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• SEP 6, 2024
• Can't Hold Me Down (feat. DOODLES & Kyle Richh) - Single
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• Sorry Not Sorry - Single · 2024
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• From the D to the A (feat. Lil Yachty) - Single · 2017
• Pardon Me (feat. Future & Mike WiLL Made-It)
• Lil Boat 3 · 2020
• Can't Hold Me Down (feat. DOODLES & Kyle Richh)
• Can't Hold Me Down (feat. DOODLES & Kyle Richh) - Single · 2024
• Taylor Port Junkie (feat. Lil Yachty)
• Been One · 2023
• NBAYOUNGBOAT (feat. YoungBoy Never Broke Again)
• Lil Boat 2 · 2018
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• Broccoli (feat. Lil Yachty) - Single · 2016
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Conversation around his album, 'Let's Start Here.'

The rapper on "G.I. Joe" and his album 'Michigan Boy Boat.'

The MC and City Girls' Yung Miami talk music, Quality Control.

Vince and Ty get festive, exchange gifts, and spin 21 Savage.

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About lil yachty.

Lil Yachty makes it look easy. An Atlanta-raised rapper with a sleepy flow and a bright, almost childlike outlook, Yachty (born Miles Parks McCollum in 1997) rose to prominence in 2016 with a pair of mixtapes (Lil Boat and Summer Songs 2) that recast the booming caverns of 2010s rap as something soft, sweet, intuitive, and a little goofy—a sound Yachty once called “bubblegum trap.” Dozens of features and guest appearances followed, including cosigns from Kanye, Chance the Rapper, Calvin Harris, and Macklemore. In 2017, he released his first full-length album, Teenage Emotions. His second, 2018’s Lil Boat 2, took a harder, darker turn but retained the clarity that made his early music stand out. Like Lil Uzi Vert (or Young Thug before him), Yachty represents a turn away from the conventional metrics of rap, favoring slogans over bars, hooks over metaphors, fluidity over stricture, and vibe above all. (He famously—or infamously, depending on your stance toward tradition—once told Billboard that he couldn’t name five songs by either 2Pac or Biggie.) But he’s also emblematic of a broader shift from understanding rap music as an end in itself to seeing it as an extension of the person who made it, a facet of a bigger image or experience. No wonder he FaceTimes with fans, or started his career primarily as a presence on Instagram—for him, the project is social. Still, it wouldn’t make a difference if the music itself weren’t striking—and if he weren’t so casual about it too. Speaking to Beats 1’s Zane Lowe shortly before releasing Teenage Emotions, Yachty—guileless and ever-intuitive—said, “I didn’t know [my sound] was different. I didn’t know until it took off. Then I was like, ‘Well, I don’t sound like nobody else.’” He paused. “I don’t even know if that’s a good or a bad thing. But it’s a thing. It’s a thing.” Yachty’s only expanded his sonic appetite. In 2021, he paid homage to Detroit-area rap with Michigan Boy Boat, an album that saw him adopt the jittery soundscapes and deadpan bars of the region. He added to his repertoire once again with 2023’s Let’s Start Here., a psychedelic rock album that sees Yachty stretch his vocals and soundscapes in even more unpredictable directions. From there, he released Concrete Boys, the debut project from his Concrete imprint. Featuring dexterous flows and spurts of melody from his crew, the 2024 effort affirmed his knack for curation and aesthetics. He’s graduated to a well-tended status as an industry tastemaker and a spitter capable of trading bars with J. Cole. On the track “The Secret Recipe,” we find Lil Boat rapping about being the source of plenty of rap and fashion trends. It’s a fitting song title for a young veteran who’s made a career out of good taste.

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The 15 Best Lil Yachty Songs

Let's talk about the best Lil Yachty songs - from his early days with "One Night" to his most recent unreleased leaks. The Atlanta rapper has come such a long way since his debut on SoundCloud and subsequent signing to Quality Control. In no particular order, here's our list of the 15 best Lil Yachty songs.

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15. "Plastic" - Lil Yachty (feat. Icewear Vezzo and Rio Da Yung OG) (2021)

What better way to start this list off than Lil Yachty's iconic Michigan Boy Boat album from 2021? This banger features the likes of Icewear Vezzo and Rio Da Yung OG, who matched Yachty's energy perfectly. Talk about a Michigan masterpiece: "Plastic" shows off the best elements of the hip-hop sub-genre.

