is lil yachty and lil boat the same person

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How to Tell the Difference Between Lil Yachty and Lil Boat

Atlanta-based mumble rapper Lil Yachty released his debut studio album,  “Teenage Emotions,” on May 26 and reintroduced us to his alter egos: Darnell Boat and Lil Boat.

Much like in Lil Yachty’s 2016 mixtape release, “Lil Boat,”  the red-mustachioed and wigged Darnell Boat introduces listeners to his nephews, Lil Yachty and Lil Boat, in the intro of the album. “Yachty and Boat have been working so hard over this past year, and we just want to welcome y’all to ‘Teenage Emotions,’” says Darnell Boat in the first song of the album, “Like A Star.” “They both have lots to say…this time I think Yachty wants to go first.” After, Uncle Darnell effectively leads fans into a concept album that displays the two distinct rap personas of Lil Yachty.

It can be difficult to differentiate between both Lil Boat and Lil Yachty as a first time listener. There are, however, a number of distinguishing traits displayed in both of their approaches to music and lyrics that can help successfully identify who’s who.

Music Style

In an interview with Genius , Lil Yachty said that the defining characteristic of Lil Boat is aggressiveness.” That word sums it all up, as Boat is the more masculine, foul-mouthed, confident rapper of the two. Boat seems to come out and say the things that Yachty feels he couldn’t get away with, while laying down dark and dirty verses to Atlanta-style trap beats in tracks like “DN Freestyle” and “Dirty Mouth.” “It’s all in production,” says Yachty in the interview. “If the beat is like, heavy hitting, that’s Boat.”

Yachty prefers the lighter tones of music, the kind of sound that he’s dubbed as “boat music” in the past. Tracks on the album such as “Better,” which features steel drums reminiscent of Jamaican island music, as well as the heavy-synth eighties-style track, “Bring It Back,” with a sprinkle of a saxophone solo, are all Yachty creations. He tends to lean toward high-pitched, heavily auto-tuned singing, as opposed to forced attempts at mumble rapping like Boat. Positivity and good vibes are common themes in Yachty’s lyrics.

In his bars, Lil Boat is, without a doubt, the typical misogynistic rap star that displays women as sexual objects. Constantly referring to women as “b*tches,” Boat likes to brag about having multiple women that only serve the sexual needs of him and his friends. Boat is only interested in what women can give him, and in songs like “Peek A Boo,” he shows just how little he cares about having meaningful relationships with them with lines like, “F*ck her then f*ck on her sister, I’m ruthless.”

“It’s not Yachty man,” says Yachty in response to that lyric in a separate interview with Genius . “In interviews, that’s Yachty. But that on that paper, that’s Lil Boat. He’s a ruthless dude. He don’t care. Yachty is a nice dude. That’s not him. At all. That n***a Boat, he crazy, know what I’m saying? You never know what he might do.”

Romantic, monogamous, vulnerable and semi-respectful, Yachty has a different approach to love. In tracks like “Forever Young” and “Lady In Yellow,” he sings about wanting to be together forever with his only girl. Showing more awareness of a woman’s agency over her body, Yachty is more concerned with pleasing women and doing what they want.

Though put rather ineloquently, lines like “Baby can I f*ck with you?” and “Let me love on you” are examples of Yachty showing a slight concern for consent. This is in sharp contrast with Boat’s lyrics calling for multiple women to perform oral sex on him, or “Blow like a cello,” which is probably the greatest lyrical oversight in history.

In short, if someone on Tinder were to find Twizzler-hair and multicolored mouth grills attractive, then they should swipe left on Boat and swipe right on Yachty.

It’s not hard to figure out how Boat feels about fame, as Boat is an acronym for “Best of All Time,” according to a tweet from Lil Yachty’s official account. Self-assured and confident, he’s been presenting himself as the self-proclaimed “King of the Teens” since his beginnings. Riding the fame and all that comes with it, Boat likes to rap about the money, cars and diamonds that he didn’t have just a few short years ago.

