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With ‘Let’s Start Here,’ Lil Yachty Emerges as Music’s Boldest Creative Director

By Jeff Ihaza

Lil Yachty is rich. The 25-year-old musician posts TikToks featuring exotic Italian furniture, and goes vintage shopping with Drake. By the time he graduated high school, he’d already bought his mom a house. He caused a mild international incident with his viral hit “Poland,” a loosie released late last year in which he croons, with impossible sincerity, about bringing illegal pharmaceuticals into Poland. One couldn’t imagine a more charmed Gen Z existence. And yet, on “:(failure(:,” an early interlude from his left-turn of a new album, Let’s Start Here, he says that he’s “seen failure a few times/More recently than before, actually.”

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Maturation is a central theme of the album. You can hear the inspiration of Tame Impala ’s anxious midlife musing on “the ride-,” featuring rap experimentalist Teezo Touchdown. The song’s lush, psych-rock production makes for a fitting landscape. We’re bearing witness to a childhood’s end, as both howl into the void. There is, indeed, a lot of howling on the album. 

Oohs and ahhs stretch to the heavens with intention — like on standout “pRETTY,” which is already proving to be a hit on TikTok, and sounds like a slowed bedroom cut from the cult label Naked Music. Percussion rumbles gently over the staggering two-step, while a sensual, otherworldly warble breaks through the clouds like a ray of sunshine in spring. 

Maybe We Know a Little Too Much About Lil Yachty

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You could call Let’s Start Here a rebuke of the notion that listeners have abandoned the full-length album. The record’s tight 57 minutes feel as cohesive a project as any artist has released in the streaming era. Yachty’s genuine adoration of his musical inspirations is like the Gen Z alchemy of Pinkpantheress, able to turn familiar source material into something entirely new. 

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Lil Yachty

Lil Yachty On His Big Rock Pivot: ‘F-ck Any of the Albums I Dropped Before This One’

With his adventurous, psychedelic new album, 'Let's Start Here,' he's left mumble rap behind — and finally created a project he's proud of.

By Lyndsey Havens

Lyndsey Havens

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Lil Yachty, presented by Doritos, will perform at Billboard Presents The Stage at SXSW on March 16 .

Lil Yachty

Lil Yachty: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

Someone has sparked a blunt in the planetarium.

It may be a school night, but no one has come to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J., to learn. Instead, the hundreds of fans packed into the domed theater on Jan. 26 have come to hear Lil Yachty’s latest album as he intended: straight through — and with an open mind. Or, as Yachty says with a mischievous smile: “I hope y’all took some sh-t.”

For the next 57 minutes and 16 seconds, graphics of exploding spaceships, green giraffes and a quiet road through Joshua Tree National Park accompany Yachty’s sonically divergent — and at this point, unreleased — fifth album, Let’s Start Here . For a psychedelic rock project that plays like one long song, the visual aids not only help attendees embrace the bizarre, but also function as a road map for Yachty’s far-out trip, signaling that there is, in fact, a tracklist.

It’s a night the artist has arguably been waiting for his whole career — to finally release an album he feels proud of. An album that was, he says, made “from scratch” with all live instrumentation. An album that opens with a nearly seven-minute opus, “the BLACK seminole.,” that he claims he had to fight most of his collaborative team to keep as one, not two songs. An album that, unlike his others, has few features and is instead rich with co-writers like Mac DeMarco, Nick Hakim, Alex G and members of MGMT, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Chairlift. An album he believes will finally earn him the respect and recognition he has always sought.

Sitting in a Brooklyn studio in East Williamsburg not far from where he made most of Let’s Start Here in neighboring Greenpoint, it’s clear he has been waiting to talk about this project in depth for some time. Yachty is an open book, willing to answer anything — and share any opinion. (Especially on the slice of pizza he has been brought, which he declares “tastes like ass.”) Perhaps his most controversial take at the moment? “F-ck any of the albums I dropped before this one.”

Lil Yachty

His desire to move on from his past is understandable. When Yachty entered the industry in his mid-teens with his 2016 major-label debut, the Lil Boat mixtape, featuring the breakout hit “One Night,” he found that along with fame came sailing the internet’s choppy waters. Skeptics often took him to task for not knowing — or caring, maybe — about rap’s roots, and he never shied away from sharing hot takes on Twitter. With his willingness and ability to straddle pop and hip-hop, Yachty produced music he once called “bubble-gum trap” (he has since denounced that phrase) that polarized audiences and critics. Meanwhile, his nonchalant delivery got him labeled as a mumble rapper — another identifier he was never fond of because it felt dismissive of his talent.

“There’s a lot of kids who haven’t heard any of my references,” he continues. “They don’t know anything about Bon Iver or Pink Floyd or Black Sabbath or James Brown. I wanted to show people a different side of me — and that I can do anything, most importantly.”

Let’s Start Here is proof. Growing up in Atlanta, the artist born Miles McCollum was heavily influenced by his father, a photographer who introduced him to all kinds of sounds. Yachty, once easily identifiable by his bright red braids, found early success by posting songs like “One Night” to SoundCloud, catching the attention of Kevin “Coach K” Lee, co-founder/COO of Quality Control Music, now home to Migos, Lil Baby and City Girls. In 2015, Coach K began managing Yachty, who in summer 2016 signed a joint-venture deal with Motown, Capitol Records and Quality Control.