14. "Who Want The Smoke?" - Lil Yachty (feat. Cardi B and Offset) (2018)

Who can forget the first time they heard "Who Want The Smoke?" with Lil Yachty, Offset, and Cardi B all together on a single song. The energy was absolutely electric, and it's no coincidence why all three of them have continued to thrive in their respective careers to this day.

13. "Split/Whole Time" - Lil Yachty (2020)

This is arguably one of the hardest Yachty songs ever, I will vouch for that on anything. From the intro to the very last moment of this song, there's something very special about this one. It's so characteristic of Yachty, so it's no surprise why it's become such a popular song.

12. "Minnesota" - Lil Yachty (feat. Quavo, Young Thug, and Skippa Da Flippa) (2016)

Off his debut album, "Minnesota" is an absolute classic Lil Boat banger. The song shows off all of the best sides of Yachty around the time of his breakout into the music scene. Ahh, the good ol' days of SoundCloud.

11. "Solid" - Lil Yachty (feat. SoFaygo) (2021)

The beat of this song makes you want to tilt your head back and ascend into the sky. From Yachty's cunning bars to SoFaygo's unmatched vocal approach, they bodied this beat perfectly, and showed exactly how fire a collab between the two of them is.

10. "T.D." - Lil Yachty (feat. Tierra Whack, A$AP Rocky, and Tyler, the Creator) (2020)

Let's not forget Yachty's song with this legendary cast of characters, which sampled the "Tokyo Drift" production, and became a modern classic. Every artist on this song has a reputation for being creative, and they didn't disappoint with this one.

9. "Demon Time" - Lil Yachty (feat. Draft Day) (2020)

Yachty has a knack for putting listeners on to the best underground artists, and that's exactly what he did here with Draft Day. If you're a seasoned Yachty listener, then this feature should've came at no surprise to you.

8. "Get Dripped" - Lil Yachty (feat. Playboi Carti) (2018)

Here's yet another one of the best Lil Yachty songs. Off of Yachty's Nuthin' to Prove album, "Get Dripped" gave fans a rare glance at just how special Yachty and Carti collabs are. The two artists morph their unique Atlanta-based styles together, and create music that literally nobody else in rap could replicate.

7. "66" - Lil Yachty (feat. Trippie Redd) (2018)

As far as timeless Lil Yachty classics go, this song is one of the top options. Trippie Redd and Lil Yachty both bring an unconventional style to the table, so of course the result of their collaboration is exactly that: unconventional.

6. G.I. Joe - Lil Yachty (feat. Louie Ray) (2021)

Another song from Yachty's Michigan Boy Boat album, "G.I. Joe" was yet another standout. It's great to see the chemistry Yachty has with all of the many features from this project, but there's something especially unique about the energy shared between Boat and Louie Ray.

5. "All of the Opps Is Opp'd" - Lil Yachty (Unreleased)

While not everyone is probably hip to this song, everybody should be. This Cash Cobain-produced banger samples Roy Ayers' "Everybody Loves the Sunshine," and turned it into a contemporary drill classic. Thank us later.

4. "Dynamic Duo" - Lil Yachty (feat. Tee Grizzley) (2021)

The name of the song is no lie: Lil Yachty and Tee Grizzley really are a "Dynamic Duo," but you should've known that already, after their prior collabs. To Lil Boat diehards, this was no surprise. On a stacked project, somehow this song managed to be one of the standouts.

3. "Poland" - Lil Yachty (2022)

Talk about "best Lil Yachty songs." It's impossible to forget the iconic moment Yachty had with the leak of this song. "I took the woOoOoOoOok... to Poland" will never get old, at least to the younger generation. The memes that were generated from this wave will surely never age, that's for sure.

2. "DipSet" - Lil Yachty and Offset (2016)

Lil Yachty and Offset have connected numerous times on collaborations, yet for some reason, this one never ceases to smack. If you haven't heard it already, here's your chance. Feast your ears upon yet another classic.

1. "Coffin" - Lil Yachty (2020)

One of the most memorable Lil Yachty releases ever was his 2020 single, "Coffin." From the moment the video teaser dropped, the hype was there. This felt like the start of a new era of Lil Yachty, embracing the most modern landscape of music, as he's always done in true Yachty fashion.