In contrast, Yachty is unsure of his standing as a public figure. In “Say My Name,” Yachty redundantly sings, “I want you to say my name, say my name, say my, say my name in the crowd,” hinting at his concern for how he is received by his audience, and the popularity he amasses from his fans. Yachty claims to be a normal teenager, (as normal as a six-figure teen can be), and with the emotional years of adolescence comes an inevitable uncertainty of his place in the world.

On Family and Peers

“I didn’t ask for respect, all I care about is that check,” raps Boat on “Dirty Mouth.” Boat doesn’t care about what people think, and he definitely doesn’t care about what the haters are saying about him. He’s just there to do him, and also attempt to emasculate his rivals by acting hard and likening them to female genitalia, like in “FYI (Know Now).”

Yachty is constantly singing about the “ice” on his mother’s wrist, or alluding to the hundred pairs of shoes his sister has in her closet in interviews. He cares about his family and he attributes a lot of his success to his mom. In the intro he sings, “Look mama you made a star,” and the outro, “Momma” is completely dedicated to her, bringing the gratitude full circle.

In his music, Yachty emulates the man that his mom raised him to be, while Boat is the reflection of Yachty as he sees himself fitting into the hip-hop world.

How It Comes Together

Listening to Lil Yachty’s discography is a human behavioral experiment on the effect that constant exposure to something initially unpleasant can have on the subject’s opinion. Someone once likened it to eating vegetables; they taste terrible at first, but become pretty good after recurring exposure. Nothing else captures the initial resistance to Yachty and Boat’s dichotomy and the new sound they create together; in addition to, the acceptance and appreciation by the listener that soon follows.

In its first week, only forty-six thousand copies of “Teenage Emotions” were sold. Lil Yachty’s heavy streaming presence on sites like Soundcloud , where he originally gained his cult following, and apps like Spotify , may have something to do with low sales, but he’s going on tour and working on new music regardless of its success.

Either way, Lil Yachty and his alter egos have undoubtedly made a name for themselves in the genre, whether they’re loved or hated; there are plenty who do both.

Brittany Sodic, University of North Texas

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Brittany sodic, university of north texas journalism - digital & print.

[…] To view the featured image click here To view the above image click here […]

[…] sides of the same coins, alternative personas of the same man. Yachty himself has stated that his alter-ego Boat is “crazy”, a fact we can see in how wildly different and more aggressive the lyricism is […]

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About That Yacht Life: How Teen Rapper Lil Yachty Made It Big

Meet the 18-year-old Atlanta rapper and Yeezy model making waves.

It was 3 p.m. on a Wednesday in New York, and the 18-year-old rapper Miles Parks McCollum, known to everyone as Lil Yachty, could not stop yawning. His bedazzled grill caught the overhead light of a Chinatown hotel room with each Wookie-like yawp; beneath his beaded red braids, it was almost impossible to tell whether or not his eyes were open.

His voice, which had the hypnotic drawl of a Novocaine-induced stupor, only reinforced the appearance of sleepiness. Only when the subject of Supreme surfaced did he perk up: “It went from me going in there to shop, to them playing my music now,” he declared. His friend Chalis, who came up with Yachty in Atlanta, reminded him that they once saw Joe Jonas in the store. Everyone in the room, including other core members of the “Sailing Team”—producer “Burberry Perry” and “Bloody Osiris,” plus Yachty’s manager, who goes by “ Coach K “—busted out laughing.

“I forgot we seen him,” Yachty recalled with a smirk.

Yachty, who came to seemingly everyone’s attention when he modeled in Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3 show, wore a velvet Supreme sweat suit and Gucci slide sandals. On his neck hung a sizable diamond-encrusted gold medallion with the letters “QC,” which stand for Quality Control. Having only started making music a year ago, this is apparently the prize for going from no one to someone, boy to man, boat to yacht.