“Yachty was me when I was 18 years old, when I signed him. He was actually me,” says Coach K today. (In 2021, Adam Kluger, whose clients include Bhad Bhabie, began co-managing Yachty.) “All the eclectic, different things, we shared that with each other. He had been wanting to make this album from the first day we signed him. But you know — coming as a hip-hop artist, you have to play the game.”

Yachty played it well. To date, he has charted 17 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 , including two top 10 hits for his features on DRAM’s melodic 2016 smash “Broccoli” and Kyle’s 2017 pop-rap track “iSpy.” His third-highest-charting entry arrived unexpectedly last year: the 93-second “Poland,” a track Yachty recorded in about 10 minutes where his warbly vocals more closely resemble singing than rapping. ( Let’s Start Here collaborator SADPONY saw “Poland” as a temperature check that proved “people are going to like this Yachty.”)

Beginning with 2016’s Lil Boat mixtape, all eight of Yachty’s major-label-released albums and mixtapes have charted on the Billboard 200 . Three have entered the top 10, including Let’s Start Here , which debuted and peaked at No. 9. And while Yachty has only scored one No. 1 album before ( Teenage Emotions topped Rap Album Sales), Let’s Start Here debuted atop three genre charts: Top Rock & Alternative Albums , Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums .

“It feels good to know that people in that world received this so well,” says Motown Records vp of A&R Gelareh Rouzbehani. “I think it’s a testament to Yachty going in and saying, ‘F-ck what everyone thinks. I’m going to create something that I’ve always wanted to make — and let us hope the world f-cking loves it.’ ”

Yet despite Let’s Start Here ’s many high-profile supporters, some longtime detractors and fans alike were quick to criticize certain aspects of it, from its art — Yachty quote-tweeted one remark , succinctly replying, “shut up” — to the music itself. Once again, he found himself facing another tidal wave of discourse. But this time, he was ready to ride it. “This release,” Kluger says, “gave him a lot of confidence.”

“I was always kind of nervous to put out music, but now I’m on some other sh-t,” Yachty says. “It was a lot of self-assessing and being very real about not being happy with where I was musically, knowing I’m better than where I am. Because the sh-t I was making did not add up to the sh-t I listened to.

“I just wanted more,” he continues. “I want to be remembered. I want to be respected.”

Last spring, Lil Yachty gathered his family, collaborators and team at famed Texas studio complex Sonic Ranch.

“I remember I got there at night and drove down because this place is like 30 miles outside El Paso,” Coach K says. “I walked in the room and just saw all these instruments and sh-t, and the vibe was just so ill. And I just started smiling. All the producers were in the room, his assistant, his dad. Yachty comes in, puts the album on. We got to the second song, and I told everybody, ‘Stop the music.’ I walked over to him and just said, ‘Man, give me a hug.’ I was like, ‘Yachty, I am so proud of you.’ He came into the game bold, but [to make] this album, you have to be very bold. And to know that he finally did it, it was overwhelming.”

SADPONY (aka Jeremiah Raisen) — who executive-produced Let’s Start Here and, in doing so, spent nearly eight straight months with Yachty — says the time at Sonic Ranch was the perfect way to cap off the months of tunnel vision required while making the album in Brooklyn. “That was new alone,” says Yachty. “I’ve recorded every album in Atlanta at [Quality Control]. That was the first time I recorded away from home. First time I recorded with a new engineer,” Miles B.A. Robinson, a Saddle Creek artist.

Lil Yachty

Yachty couldn’t wait to put it out, and says he turned it in “a long time ago. I think it was just label sh-t and trying to figure out the right time to release it.” For Coach K, it was imperative to have the physical product ready on release date, given that Yachty had made “an experience” of an album. And lately, most pressing plants have an average turnaround time of six to eight months.

Fans, however, were impatient. On Christmas, one month before Let’s Start Here would arrive, the album leaked online. It was dubbed Sonic Ranch . “Everyone was home with their families, so no one could pull it off the internet,” recalls Yachty. “That was really depressing and frustrating.”

Then, weeks later, the album art, tracklist and release date also leaked. “My label made a mistake and sent preorders to Amazon too early, and [the site] posted it,” Yachty says. “So I wasn’t able to do the actual rollout for my album that I wanted to. Nothing was a secret anymore. It was all out. I had a whole plan that I had to cancel.” He says the biggest loss was various videos he made to introduce and contextualize the project, all of which “were really weird … [But] I wasn’t introducing it anymore. People already knew.” Only one, called “Department of Mental Tranquility,” made it out, just days before the album.

Yachty says he wasn’t necessarily seeking a mental escape before making Let’s Start Here , but confesses that acid gave him one anyway. “I guess maybe the music went along with it,” he says. The album title changed four or five times, he says, from Momentary Bliss (“It was meant to take you away from reality … where you’re truly listening”) to 180 Degrees (“Because it’s the complete opposite of anything I’ve ever done, but people were like, ‘It’s too on the nose’ ”) to, ultimately, Let’s Start Here — the best way, he decided, to succinctly summarize where he was as an artist: a seven-year veteran, but at 25 years old, still eager to begin a new chapter.