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How Lil Yachty Ended Up at His Excellent New Psychedelic Album Let's Start Here

The evening before Lil Yachty released his fifth studio album,  Let’s Start Here,  he  gathered an IMAX theater’s worth of his fans and famous friends at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City and made something clear: He wanted to be taken seriously. Not just as a “Soundcloud rapper, not some mumble rapper, not some guy that just made one hit,” he told the crowd before pressing play on his album. “I wanted to be taken serious because music is everything to me.” 

There’s a spotty history of rappers making dramatic stylistic pivots, a history Yachty now joins with  Let’s Start Here,  a funk-flecked psychedelic rock album. But unlike other notable rap-to-rock faceplants—Kid Cudi’s  Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven  comes to mind, as does Lil Wayne’s  Rebirth —the record avoids hackneyed pastiche and gratuitous playacting and cash-grabbing crossover singles; instead, Yachty sounds unbridled and free, a rapper creatively liberated from the strictures of mainstream hip-hop. Long an oddball who’s delighted in defying traditional rap ethos and expectations,  Let’s Start Here  is a maximalist and multi-genre undertaking that rewrites the narrative of Yachty’s curious career trajectory. 

Admittedly, it’d be easy to write off the album as Tame Impala karaoke, a gimmicky record from a guy who heard Yves Tumor once and thought: Let’s do  that . But set aside your Yachty skepticism and probe the album’s surface a touch deeper. While the arrangements tend toward the obvious, the record remains an intricate, unraveling swell of sumptuous live instruments and reverb-drenched textures made more impressive by the fact that Yachty co-produced every song. Fielding support from an all-star cast of characters, including production work from former Chairlift member Patrick Wimberly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait, Justin Raisen, Nick Hakim, and Magdalena Bay, and vocals from Daniel Caesar, Diana Gordon,  Foushée , Justine Skye, and Teezo Touchdown, Yachty surrounds himself with a group of disparately talented collaborators. You can hear the acute attention to detail and wide-scale ambition in the spaced-out denouement on “We Saw the Sun!” or on the blistering terror of “I’ve Officially Lost Vision!!!!” or during the cool romanticism of “Say Something.” Though occasionally overindulgent,  Let’s Start Here  is a spectacular statement from hip-hop’s prevailing weirdo. It’s not shocking that Yachty took another hard left—but how exactly did he end up  here ?

In 2016, as the forefather of “bubblegum trap” ascended into mainstream consciousness, an achievement like  Let’s Start Here  would’ve seemed inconceivable. The then 18-year-old Yachty gained national attention when a pair of his songs, “One Night” and “Minnesota,” went viral. Though clearly indebted to hip-hop trailblazers Lil B, Chief Keef, and Young Thug, his work instantly stood apart from the gritted-teeth toughness of his Atlanta trap contemporaries. Yachty flaunted a childlike awe and cartoonish demeanor that communicated a swaggering, unbothered cool. His singsong flows and campy melodies contained a winking humor to them, a subversive playfulness that endeared him to a generation of very online kids who saw themselves in Yachty’s goofy, eccentric persona. He starred in Sprite  commercials alongside LeBron James, performed live shows at the  Museum of Modern Art , and modeled in Kanye West’s  Life of Pablo  listening event at Madison Square Garden. Relishing in his cultural influence, he declared to the  New York Times  that he was not a rapper but an  artist. “And I’m more than an artist,” he added. “I’m a brand.”

 As Sheldon Pearce pointed out in his Pitchfork  review of Yachty’s 2016 mixtape,  Lil Boat , “There isn’t a single thing Lil Yachty’s doing that someone else isn’t doing better, and in richer details.” He wasn’t wrong. While Yachty’s songs were charming and catchy (and, sometimes, convincing), his music was often tangential to his brand. What was the point of rapping as sharply as the Migos or singing as intensely as Trippie Redd when you’d inked deals with Nautica and Target, possessed a sixth-sense for going viral, and had incoming collaborations with Katy Perry and Carly Rae Jepsen? What mattered more was his presentation: the candy-red hair and beaded braids, the spectacular smile that showed rows of rainbow-bedazzled grills, the wobbly, weak falsetto that defaulted to a chintzy nursery rhyme cadence. He didn’t need technical ability or historical reverence to become a celebrity; he was a meme brought to life, the personification of hip-hop’s growing generational divide, a sudden star who, like so many other Soundcloud acts, seemed destined to crash and burn after a fleeting moment in the sun.