Lil Yachty, Perry, Chalis, and Osiris

“In high school, there was a group of older kids who called themselves the ‘Yacht Club,’” Yachty said of his stage name. “I was trying to get in the club.” They eventually let him in, but he had to start from the bottom as Lil Boat, which has since become his alter-ego. “They’re the same person,” Yachty continued. “Same soul. Same body. But one is more calm and the other is more aggressive.”

Chalis, who is two years older, was one of the charter members of the Yacht Club. “We were starting waves,” he said. “We used to record in my closet in Atlanta. We had a bum-ass mic and we put a sock on it. We had nothing.” After graduating, Chalis sailed off to New York. Once he was installed there, Yachty sent him a list of kids he followed on Instagram for Chalis to befriend. The advance team set the table for last summer, when Yachty arrived in town to stay with Chalis; together, they broke onto the scene, successfully networking with the likes of Ian Connor and Eileen Kelly .

“I just thought I’d give it a shot,” said Yachty. “I just wanted to get cool.” He shrugged and then paused, as if his rapid success had finally just hit him. “I was just in a dorm room. I was at Alabama State—I was literally just there !”

Last week, Yachty attracted a crowd so large at his VFiles show that the police had to barricade the street. He then went on to perform at the Museum of Modern Art, followed by a show in Philadelphia with Young Thug. On Tuesday, he released his music video for “ 1 Night ,” which is quickly making its rounds on the Internet for its meme-friendly visuals. “He’s one of the most focused young guys I’ve ever met,” said Coach K, who’s worked with stars like Young Jeezy, Migos, and Gucci Mane. “He’s going to be really big .”

When he’s onstage, Yachty comes to life. In one clip of a performance posted to his Instagram, he jumps up and down so energetically that his sweatpants practically fall off. His hair thwacks his face in sync with the beat. He dives into the audience. He is buoyant, like, well, a yacht.

Yeezy Season 3 at Madison Square Garden. Photo by Getty Images.

“He’s got a lot of little white boy fans,” Osiris said of the usual crowd.

“Like lemme-get-a-pic-for-the-gram !” Burberry Perry chimed in.

Music is something that Yachty simply tried, and found that he had a knack for it. “Growing up, my dad used to play India Arie, Coldplay, and Paul McCartney ,” he recalled. His father, Shannon McCollum , is a photographer who’s worked with everyone from Outkast to Dead Prez, so maybe the spotlight is the beam by which Yachty was meant to chart his route. His raps, which have the same hazy quality of his speaking voice and are infused with nonchalant humor, have little to do with the trap artists—like Migos, Young Thug, Young Jeezy, and Future—that came before him in Atlanta. In fact, Yachty claimed he’s not interested in the genre; instead, he described his sound as “colorful” and “soft.”

Meet Lil Yachty, the Teen Rapper Making Waves

Louis Vuitton shirt, $850, louisvuitton.com ; Dries Van Noten tank top, $140, barneys.com ; Ami trousers, $355, amiparis.fr .

Raf Simons v-neck knit, $1,700, rafsimons.com ; Theory T-shirt, $75, theory.com ; Ami trousers, $355, amiparis.fr ; Converse sneakers, $55, converse.com ; Lil Yachty’s own jewelry.

Louis Vuitton shirt, $850, louisvuitton.com ; Dries Van Noten tank top, $140, barneys.com ; Lil Yachty’s own jewelry.

Prada shirt, $710, and sweater, $930, prada.com ; Ami pants, $350, amiparis.fr ; Falke socks, $28, sockhopny.com ; Louis Vuitton sneakers, $785, louisvuitton.com ; Lil Yachty’s own jewelry.

“When you think of trap, it’s like hard, gutter stuff,” explained Chalis, whose job description seems to be happily filling in Yachty’s long silences. “But we’re young kids; we’re not like that. Obviously, we love trap and are influenced by where we come from, but Yachty is fun. His voice is angelic! A lot of rap you can’t relate to, but Yachty is young. Not even a year ago he was a regular civilian.”