Taking inspiration from Dark Side , Yachty relied on three women’s voices throughout the album, enlisting Fousheé, Justine Skye and Diana Gordon. Otherwise, guest vocals are spare. Daniel Caesar features on album closer “Reach the Sunshine.,” while the late Bob Ross (of The Joy of Painting fame) has a historic posthumous feature on “We Saw the Sun!”

Rouzbehani tells Billboard that Ross’ estate declined Yachty’s request at first: “I think a big concern of theirs was that Yachty is known as a rapper, and Bob Ross and his brand are very clean. They didn’t want to associate with anything explicit.” But Yachty was adamant, and Rouzbehani played the track for Ross’ team and also sent the entire album’s lyrics to set the group at ease. “With a lot of back-and-forth, we got the call,” she says. “Yachty is the first artist that has gotten a Bob Ross clearance in history.”

Lil Yachty

From the start, Coach K believed Let’s Start Here would open lots of doors for Yachty — and ultimately, other artists, too. Questlove may have said it best, posting the album art on Instagram with a lengthy caption that read in part: “this lp might be the most surprising transition of any music career I’ve witnessed in a min, especially under the umbrella of hip hop … Sh-t like this (envelope pushing) got me hyped about music’s future.”

Recently, Lil Yachty held auditions for an all-women touring band. “It was an experience for like Simon Cowell or Randy [Jackson],” he says, offering a simple explanation for the choice: “In my life, women are superheroes.”

And according to Yachty, pulling off his show will take superhuman strength: “Because the show has to match the album. It has to be big.” As eager as he was to release Let’s Start Here , he’s even more antsy to perform it live — but planning a tour, he says, required gauging the reaction to it. “This is so new for me, and to be quite honest with you, the label [didn’t] know how [the album] would do,” he says. “Also, I haven’t dropped an album in like three years. So we don’t even know how to plan a tour right now because it has been so long and my music is so different.”

While Yachty’s last full-length studio album, Lil Boat 3 , arrived in 2020, he released the Michigan Boy Boat mixtape in 2021, a project as reverential of the state’s flourishing hip-hop scenes in Detroit and Flint as Let’s Start Here is of its psych-rock touchstones. And though he claims he doesn’t do much with his days, his recent accomplishments, both musical and beyond, suggest otherwise. He launched his own cryptocurrency, YachtyCoin, at the end of 2020; signed his first artist, Draft Day, to his Concrete Boyz label at the start of 2021; invested in the Jewish dating app Lox Club; and launched his own line of frozen pizza, Yachty’s Pizzeria, last September. (He has famously declared he has never eaten a vegetable; at his Jersey City listening event, there was an abundance of candy, doughnut holes and Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts.)

But there are only two things that seem to remotely excite him, first and foremost of which is being a father. As proud as he is of Let’s Start Here , he says it comes in second to having his now 1-year-old daughter — though he says with a laugh that she “doesn’t really give a f-ck” about his music yet. “I haven’t played [this album] for her, but her mom plays her my old stuff,” he continues. “The mother of my child is Dominican and Puerto Rican, so she loves Selena — she plays her a lot . [We watch] the Selena movie with Jennifer Lopez a sh-t ton and a lot of Disney movie sh-t, like Frozen , Lion King and that type of vibe.”

Aside from being a dad, he most cares about working with other artists. Recently, he flew eight of his biggest fans — most of whom he has kept in touch with for years — to Atlanta. He had them over, played Let’s Start Here , took them to dinner and bowling, introduced them to his mom and dad, and then showed them a documentary he made for the album. (He’s not sure if he’ll release it.) One of the fans is an aspiring rapper; naturally, the two made a song together.

Lil Yachty

Yachty wants to keep working with artists and producers outside of hip-hop, mentioning the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and even sharing his dream of writing a ballad for Elton John. (“I know I could write him a beautiful song.”) With South Korean music company HYBE’s recent purchase of Quality Control — a $300 million deal — Yachty’s realm of possibility is bigger than ever.

But he’s not ruling out his genre roots. Arguably, Let’s Start Here was made for the peers and heroes he played it for first — and was inspired by hip-hop’s chameleons. “I would love to do a project with Tyler [The Creator],” says Yachty. “He’s the reason I made this album. He’s the one who told me to do it, just go for it. He’s so confident and I have so much respect for him because he takes me seriously, and he always has.”

Penske Media Corp. is the largest shareholder of SXSW ; its brands are official media partners of SXSW.

Lil Yachty

This story originally appeared in the March 11, 2023, issue of Billboard.

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Lil Yachty’s new psych-rock album features contributions from Mac DeMarco, Alex G and more

Chairlift's Patrick Wimberly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra bassist Jacob Portrait, MGMT's Ben Goldwasser and Magdalena Bay also have production and songwriting credits on the album

Mac DeMarco, Lil Yachty, Alex G

Last week, Lil Yachty  released his first studio album in nearly three years, a record titled ‘Let’s Start Here’ that makes a major departure from his usual trap-pop stylings.