 One problem: the music wasn’t very good. Yachty’s debut album, 2017’s  Teenage Emotions, was a glitter-bomb of pop-rap explorations that floundered with shaky hooks and schmaltzy swings at crossover hits. Worse, his novelty began to fade, those sparkly, cheerful, and puerile bubblegum trap songs aging like day-old french fries. Even when he hued closer to hard-nosed rap on 2018’s  Lil Boat 2  and  Nuthin’ 2 Prove,  you could feel Yachty desperate to recapture the magic that once came so easily to him. But rap years are like dog years, and by 2020, Yachty no longer seemed so radically weird. He was an established rapper making mid mainstream rap. The only question now was whether we’d already seen the best of him.

If his next moves were any indication—writing the  theme song to the  Saved by the Bell  sitcom revival and announcing his involvement in an upcoming  movie based on the card game Uno—then the answer was yes. But in April 2021, Yachty dropped  Michigan Boat Boy,  a mixtape that saw him swapping conventional trap for Detroit and Flint’s fast-paced beats and plain-spoken flows. Never fully of a piece with his Atlanta colleagues, Yachty found a cohort of kindred spirits in Michigan, a troop of rappers whose humor, imagination, and debauchery matched his own. From the  looks of it, leaders in the scene like Babyface Ray, Rio Da Yung OG, and YN Jay embraced Yachty with open arms, and  Michigan Boat Boy  thrives off that communion. 

 Then “ Poland ” happened. When Yachty uploaded the minute-and-a-half long track to Soundcloud a few months back, he received an unlikely and much needed jolt. Building off the rage rap production he played with on the  Birthday Mix 6  EP, “Poland” finds Yachty’s warbling about carrying pharmaceutical-grade cough syrup across international borders, a conceit that captured the imagination of TikTok and beyond. Recorded as a joke and released only after a leaked version went viral, the song has since amassed over a hundred-millions streams across all platforms. With his co-production flourishes (and adlibs) splattered across Drake and 21 Savage’s  Her Loss,  fans had reason to believe that Yachty’s creative potential had finally clicked into focus.

 But  Let’s Start Here  sounds nothing like “Poland”—in fact, the song doesn’t even appear on the project. Instead, amid a tapestry of scabrous guitars, searing bass, and vibrant drums, Yachty sounds right at home on this psych-rock spectacle of an album. He rarely raps, but his singing often relies on the virtues of his rapping: those greased-vowel deliveries and unrushed cadences, the autotune-sheathed vibrato. “Pretty,” for instance, is decidedly  not  a rap song—but what is it, then? It’s indebted to trap as much as it is ’90s R&B and MGMT, its drugged-out drums and warm keys able to house an indeterminate amount of ideas.

Yachty didn’t need to abandon hip-hop to find himself as an artist, but his experimental impulses helped him craft his first great album. Perhaps this is his lone dalliance in psych rock—maybe a return to trap is imminent. Or, maybe, he’ll make another 180, or venture deeper into the dystopia of corporate sponsorships. Who’s to say? For now, it’s invigorating to see Yachty shake loose the baggage of his teenage virality and emerge more fully into his adult artistic identity. His guise as a boundary-pushing rockstar isn’t a new archetype, but it’s an archetype he’s infused with his glittery idiosyncrasies. And look what he’s done: he’s once again morphed into a star the world didn’t see coming.

Lil Yachty Reveals AI-Generated Album Cover for ‘Let’s Start Here,’ Depicting Demented Boardroom of Executives

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Lil Yachty has revealed the artwork and release date for his forthcoming album, “Let’s Start Here,” set to debut Jan. 27 on Quality Control Music and Motown Records.

Ever the provocateur, the rapper’s new cover art previews an AI-generated image of what seems to be seven executives sitting next to each other in suits. With malformed faces akin to a psychedelic trip down the rabbit hole, the artwork seems unremarkable upon first glance. However, the longer you stare at their faces, they look inhuman, with contorted facial features and warped smiles.

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In an interview with Icebox last year , the “ Minnesota ” rapper has expressed that his “new album is a non-rap album,” hence the second chapter that he alludes to in his Instagram post. Yachty explains: “It’s alternative, it’s sick!” After recently collaborating with artists such as Tame Impala, he’s been in the process of creating a “psychedelic alternative project… [with] all live instrumentation.”

