![]() But Yachty himself hangs onto the ideas he’s been struggling to articulate since 2017’s Teenage Emotions: loneliness, heartbreak, overcoming failure. The production always leans more indulgent than thrilling, more scattershot than conceptual. A less interesting artist would have been made anonymous by the polished sounds of producers like Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait, and pop songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, or had their voice warped by writing credits that bring together Mac DeMarco, Alex G, and, uh, Tory Lanez. It’s the same gift for versatility that’s made him a singular rapper: He bounces from style to style without losing his individuality. To Yachty’s credit, he gives the standout performance on a crowded project. Yachty, meanwhile, is working within a template that is already well-defined and commercially successful. ![]() In 2020, Yachty’s generational peers, Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti, released Eternal Atake and Whole Lotta Red: albums that pushed forward pre-existing sounds to the point of inimitability, showcases not only for the artists’ raps but their conceptual visions. It’s for the voting committees, for the suits for Questlove to shout him out as the future, for Ebro to invite him back on his radio show and say My bad, you’re dope. Never mind if you thought Lil Yachty was dope to start with: The goal of this album is to go beyond all expectations and rules for rappers.Īnd the big pivot is… a highly manicured and expensive blend of Tame Impala-style psych-rock, A24 synth-pop, loungey R&B, and Silk Sonic-esque funk, a sound so immediately appealing that it doesn’t feel experimental at all. The respect Yachty is chasing on Let’s Start Here. His immersion there felt earnest, though, like he was proving to himself that he could hang. If he weren’t, his year-long rebirth in the Michigan rap scene, which resulted in the good-not-great Michigan Boy Boat, would have been viewed solely as a cynical attempt to boost his rap bona fides. These days, Yachty is respected just fine within rap. Paak, subliminals from Kendrick and Cole-but that was years ago, and by now they’ve found new targets. A few artists more beholden to tradition did some finger-wagging- Pete Rock and Joe Budden, Vic Mensa and Anderson. When Yachty first got on, a certain corner of rap fandom saw his marble-mouthed enunciation and unwillingness to drool over hip-hop history as symbols of what was ruining the genre they claimed to love. What’s sour about Yachty’s statement isn’t the idea that he wants to be taken seriously as an artist, but the question of who he wants to be taken seriously by. If anything, the 25-year-old Yachty-as one of the few rappers of his generation able to walk through the front door anyway because of his typically Gushers-sweet sound and innocently youthful beaded braid look-might be the wrong messenger. ![]() Pop culture is powerfully influenced by hip-hop, that is until the rappers get too close and the hands reach for the pearls. Rap fans, including myself, don’t want to hear it, but the reality is that in large slices of music and pop culture, “rapper” is thrown around with salt on the tongue.
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