  • READ MORE: Lil Yachty – ‘Michigan Boy Boat’ review: Atlanta rapper heads to Michigan to showcase inter-state rap unity

The album – which follows on from 2020’s ‘Lil Boat 3’ album, as well as 2021’s ‘Michigan Boy Boat’ mixtape – draws heavily from psychedelic rock and pop, and features some recognisable names from the indie world in its credits list.

Much of ‘Let’s Start Here’ was produced by Chairlift ‘s Patrick Wimberly, brothers Justin and Jeremiah Raisen and Unknown Mortal Orchestra bassist Jacob Portrait. British producer and DJ Jack Latham (aka Jam City) helped produce three of the album’s tracks, while synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay have a production credit on ‘Running Out Of Time’.

Slacker-pop king Mac DeMarco is credited as a writer on two tracks – ‘Drive Me Crazy!’ and ‘Failure’. The former also features a songwriting credit for MGMT ‘s Ben Goldwasser, while Alex G and Nikolas Hakim are credited on the latter. Guest vocalists on the album include Daniel Caesar , Fousheé , Teezo Touchdown , Justine Skye and Diana Gordon.

Yachty teased ‘Let’s Start Here’ in January 2022 , when Atlanta-based jewellery store Icebox shared a video of the rapper’s visit to the shop. “My new album is a non-rap album,” he said in footage captured at the store. “It’s alternative.”

Yachty added that he’d “always wanted to” make an alternative album, but had recently “met all these amazing musicians and producers” to collaborate with. He continued: “It’s like a psychedelic alternative project. It’s different. It’s all live instrumentation… I’ve changed my dynamic… I’m creating music a whole lot differently.”

Recommended

Earlier, in late 2021, Yachty signalled his move into psychedelic rock territory when he appeared on a remix of Tame Impala ‘s ‘Breathe Deeper’, which appeared on a deluxe version of the band’s album ‘The Slow Rush’ .

In March, Lil Yachty will perform at this year’s edition of Rolling Loud California. This year’s festival will take place between March 3 and 5 at Hollywood Park, headlined by Future , Travis Scott and Playboi Carti .

  • Related Topics
  • Daniel Caesar
  • Mac DeMarco
  • Magdalena Bay
  • Teezo Touchdown
  • Unknown Mortal Orchestra

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

Lil Yachty attends Wicked Featuring 21 Savage at Forbes Arena at Morehouse College on October 19 2022 in Atlanta Georgia.

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's 'Poland'

Lil Yachty Enlisted An MGMT Member And Many Other Psychedelic Collaborators To Help Bring His New Album To Life

Flisadam Pointer

Fans are raving about Lil Yachty’s new album, Let’s Start Here . To some, the departure from his signature rap sound to the project’s psychedelic alternative rock core came as a surprise, but to the rapper and his die-hard fans, this was to be expected .

A year ago, as the musician discussed what he had planned for his next official studio project, he plainly told Atlanta jewelry store Icebox listeners should brace themselves because it would be “a non-rap album.”

Yachty went on to gush about the creative direction saying, “It’s alternative, it’s sick! I’ve always wanted to [do one], but now I’ve met all these amazing musicians and producers. It’s like a psychedelic-alternative project. It’s different, and it’s all live instrumentation. I’ve changed my entire dynamic. I’m telling you, with this album and on, I’m creating music a whole lot differently.”

Fast forward to today, and Let’s Start Here is available across streaming platforms, and the list of the musicians and producers that he worked with has been revealed. While Lil Yachty co-produced the entire album, the project features a list of heavy hitter guest producers, including Justin Raisen, Sad Pony, Patrick Wimberly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait, Nick Hakim, Magdalena Bay, and Jam City.

As far as writing credit goes, Lil Yachty has been the go-to rap pen for the new wave of rappers including the City Girls, but artists Mac DeMarco and Alex G are also given co-writing credit. During the initial announcement, Yachty did not list any guest vocal features. Still, after listening to the album, music buffs will recognize recording artists Foushée, Diana Gordon, Teezo Touchdown, and Justine Skye all made an appearance on it despite their names not being listed in the titles.

Details about the featured instrumentalist featured on the project are still being revealed, but one standout musical guest includes MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser, who played the keyboard on the album.

When discussing the inspiration behind the album and his robust approach, Yachty sternly replied, “I wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper. Not some mumble rapper, not just some guy that made one hit.”

View the official tracklist with unlisted guests added below.

1. “The Black Seminole” 2. “The Ride” Feat. Teezo Touchdown 3. “Running Out of Time” Feat. Justine Skye 4. “Pretty” Feat. Fousheé 5. “Failure” 6. “The Zone” Feat. Justine Skye 7. “We Saw the Sun!” 8. “Drive Me Crazy!” Feat. Diana Gordon 9. “I’ve Officially Lost Vision!!!!” Feat. Diana Gordon 10. “Say Something” 11. “Paint the Sky” 12. “Should I B?” 13. “The Alchemist” Feat. Fousheé 14. “Reach the Sunshine” Feat. Daniel Caesar

Let’s Start Here is out now via Quality Control. Get it here .