Slowly shedding major label support, Yachty now has his own label and creative consultant company, Concrete Records and Concrete Family, respectively. Working closely with Concrete Family, Yachty teamed up with the General Mills cereal brand in 2020 for a limited collaboration with Reese’s Puffs and has an undisclosed sneaker set to be released at a later date. Similar to his 2021 mixtape, “Michigan Boat Boy,” which featured almost solely Detroit artists including Rio Da Yung OG and Babyface Ray, Yachty plans to also release a mixtape with the Concrete Boys collective sometime this year.

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Lil Yachty’s Psychedelic Relaunch: ‘I Don’t Have To Be High To Make It Sound High’

By Andre Gee

I n 2016, a 19-year-old Lil Yachty emerged as a fresh-faced, red-haired maverick eagerly planting Generation Z’s flag in hip-hop . Songs like “Minnesota” intrigued many, but rap traditionalists denigrated him as a “mumble rapper” — an upstart who, they claimed, was insulting the essence of hip-hop one warbled vocal run at a time. That didn’t stop Yachty, though. In the years since, he’s kept trying new things , even as many other artists have gotten stuck retreading tired formulas. “Who cares?” he says now. “It’s going to go, or it’s not. You only have one life, bro. Just do shit.”

But he does offer a few details about the six-month recording process in Texas, New York, and elsewhere, which he says was “fun” at every juncture. At times, he played the work in progress for “heavy hitters” like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, A$AP Rocky, Drake, and Tyler, the Creator. “Everyone was ecstatic,” he says, “which made me feel good.”

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Do you think hip-hop could be more accepting of younger artists as they learn and grow? I don’t know. I don’t really care either. Who cares? I don’t need acceptance from nobody. People seek too much validation.

What was the initial catalyst for you to start this album? It was a phone call with Tyler that made me act on it. I always wanted to do it, but that was the battery.

What was the dynamic of that phone call? Were you like, “I want to explore something,” and he was like, “Go for it”? I don’t fully remember, but he was very motivating and inspiring. I didn’t tell him my ideas, but it was more so, “Whatever it is in your heart and in your mind that you want to do, do it. And do it fully, don’t shortcut it. Don’t cut any corners.”

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You’ve referenced psychedelics in interviews. How big a factor was that in the recording process? None. Zero. I can’t record music on drugs. I have to be fully sober. But I’ve done it enough times to know what I want. I don’t have to be high to make it sound high.

You said growing up you listened to all types of music. Did you ever hear the stigma of “That’s white-people music”? Yeah, of course. I don’t give a fuck, bro. It’s so hard to affect me or offend me. I do what I want to do. You feel me? People say this album is white-people music. Who cares, man? What is white-people music?

You’ve said you made this in part because you “wanted to be taken seriously as an artist and not just a SoundCloud rapper, not just a mumble rapper.” What would you say to people who feel like SoundCloud rappers and mumble rappers deserve to be taken as seriously as any other artists? See, that’s the thing. I can’t speak for nobody else. I’m not some spokesman for the people. I’m not vouching for anyone else’s work ethic or creativity, only mine. I want to be taken seriously. I’m not no mumble rap. I’m not just some SoundCloud rapper. I’m not speaking on all SoundCloud rappers. I’m speaking on me, you feel me? I want to make that apparent. This is for me, because everybody don’t have that work ethic. Everyone ain’t going to put the hours in to understand a new genre and how to execute something the right way. 

“See, that’s the thing. I can’t speak for nobody else. I’m not speaking on all SoundCloud rappers. I’m speaking on me, you feel me? This is for me, because everybody don’t have that work ethic.”

You’ve said you had a period of trying to prove you can rap. How do you feel about those efforts now? I love it, man. They made me a man. They made me strong. They made me care more about the craft — because I do. They made me want to learn, be better, sharpen my sword.

Did it ever get to a point with that stigma where it was hard to navigate your career? I don’t think nothing’s hard in life. It just took work and effort, and I still feel like I got more work to put in when it comes to rap and how people perceive me. I care less, though.

How much does the dynamic that you’re talking about here have to do with the stigma against rappers when it comes to award shows and radio play and festivals?  For me, that’s zero. I don’t care about none of that shit. I just make all types of music. It has nothing to do with the fruits and labors that don’t come with being a rapper, none of that. I like to make all music. That’s all it is, totally. It ain’t got nothing to do with not getting the love or respect or not being invited to an award show.