While Yachty claimed the only music he listens to is his own, his friends name-dropped people like Lil Uzi Vert , who is 21. “Why so many Lil’s?” I asked.

“It’s because everyone wants to be a kid again,” explained Osiris.

I turned to Yachty and asked him what else he might hope to accomplish next. He stretched out his arms and yawned deeply, and then mumbled something in his drowsy baritone.

“You want to what?” I asked.

Yachty stuck his hand down his Nautica boxer shorts and closed his eyes: “I just want to be mainstream.”

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Lil Yachty Hits A Major Milestone With His ‘Lil Boat’ Series

Lil Yachty has reached a new high as two of his albums have exceeded half a million each in sales units.

On Friday (March 8), the Recording Industry Association of America certified the rapper and singer’s 2016 debut Lil Boat and its 2018 sequel Lil Boat 2 gold.

This accolade by the trade organization honors 500,000 album sales or equivalent units, which both packages have surpassed separately since their releases via Quality Control and Motown Records.

The original  Lil Boat put the Atlanta artist on the map. Its follow-up two years later debuted at No. 2 on the US Billboard chart, marking him as a full-fledged star.

Yachty isn’t the only artist to get RIAA hardware recently. Last month, SZA  got seven new gold and platinum certifications for songs released as part of 2022’s SOS .

“Open Arms” featuring Travis Scott , “Seek & Destroy” and Ghost In The Machine” featuring Phoebe Bridgers all reached platinum status for the first time (meaning each cut sold over 1,000,000 units), whereas “I Hate U” and “Snooze” went three and four times platinum respectively. Most notably, “Good Days” attained 6x platinum status.

Additionally, “Conceited” has been certified gold, with 500,000 units sold.

Prior to that, Twista’s classic “Slow Jamz” finally achieved platinum certification , just a few days after its 20th anniversary. The track was officially honored with the award in late January.

On the same day, “Overnight Celebrity” and Kamikaze also went double platinum as well. The latter went platinum the first time back in 2004, soon after its release.

Twista has been a staple within the Hip Hop community for the best part of 35 years. Speeding out the gate in the early ’90s with his mesmerizing, rapid-fire flow — which in 1992 earned him the title of World’s Fastest Rapper, according to the Guinness Book of World Records — he took the underground by storm before kicking things into overdrive, thanks to his show-stealing guest verse on Do Or Die ‘s 1996 Rap-A-Lot Records classic “Po Pimp.”

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This breakthrough set the scene for the success that would come with the Chicago rapper’s platinum-selling third studio album, Adrenaline Rush . By his own admission, the 1997 LP established him as “a real rapper” and helped validate rappers from his hometown.

“It meant you had to accept that artists from Chicago could spit,” he told HipHopDX .

Despite the accolades that came at the hands of Adrenaline Rush , it was his 2004 album Kamikaze that catapulted Twista into a whole other stratosphere — and probably a whole new tax bracket, too.

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Lil Yachty Is Out to Claim What He Rightfully Deserves Ahead of Lil Boat 3 Album

Respect My Conglomerate Four years in the school of hard knocks has taught Lil Yachty that credit isn’t always given where it’s due. Now the Atlanta rapper is out to claim what he rightfully deserves. Words: Georgette Cline Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now.

Based on the quarter-sized 10.5 carat diamond sailboat earrings dangling from Lil Yachty ’s ears on this February morning in New York City, diamonds aren’t just a girl’s best friend. The $98,000 jewelry the Atlanta rapper copped from jeweler Wafi is certainly on brand for Yachty, who is at a yoga studio around the corner from the Big Apple’s famed Diamond District. But today, instead of dropping racks on racks on racks on another iced-out chain or bracelet, Yachty is sweating his ass off down the street. He’s inside an 80-degree heated room at AtthenaYoga learning how to be a yogi.