The Best New Hip-Hop This Week

The Chronicle

Lil Yachty made a psychedelic rock album and it’s pretty good

yachty new album reddit

Lil Yachty is pressing restart. “Let’s Start Here” is his fifth studio album and as the name implies, it marks the beginning of a new era — one that came out of nowhere. Last autumn, Yachty released his hit single “Poland,” which he described as “just trolling.” “Poland” is addictively jarring and hypnotically catching — and it leaves the listener wanting more. But “Let’s Start Here” is a departure from “Poland,” infusing psychedelic rock with soul. The end result is an abrupt pivot away from “Poland” or “Lil Boat,” and, despite a few rough edges, was a genre-transcending mishmash that shows off Yachty’s versatility. 

The album starts off with a bang with “the BLACK seminole.,” featuring lush guitars and Yachty’s autotuned singing. While Auto-Tune sometimes gets a bad rap, I found that it complimented the instrumentals of the song. Yachty uses his vocals to paint a picture of the Black Seminoles, an Afro-Indigenous group comprised of descendants of Seminole people and freed slaves. Yachty meticulously crafts this scene as a metaphor to discuss his coming-of-age, which is paralleled by the gradual evolution of his sound. It’s a soulful start to the album, setting itself apart from Yachty’s past work right away.

Yachty continues his metaphorical storytelling on “the ride-” where he likens his fame to a terrifying ride, singing on the chorus “Don't ask no questions on the ride/ Making eye contact is suicide/ When I'm alone with my thoughts, I'm terrified/ that's why I need you here, just by my side.” The guitars once again carry the song to enormous heights, and the chorus makes for a catchy earworm. The following song “running out of time” sees Yachty and Justine Skye opt for a more pop-oriented sound. Except for the anthemic chorus, Yachty’s vocals here don’t mesh particularly well with the guitars.

My favorite song on this album, hands down, is “pRETTy.” As soon as you press play, the most magical instrumentals leave your speakers, granting free real estate for one of the most euphoric songs to reside in your head for life. The chorus capitalizes on the trippy autotuned vocals that distinguished “Poland,” with Fousheé’s hypnotic vocals complementing it in the end.

It should be clear that this album’s greatest strong suit is its instrumentals. That’s not to say that the vocals or lyricism are bad, because nothing could be further from the truth. However, the tracks where the instrumentals take a backseat are the weaker tracks of the album. For example, “:(failure(:” operates more as a spoken word piece, despite being produced by as accomplished a musician as Mac DeMarco. What Yachty says on the track isn’t particularly groundbreaking; he speaks about the power of perspective in one’s own situations: “When someone broke into my house I felt like someone certainly needed more than I did, these things are replaceable,” he croons. I think poverty is a little more complicated than that.

He concludes the track by preaching that failure is not a negative thing, but rather something that should motivate you. That sounds like the type of thing you’d see on a poster at your grandma’s house. There are many factors of failure and setbacks that go beyond wealth and fame, so I’m not sure that this message is necessarily universal. 

So I do think that the album grinds to a halt when Yachty lets the instrumentals take a backseat. Luckily, however, that rarely happens. “Let’s Start Here” allows itself to experiment, resulting in energizing songs like “IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!” and psychedelic-soul bangers like “sAy sOMETHINg.” Daniel Caesar’s vocals fit perfectly on the final track, “REACH THE SUNSHINE,” allowing the album to end on a definite high note.

I love when artists go outside of their comfort zone because such projects allow artists to create their most impactful work. Being largely unfamiliar with the genre of psychedelic rock, “Let’s Start Here” provides me with the perfect starting point, and I’m sure the same can be said about many other listeners. Yachty truly created something special with this project, and if “Let’s Start Here” is just the beginning, then I am very excited to see where he ends up.

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Lil Yachty Delivers New Psychedelic Rock Album ‘Let’s Start Here.’

Mail

Lil Yachty’s new album, Let’s Start Here, continues to further the star’s reputation as an innovative savant. The new album is 15 tracks in length, delivering a new experience for fans.

yachty new album reddit

Let’s Start Here was crafted in areas ranging from El Paso to Brooklyn, with Lil Yachty immersing himself in day and night sessions. The result is a Psychedelic Alternative album executive produced by SADPONY. The album is influenced by Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon and experiential psychedelic journeys.

Ahead of the album, Yachty released a skit titled “Department of Mental Tranquility.” In the skit, Yachty strolled a hallway entering what would be the first step into the rest of his life. Playing multiple roles, Yachty was introduced to his upcoming float experience in a sweltering room until it overcomes his body, and he is directed to room 10. What you hear is the result of that trip, double entendre, don’t even ask me how.

yachty new album reddit

You can see the skit and hear the full album below.

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‘Let’s Start Here’ is a reset for Lil Yachty’s sound

Lil Yachty reinvents his sound in “Let’s Start Here,” but his lyrics show that old habits die hard.

An illustration of a vinyl record in front of a maroon background. The record features images of seven people, all smiling.

