for fun until the age of 15. In 2019, he received a Bachelor of Human Kinetics (kinesiology) degree from the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna. As of 2019, he resides in Vancouver.

Career

2014–2016: Early work

bbno$ started making music after a back injury prevented him from pursuing his dream as a professional swimmer. He became interested in rapping and music production in 2014, when he began experimenting on GarageBand with a group of friends. He started making music for his own enjoyment with this group of friends, who later called themselves the Broke Boy Gang. After five or six months of performing live as a group and releasing multiple tracks online, the group broke up.

bbno$ began posting tracks on SoundCloud in September 2016 under the moniker bbnomula, quickly gaining millions of streams and followers. He gained unexpected popularity in China, where he sold out his first few "back-to-back" headlining tours. He credited his success there to Jackson Yee, a member of Chinese boy band TFBoys, after a video showed Yee dancing to the bbno$ song "Yoyo Tokyo" at his birthday party.

2017–2024: Debut album and growing popularity

In 2017, bbno$ released his first EP, Baby Gravy, a collaboration with Yung Gravy, shortly before releasing his debut studio album, Bb Steps, and his second collaborative EP, Whatever, with So Loki in 2018.

In late 2019, bbno$ released his second studio album, Recess, which draws inspiration from the Disney series of the same name, and includes features from Y2K and Trippy Tha Kid. Many tracks off of Recess gained millions of streams on Spotify. bbno$ and Y2K have been recognized for marketing their single "Lalala" online by using various websites and online apps, namely Tinder, Instagram, TikTok, and Craigslist. The song peaked on over 20 charts around the world and gained over 1 billion streams worldwide. On March 17, 2023, the song was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for equivalent sales of three million units in the United States. Later in 2019, bbno$ would go on to release another album, I Don't Care at All. The album featured various pre-released singles, "Slop", "Pouch", and "Shining on My Ex", the latter of which featured frequent collaborator Yung Gravy. The album was solely produced by Y2K.

On February 14, 2020, Baby Gravy 2 was released properly in collaboration with Yung Gravy. It serves as a sequel to the 2017 EP Baby Gravy. The video for his single "Imma" features bbno$ in drag, travelling around Victoria with drag queen Jimbo.