“I feel like I’m begging for mercy,” the 22-year-old artist exclaims while he’s positioned on a red (his favorite color) mat with his arms out in front of him on the floor, head down and legs tucked under his body. Atthena Breitton, his instructor for the private class, informs Yachty, dressed in black Nike Pro workout gear, that she’ll be getting him into “a lot of fun shapes that are different.”

The “One Night” rhymer’s commentary as he goes from sinking his belly (“You giving me arch lessons right now”) to engaging his core while lifting his knees (“I’m shaking, what the fuck?”) to trying a plank pose (“This some punishment shit”) is comical, yet endearing. Don’t underestimate Lil Boat’s abilities. For a guy who eats pizza daily and never consumes fruits or vegetables, hot yoga is pushing himself to the limit, but he’s holding it down. “You’re pulling me apart like pizza dough,” says Yachty, a fitting response as he likens his favorite food to Breitton maneuvering his limbs into yoga poses.

Downward-Facing Dog is up next. “Think of a dog making a little mountain pose with its body,” instructs Breitton. “Why would a dog do that?” Yachty utters, seemingly irked at the thought. The groans grow louder, the poses get more technical and the heat is stifling. “Are you stressed about your upcoming album?” the instructor inquires, to which Yachty can’t even concentrate to give a valid response. “I don’t know right now,” he replies. “It’s a lot.”

Two hours later after picking up $12,000 worth of Jean Paul Gaultier, Yohji Yamamoto and Walter Van Beirendonck clothing at Middleman Instagram boutique, Yachty is seated inside the lounge area at Capital Records Midtown Manhattan offices. Domino’s pizza, assistant Maddy, videographer Ari and manager Kevin “Coach K” Lee, cofounder of Quality Control Music to which Yachty is signed, surround him. He’s no longer sweaty from his hot yoga adventure, and confesses it did nothing to relax him.

Yachty’s about to play “Oprah’s Bank Account” featuring Drake and DaBaby , the official first single from his upcoming fourth studio album, Lil Boat 3 , due this spring. The project’s cover will feature a black-and-white photo of a 2-year-old little Yachty that his father snapped. The album is scheduled to officially culminate the LB series.

Four years ago, Yachty, born Miles McCollum, was an 18-year-old neophyte just entering the rap game with his debut mixtape, Lil Boat . He crafted colorful, convivial bops like his platinum-selling “One Night” and gold-certified “Minnesota,” became a poster child for mumble rap—though he’ll argue against the designation when applied to him—introduced the masses to the motley crew known as the Sailing Team and reigned as the “King of Teens” with his succinct, monotonous delivery and straight-edge tendencies. Whether it was online, in a Sprite commercial or a Target ad on TV, his signature red hair and beaded braids were seemingly everywhere.

And the music kept flooding in, as constant as the crimson on his head. 2016 also welcomed Yachty’s Summer Songs 2 mixtape , plus projects Big Boat and The Lost Files with Digital Nas . The following year ushered in his debut album, Teenage Emotions , Yachty’s earnest attempt at a commercial project and highest-charting effort, coming in at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. In 2018, he was busy with his sophomore LP, Lil Boat 2 , the Birthday Mix 3.0 , his stellar writing credits on City Girls’ platinum-selling, Earl on the Beat-produced banger “Act Up” and his Nuthin’ 2 Prove opus, the latter of which kicked off with the minacious ode “Gimmie My Respect”: “Niggas gon’ keep forgetting about who goddamn started this muhfuckin’ new wave shit, bruh/Come on, man, gimme my respect, bitch.”