Aaliya Luthra

Lil Yachty’s newest psychedelic-rock album features 14 tracks including “the BLACK seminole.” and “The Alchemist.”(Illustration by Aaliya Luthra)

Sandy Battulga , Music Editor February 2, 2023

Since the release of hit singles “One Night” and “Minnesota,” Lil Yachty has based his lucrative musical career on mumble rap, a genre often defined by its simple rhymes and prevalence on SoundCloud . Lil Yachty — whose real name is Miles Park McCollum — has maintained that being known as a SoundCloud rapper is not enough for him. 

“I’m not a rapper — I’m an artist,” he said to The New York Times in a 2016 interview . “And I’m more than an artist. I’m a brand.” 

In his new album “Let’s Start Here,” Lil Yachty breaks out of the constraints of SoundCloud mumble rap once and for all. Sound-wise, the album is rooted in psychedelic rock. The first track, “the BLACK seminole.,” has a reverberating bass line that sweeps across the entire song, providing a syrupy tone that coats the rest of the album. Lil Yachty has cited Pink Floyd as a major inspiration for this album. This influence is especially evident in “the BLACK seminole.,” which features a virtuosic guitar solo, fast-paced synthesizer melody and epic vocal aria. 

This album experiments with composition and ambient soundscapes in an intriguing way. The fifth track, “:(failure(:,” showcases cavernous drones and guitar chords, over which Lil Yachty speaks, ruminating on failure and what it’s like to be “rich and famous.” The song was written in part by Alex G and Mac DeMarco, so it has a psychedelic and almost spiritual sound. For every serene moment in “Let’s Start Here,” however, “IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!” is a track filled with the chaos to match. The song touches on classical music, glitch music, hard rock and R&B — all within its runtime of just over five minutes. The song ends with an air of calm though, with a minute-long recording of a person walking outside, while a string section plays a meditative composition. “Let’s Start Here” leaves no stone unturned, exhibiting varying levels of intensity and pacing that make the album a feast for the ears.

Although the diversity of sound in the album is exciting and original, its lyrical content doesn’t break away from the mumble rap mold nearly as much as it could. Lil Yachty is known for his music’s refreshingly youthful and goofy perspective, but this lyric construction strategy seems out of place amid the more mature and developed sonic environment he established in “Let’s Start Here.” The album has the beginnings of a more introspective and thoughtful reflection on his life compared to his previous work, but Lil Yachty’s muscle memory of writing simple rhymes that revel in adolescence seems to overtake the full realization of a truly contemplative tone. 

“The Alchemist,” for example, is the second to last track, and it depicts two different characters: one cocky and one vulnerable. Lil Yachty returns to his background in mumble rap, energetically delivering lines like, “No need to brag, but I knew that I was built for this / I know now that most men would kill for this / Seamlessly, I walk around infamous” and “Papa made a young pimp, I’m outside / Southside, tote a shank, I’ma up rank / Lemonade pink seats in a fish tank.” These verses ooze the positivity that Lil Yachty is known for, providing a familiar tone to fans that were originally attracted to the artist because of his easy confidence. In between the rapper’s verses, though, R&B singer Fousheé provides a different attitude, softly singing, “It feels good / Don’t need no harm, this for shits and giggles / My taxes in on time” and “​​Up on my cloud / My feet don’t touch the ground / Don’t try to shoot me down / I’m only a human / It’s my first go ’round in this thing.” She articulates sentiments that Lil Yachty doesn’t usually associate himself with such as sensitivity and domesticity. This song offers listeners insight, if brief, into the Lil Yachty behind the curated brand he has built around himself. 

Most of the songs on the album revolve around a boyish infatuation with women, like in “WE SAW THE SUN!” Once again, the instrumentation is what keeps the listener’s attention. A hypnotic guitar introduces the track, and Lil Yachty’s voice is fragmented into a rhythmic accompaniment. The song ends with a snippet of Bob Ross speaking: “Just let your imagination run wild, let your heart be your guide / In the time you sit around worrying about it and trying to plan a painting, you could’ve completed a painting already.” But the lyrics of this track don’t measure up against the complexities of its composition. Lil Yachty’s verses are juvenile, still reflecting his past projects: “Few more drops up on your tongue / At night, too many that can’t be undone / Head spun, meanwhile, you’re done / Had a little too much fun / I cannot stop touching you / This just took my high to the moon.” 

Despite the lack of development in his lyricism, Lil Yachty has showcased incredible dexterity in shaping this album’s sonic landscape. The last track of “Let’s Start Here” indicates that more complex lyrics may be on the way. “REACH THE SUNSHINE” features Daniel Caesar, who starts the song off with an interpolation of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song.” “Staring in the mirror and what do I see? / A three-eyed man staring back at me / Two for the flesh and one for the soul / But where did man go? I’m tryna fill that hole,” the song drones. The track ends on the fourth note of the scale instead of the tonic, so it leaves the track — and the album — unresolved. The listener walks away craving more, but thankfully — as the title of this album suggests — this new era of Lil Yachty is just getting started.

Contact Sandy Battulga at [email protected] .

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Sandy is a sophomore double-majoring in comparative literature and social and cultural analysis. When she's not complaining about her love-hate relationship...