Going forward with your creative process, do you feel like you’ll have that motivation with every album you make, to prove something to a certain audience? Not necessarily. I didn’t make this album to prove that I could. I also want to be taken seriously. But I didn’t make it like, “Oh, man, I need them to take me serious. Let me make this type of album.” I just wanted to make a great album, and I felt like personally, I could do it better this way than if I made a rap album. 

How are things going with your label, Concrete Boyz? That’s next for me. That’s all I care about right now. That’s where we are every day, in the studio getting established together. We got some special artists, and they’re fresh faces. I want to make sure when we drop this, it’s hot, because they’re fire and it’s fresh. You’re gonna hear some fresh sounds. That’s my next project, in the summertime. 

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Have you always been discerning about how much you put yourself out there? No. I got 1,000 interviews on the internet. I hate it. I was young. I didn’t know nothing. Back then, I was trying to be the spokesman for the new generation because no one else wanted to talk. I felt, “I’m going to stand up. I’m going to speak.” But [now] I don’t speak for nobody but me.

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Music Features

Lil yachty's delightfully absurd path to 'let's start here'.

Matthew Ramirez

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 29: Lil Yachty performs on the Stage during day 2 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Rich Fury/Getty Images hide caption

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 29: Lil Yachty performs on the Stage during day 2 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.

Lil Yachty often worked better as an idea than a rapper. The late-decade morass of grifters like Lil Pump, amidst the self-serious reign of Future and Drake (eventual Yachty collaborators, for what it's worth), created a demand for something lighter, someone charismatic, a throwback to a time in the culture when characters like Biz Markie could score a hit or Kool Keith could sustain a career in one hyper-specific lane of rap fandom. Yachty fulfilled the role: His introduction to many was through a comedy skit soundtracked by his viral breakout "1 Night," which tapped into the song's deadpan delivery and was the perfect complement for its sleepy charm. The casual fan knows him best for a pair of collaborations in 2016: as one-half of the zeitgeist-defining single "Broccoli" with oddity D.R.A.M., or "iSpy," a top-five pop hit with backpack rapper Kyle. Yachty embodied the rapper as larger-than-life character — from his candy-colored braids to his winning smile — and while the songs themselves were interesting, you could be forgiven for wondering if there was anything substantial behind the fun, the grounds for the start of a long career.

As if to supplement his résumé, Yachty seemed to emerge as a multimedia star. Perhaps you remember him in a Target commercial; heard him during the credits for the Saved by the Bell reboot; spotted him on a cereal box; saw him co-starring in the ill-fated 2019 sequel to How High . TikTok microcelebrity followed. Then the sentences got more and more absurd: Chef Boyardee jingle with Donny Osmond; nine-minute video cosplaying as Oprah; lead actor in an UNO card game movie. Somewhere in a cross-section of pop-culture detritus and genuine hit-making talent is where Yachty resides. That he didn't fade away immediately is a testament to his charm as a cultural figure; Yachty satisfied a need, and in his refreshingly low-stakes appeal, you could imagine him as an MTV star in an alternate universe. Move the yardstick of cultural cachet from album sales to likes and he emerges as a generation-defining persona, if not musician.

Early success and exposure can threaten anyone's career, none so much as those connected to the precarious phenomenon of SoundCloud rap. Yachty's initial peak perhaps seeded his desire years later to sincerely pursue artistry with Let's Start Here , an album fit for his peculiar trajectory, because throughout the checks from Sprite and scolding Ebro interviews he never stopped releasing music, seemingly to satisfy no one other than himself and the generation of misfits that he seemed to be speaking for.

But to oversell him as a personality belittles his substantial catalog. Early mixtapes like Lil Boat and Summer Songs 2 , which prophetically brought rap tropes and pop sounds into harmony, were sustained by the teenage artist's commitment to selling the vibe of a track as he warbled its memorable hook. It was perhaps his insistence to demonstrate that he could rap, too, that most consistently pockmarked his output during this period. These misses were the necessary growing pains of a kid still finding his footing, and through time and persistence, a perceived weakness became a strength. Where his peers Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti found new ways to express themselves in music, Yachty dug in his heels and became Quality Control's oddball representative, acquitting himself on guest appearances and graduating from punchline rapper to respectable vet culminating in the dense and rewarding Lil Boat 3 from 2020, Yachty's last official album.