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The Best Lil Yachty Albums And Mixtapes, Ranked

Ranker Music

Which Lil Yachty albums do you think are the best? Below is the complete Lil Yachty discography, from his new album  Nuthin' 2 Prove to his first album Lil Boat . You can vote up more than one so feel free to base it on your favorite song or album as a whole. Despite being relatively new on the scene as compared to artists like Tyga, Lil Yachty already has quite an album list. With several hits like "One Night" off of Lil Boat and "66" off of Lil Boat 2 . 

Peruse the albums at your leisure because there is a lot to consider in the Lil Yachty mixtapes and albums list. He is known as a rapper, singer, songwriter and spans such genres as hip hop, trap and mumble rap. Have fun and vote up your favorites and see which ones are truly the best Lil Yachty albums.

Lil Boat

  • Quality Control, Capitol, Motown

1. Intro / Just Keep Swimming 2. Wanna Be Us (feat. TheGoodPerry) 3. Minnesota (feat. Quavo, Skippa da Flippa and Young Thug) 4. Not My Bro 5. Interlude 6. Good Day (feat. Skippa da Flippa) 7. Up Next 2 (feat. Big Brutha Chubba and Byou) 8. Run / Running 9. Never Switch Up 10. One Night 11. Out Late 12. F*cked Over 13. I'm Sorry (feat. TheGoodPerry) 14. We Did It (Positivity Song)

  • Release Date : 2016

Lil Boat 2

  • Capitol, Motown, Quality Control

1. Self Made 2. Boom! (feat. Ugly God) 3. Oops (feat. 2 Chainz and K Supreme) 4. Talk to Me Nice (feat. Quavo) 5. Get Money Bros. (feat. Tee Grizzley) 6. Count Me In 7. She Ready (feat. PnB Rock) 8. Love Me Forever 9. Das Cap 10. Pop Out (feat. JBands2Turnt) 11. NBAYoungBoat (feat. YoungBoy Never Broke Again) 12. Mickey (feat. Offset and Lil Baby) 13. FWM 14. Flex 15. Whole Lotta Guap 16. Baby Daddy (feat. Lil Pump and Offset) 17. 66 (feat. Trippie Redd)

Metacritic score: 53/100

  • Release Date : 2018

Nuthin' 2 Prove

Nuthin' 2 Prove

1. Gimmie My Respect 2. Get Dripped (feat. Playboi Carti) 3. Riley from the Boondocks 4. I'm the Mac 5. Yacht Club (feat. Juice Wrld) 6. SaintLaurentYSL (feat. Lil Baby) 7. We Outta Here! (feat. Young Nudy) 8. Who Want the Smoke? (feat. Cardi B and Offset) 9. Worth It 10. Everything Good, Everything Right 11. Next Up 12. Forever World (feat. Trippie Redd) 13. Nolia (feat. Kevin Gates) 14. Fallin in Luv (feat. Gunna) 15. Stoney

Metacritic score: 52/100

Summer Songs 2

Summer Songs 2

1. Intro (First Day of Summer) 2. For Hot 97 (feat. JBan$2Turnt, Byou and Big Brutha Chubba) 3. IDK 4. King of Teens 5. Shoot Out the Roof 6. Why? (Interlude) 7. Up Next 3 (feat. G Herbo) 8. DipSet (feat. Offset) 9. Life Goes On (feat. Cook LaFlare) 10. Yeah Yeah 11. Pretty (feat. TheGoodPerry) 12. Such Ease (feat. TheGoodPerry and Tyler Royale) 13. All In (feat. TheGoodPerry, Byou, Kay the Yacht, Big Brutha Chubba, Soop, JBan$2Turnt, Kodie Shane and K$upreme) 14. So Many People

Teenage Emotions

Teenage Emotions

1. Like a Star 2. DN Freestyle 3. Peek a Boo (feat. Migos) 4. Dirty Mouth 5. Harley 6. All Around Me (feat. YG and Kamaiyah) 7. Say My Name 8. All You Had to Say 9. Better (feat. Stefflon Don) 10. Forever Young (feat. Diplo) 11. Lady in Yellow 12. Moments in Time 13. Otha Sh*t (Interlude) 14. X Men (feat. Evander Griiim) 15. Bring It Back 16. Running With a Ghost (feat. Grace) 17. FYI (Know Now) 18. Priorities 19. No More 20. Made of Glass 21. Momma (Outro) (feat. Sonyae Elise)

Metacritic score: 63/100

  • Release Date : 2017
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  6. Lil Yachty Releases New Album 'Let's Start Here.'

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COMMENTS

  1. Have we come to a consensus about the new Lil Yachty album?

    A place for all psychedelic rock; classic, contemporary, experimental, or *something else altogether*. Have we come to a consensus about the new Lil Yachty album? Black Seminole is a really cool song. Some other cool moments on the album. I respect it but for the most part just it's not my bag personally.

  2. [FRESH ALBUM] Lil Yachty

    Imagine a show where he starts off with his rap hits, everyones jammin n shit. Then everything fades to black, theres a short intermission, a choir and band walk on stage and a whole new show starts with only Lets Start Here music. A good Touring band i hope, and i wonder how good yachty's vocals are unaided.

  3. What does the Juice comm think about Yachty's new album ...

    What does the Juice comm think about Yachty's new album 'Let's Start Here'? 198 votes, 104 comments. 212K subscribers in the JuiceWRLD community. A subreddit dedicated to the late rapper Juice WRLD (Jarad Anthony Higgins)….

  4. Review: Lil Yachty's 'Let's Start Here'

    With 'Let's Start Here,' Lil Yachty Emerges as Music's Boldest Creative Director The rapper and musician's ambitious left-turn incorporates experimental rock and jazz with near-flawless ...

  5. Lil Yachty's Rock Album 'Let's Start Here': Inside the Pivot

    Lil Yachty's 'Let's Start Here' surprised listeners with its sonic pivot to rock. Now, the rapper is reflecting on the confidence that it inspired.

  6. Lil Yachty

    Let's Start Here. is Lil Yachty's fifth studio album, it is a direct follow-up to his August 2021 mixtape BIRTHDAY MIX 6. The first mention of the album's existence dates back to

  7. Lil Yachty

    User reviews & ratings for the album Let's Start Here. by Lil Yachty. See how this album was rated and reviewed by the users of AoTY.org.

  8. Lil Yachty: Let's Start Here. Album Review

    At a surprise listening event last Thursday, Lil Yachty introduced his new album Let's Start Here., an unexpected pivot, with a few words every rap fan will find familiar: "I really wanted to ...

  9. Lil Yachty's new psych-rock album features contributions from Mac

    Lil Yachty released his first studio album in nearly three years last week, a psych-rock record titled 'Let's Start Here'.

  10. Lil Yachty Reveals His Upcoming Album Will Be 'Non-Rap' and ...

    According to Yachty, his new album will do away with the rap aesthetic for something more "alternative." As he put it, "My new album is a non-rap album," adding, "It's alternative, it's sick.". When asked to elaborate a bit about the inspiration behind the change in sound, Yachty said "I've always wanted to [make an alternative ...

  11. How Lil Yachty Ended Up at His Excellent New Psychedelic Album

    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 ...

  12. Lil Yachty's 'Let's Start Here' Features MGMT Member & More

    Lil Yachty Enlisted An MGMT Member And Many Other Psychedelic Collaborators To Help Bring His New Album To Life. Fans are raving about Lil Yachty's new album, Let's Start Here. To some, the ...

  13. Lil Yachty made a psychedelic rock album and it's pretty good

    Lil Yachty is pressing restart. "Let's Start Here" is his fifth studio album and as the name implies, it marks the beginning of a new era — one that came out of nowhere.

  14. Lil Yachty Delivers New Psychedelic Rock Album 'Let's Start Here.'

    Lil Yachty's new album, Let's Start Here, continues to further the star's reputation as an innovative savant. The new album is 15 tracks in length, delivering a new experience for fans.

  15. Thoughts on yachtys new album? : r/playboicarti

    A subreddit dedicated to the discussion of hip-hop/trap artist Playboi Carti. Thoughts on yachtys new album? yachty aight and james blake very good. Listening to it rn and it really should've just been a James Blake album lmao. It's a crime to put James' insane vocals next to Yachty's.

  16. Lil Yachty / James Blake: Bad Cameo Album Review

    When James Blake and Lil Yachty debuted as divisive wunderkinds, they earned feverish acclaim—and controversy—for the way they blurred the lines etched by their predecessors. Blake stormed ...

  17. 'Let's Start Here' is a reset for Lil Yachty's sound

    Lil Yachty reinvents his sound in "Let's Start Here," but his lyrics show that old habits die hard. Lil Yachty's newest psychedelic-rock album features 14 tracks including "the BLACK seminole." and "The Alchemist." (Illustration by Aaliya Luthra) Since the release of hit singles "One Night" and "Minnesota," Lil Yachty ...

  18. Yachty new album is literally fire : r/rap

    Yachty new album is literally fire He's literally dropped his best artistic work, shit is so fire, he's challenged himself to whole other level.

  19. Ranking All 5 Lil Yachty Albums, Best To Worst

    Which Lil Yachty albums do you think are the best? Below is the complete Lil Yachty discography, from his new album Nuthin' 2 Prove to his first album Lil Boat. You can vote up more than one so feel free to base it on your favorite song or album as a whole. Despite being relatively new on the...

  20. Lil Yachty

    The Ones: 5 Best New Rap Songs From Bryson Tiller, Mick Jenkins, Lil Yachty, Yhung T.O, and Rico Nasty. By Alphonse Pierre.

  21. Yachty New Album is… : r/playboicarti

    So fucking true I'm so tired of bloated, 20+ track, 90+ albums. Love to see Yachty cut the filler and worked hard on a group of thought-out songs Reply • 1 yr. ago BuddieBuddle • 1 yr. ago I like Her Loss cover idk what the matter with it, film photography adds authentic moment to it and colours suggests the fun and sprinkling joyful mood of the project 15 Reply AltforHHH • 1 yr. ago ...