Which is why the buzzy, viral "Poland" from the end of 2022 hit different — Yachty tapped back into the same lively tenor of his early breakthroughs. The vibrato was on ten, the beat menaced and hummed like a broken heater, he rapped about taking cough syrup in Poland, it was over in under two minutes and endlessly replayable. Yachty has already lived a full career arc in seven years — from the 2016 king of the teens, to budding superstar, to pitchman, to regional ambassador. But following "Poland" with self-aware attempts at similar virality would be a mistake, and you can't pivot your way to radio stardom after a hit like that, unless you're a marketing genius like Lil Nas X. How does he follow up his improbable second chance to grab the zeitgeist?

#NowPlaying

Lil yachty, 'poland'.

Let's Start Here is Lil Yachty's reinvention, a born-again Artist's Statement with no rapping. It's billed as psychedelic rock but has a decidedly accessible sound — the sun-kissed warmth of an agreeable Tame Impala song, with bounce-house rhythms and woozy guitars in the mode of Magdalena Bay and Mac DeMarco (both of whom guest on the album) — something that's not quite challenging but satisfying nonetheless. Contrast with 2021's Michigan Boy Boat , where Yachty performed as tour guide through Michigan rap: His presence was auxiliary by function on that tape, as he ceded the floor to Babyface Ray, Sada Baby and Rio Da Yung OG; it was tantalizing curation, if not a work of his own personal artistry. It's tempting to cast Let's Start Here as another act of roleplay, but what holds this album together is Yachty's magnetic pull. Whether or not you're someone who voluntarily listens to the Urban Outfitters-approved slate of artists he's drawing upon, his star presence is what keeps you engaged here.

Yachty has been in the studio recording this album since 2021, and the effort is tangible. He didn't chase "Poland" with more goofy novelties, but he also didn't spit this record out in a month. Opener (and highlight) "The Black Seminole" alternates between Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix-lite references. It's definitely a gauntlet thrown even if halfway through you start to wonder where Yachty is. The album's production team mostly consists of Patrick Wemberly (formerly of Chairlift), Jacob Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra), Jeremiah Raisen (who's produced for Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira and Drake) and Yachty himself, who's established himself as a talented producer since his early days. (MGMT's Ben Goldwasser also contributed.) The group does a formidable job composing music that is dense and layered enough to register as formally unconventional, if not exactly boundary-pushing. Yachty frequently reaches for his "Poland"-inspired uber-vibrato, which adds a bewitching texture to the songs, placing him in the center of the track. Other moments that work: the spoken-word interlude "Failure," thanks to contemplative strumming from Alex G, and "The Ride," a warm slow-burn that coasts on a Jam City beat, giving the album a lustrous Night Slugs moment. "I've Officially Lost Vision" thrashes like Yves Tumor.

Yet the best songs on Let's Start Here push Yachty's knack for hooks and snaking melodies to the fore and rely less on studio fireworks — the laid-back groove of "Running Out of Time," the mournful post-punk of "Should I B?" and the slow burn of "Pretty," which features a bombastic turn from vocalist Foushee. That Yachty's vaunted indie collaborators were able to work in simpatico with him proves his left-of-center bonafides. It's a reminder that he's often lined his projects with successful non-rap songs, curios like "Love Me Forever" from Lil Boat 2 and "Worth It" from Nuthin' 2 Prove . That renders Let's Start Here a less startling turn than it may appear at first glance, and also underlines his recurring talent for making off-kilter pop music, a gift no matter the perceived genre.

At a listening event for the record, Yachty stated: "I created [this] because I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. Not just some SoundCloud rapper, not some mumble rapper. Not some guy that just made one hit," seemingly aware of the culture war within his own genre and his place along the spectrum of low- to highbrow. To be sure, whether conscious of it or not, this kind of mentality is dismissive of rap music as an artform, and also undermines the good music Yachty has made in the past. Holing up in the studio to make digestibly "weird" indie-rock with a cast of talented white people isn't intrinsically more artistic or valid than viral hits or a one-off like "Poland." But this statement scans less as self-loathing and more as a renewed confidence, a tribute to the album's collective vision. And people like Joe Budden have been saying "I don't think Yachty is hip-hop " since he started. So what if he wants to break rank now?

Lil Yachty entered the cultural stage at 18, and has grown up in public. It adds up that, now 25, he would internalize all the scrutiny he's received and wish to cement his artistry after a few thankless years rewriting the rules for young, emerging rappers. Let's Start Here may not be the transcendent psychedelic rock album that he seeks, but it is reflective of an era of genreless "vibes" music. Many young listeners likely embraced Yachty and Tame Impala simultaneously; it tracks he would want to bring these sounds together in a genuine attempt to reach a wider audience. Nothing about this album is cynical, but it is opportunistic, a creation in line with both a shameless mixed-media existence and his everchanging pop alchemy. The "genre" tag in streaming metadata means less than it ever has. Credit to Yachty for putting that knowledge to use.

• Music Artist

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

• Contact info
• 5 nominations

• Soundtrack ("Speed Me Up")

• Soundtrack ("Mamacita")

• Soundtrack ("In My Foreign")

• In Development

• Cole Hudson

Personal details

• Apple Music
• Little Miles
• 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
• August 23 , 1997
• Mableton, Georgia, USA
• How old is Lil Yachty?
• When was Lil Yachty born?
• Where was Lil Yachty born?

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Lil Yachty Launches Concrete Rekordz With Quality Control/HYBE, Shares Video for New Track

To celebrate the news, Concrete Rekordz released a music video for their track "Family Business."

Lil Yachty is officially running the show with a new venture under his belt, Concrete Rekordz.

The rapper, who once said "hip-hop is in a terrible place," is bringing some new stars into the genre, including Karrahbooo, DC2TRILL, Draft Day, and Camo!. The artists will also appear on Concrete Rekordz compilation album It’s Us Volume 1, scheduled to release on April 5. The artists were first introduced during Yachty's Field Trip Tour last year, which continues for the European leg this spring.

In addition to the news, Concrete Rekordz, also known as Concrete Boys, dropped a new track, "Family Business."

"Yachty has always had profound vision since the day we met and to see him take his curatorial magic and expand it to discover and enhance other artists is exciting to me," stated Quality Control Music COO and co-founder Kevin “Coach K” Lee in press materials.

“I’m excited to see Yachty step into the role of executive alongside being one of the most formidable creatives in the world with such an eye for talent," added QC CEO and co-founder Pierre “P” Thomas. "Karrahbooo is a star and they are all going to be the new wave of cool that can bring something different to the culture that is so badly needed.”

Check out music videos and an On the Radar cypher from the Concrete Rekordz roster below.

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Dr. Umar Explains to Lil Yachty Why He Should Stop Using N-Word

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Karrahbooo Claims She's Been "Silenced" Since Beefing With Lil Yachty

Karrahbooo is bigger than ever, though not for ideal reasons. The rapper decided to leave Concrete Boys, and despite things initially seeming cordial, the fallout has been messy. Secondhand accounts state that Karrahbooo was dissatisfied with Lil Yachty's leadership . Yachty didn't appreciate that, and proceeded to call out Karrahbooo on Instagram Live. Things died down after the IG Live blow up, but it looks like Karrahbooo is ready to put the past behind her.

The rapper hopped on Instagram Live on September 12. She clearly wanted to share more than she was saying, but she made it clear that there were two sides to her Lil Yachty feud. "There's two sides of the story," she asserted. "There's truth and there's cap." Karrahbooo started to get into the specifics of the truth and cap, but she cut herself off. "I've been silenced," she claimed. "Three months." She doesn't go into much detail about why she's been silenced. One gets the sense that the silence is close to being broken, though. The fact that Karrahbooo said anything at all is ample proof.

Read More: Karrahbooo Goes Off On Young Rich Mula For Trying To Book Her

Karrahbooo Thanked Fans For Their Continued Support

Karrahbooo went on IG Live earlier in the day and gave fans a more earnest side. She didn't mention Yachty by name, but she thanked the fans for continuing to support her throughout the feud. "Thank y'all, for coming to my Live," she stated. "Everything is fine, and I'm okay. Love y'all." It's the first time she has addressed the Lil Boat situation on video since the latter claimed to be her ghostwriter. Yachty even leaked the reference track for the On the Radar freestyle he said he wrote for Karrahbooo.

Karrahbooo challenged these claims with a written response via her own Instagram. She also made it clear that she didn't want anything more to do with the rapper or the Concrete Boys. "Put it on yo kid I ain’t write these songs miles," she wrote. "Stop bullying me big dawg I never said anything you letting random fans get in yo head man up." Hopefully Karrahbooo's Instagram Live is a sign of positive things to come for her career.

Read More: Lil Yachty Fan Screams "F**k KARRAHBOOO" During Moment Of Silence For Juice WRLD

• concrete boys