Despite the work put in and the accolades, there are still people that think Lil Yachty can’t rap. His personal statement for the last two years has been apparent across social media: he’s been vocal about his ability to out-rap 75 percent of the new generation, feels slept-on but has nothing to prove. For his own benefit, last year, he took a step back from the spotlight and releasing music except for the SoundCloud freestyle “Go Krazy, Go Stupid” and his collaborative work on the Quality Control: Control the Streets, Vol. 2 compilation. Caliginous Boat, as he describes himself, was in full effect. “I didn’t put any music out,” recalls Yachty, who cites Lil B, Kid Cudi, Soulja Boy and Kanye West as artists who made him want to rap on the come up while Coldplay is his favorite band. “I just was real low-key. So, it’s just like being real low-key, just under the radar, you know what I mean? That’s what I meant by that.” Like a senior in high school preparing to head into his first year of college, Yachty hunkered down.

The last year was the longest stretch of time he’s gone without dropping consistent music, an occurrence he promises won’t happen again. Relevancy is key. Though time spent out of the public eye didn’t mean he was sitting idle. For roughly two years, Yachty was perfecting Lil Boat 3 , an album he recorded four times over before submitting the final effort to the label in early 2020. “I kept going through so many different phases of creativity,” Yachty admits. Black Hair Boat being one of them. Gone is the bright-red head full of hair he was once synonymous with; now bloodshot tips are all that remain.

The new ’do is reflective of taking it back to the basics. No so-called gimmicks, so the focus is strictly on the bars. His recent feature run is indicative of this: Sada Baby’s 30 Roc-produced “SB5,” Duke Deuce’s “Crunk Ain’t Dead Mob” with Lil Thad, Tadoe’s “Get It Bussin” and “Speed Me Up” with Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign and Sueco The Child, to name a few. Each track reflects Yachty’s punchy brand of lyrical wizardry, clever couplets included.

“Give me my credit,” demands Yachty, referring to both his rhymes and his ’fits. “I feel like I’m slept-on in general, just period. I’m not saying I’m the best, you know, I never can say I’m the best rapper, or even if I was best-dressed. But I do this shit. For real. It don’t break me. I’m still here… That’s ’cause I’m really a fly nigga. I don’t get enough credit for it. I feel like I’m one of the best-dressed rappers in the rap game. And no one gives me any credit. And it upsets me. Not even upsetting, but it upsets me. It’s like, yeah, y’all just playing with me right now. I don’t have no stylist for real.”

As he leans back on the couch in the Capitol Records lounge, (Capitol is QC’s parent company) dressed in a vintage hunter green and mustard Nike letterman jacket decorated with The Beverly Hillbillies logo, vintage Evisu denim jeans stitched with dice, chocolate brown Air Force 2s and a green-and-white trucker hat, it’s clear Yachty’s style is fresh, but his new music is what’s on the agenda right now. Yachty’s new single “Oprah’s Bank Account,” produced by his childhood friend Earl on the Beat, is bittersweet as it signals the beginning of the end of the Lil Boat series. Once Yachty presses play on the melodic, uptempo track, it’s apparent how the song got its title. “Diamond in the rough, you look as good as Oprah’s bank account,” he raps.

Drake hopped on the beat after Yachty previewed the song on his Finsta page (Boat's secondary private Instagram account) late last year. DaBaby linked with Lil Boat in an Atlanta studio last October to add his signature sound. “It was fire,” Earl on the Beat remembers of DaBaby’s studio session. “They got in. We were there, we was chillin’. DaBaby came in, he was cool. Had a blunt. The blunt started going, started recording.”

According to Earl, he has roughly nine songs he produced on Yachty’s new album, which will feature throwback 2016 melodies the rapper built his career on. Overall, Yachty describes Lil Boat 3 as an uptempo experience featuring further production from Pi’erre Bourne, 30 Roc and MitchGoneMad. “I just hope it provides good tunes for the youth,” Yachty says. After the album's spring release, Yachty already has another project lined up to release around his birthday, Aug. 23. “ End of the Summer ,” he reveals of the tentative title. “And just make it a summer feel.” And then there’s a string of collab projects he has hopes for with three producers he knows all too well: 30 Roc, Earl and Pi’erre, the latter of whom Yachty would like to join forces with as an artist, too. “I’m a big fan of his music,” Yachty affirms.

2020 isn’t just solely about witnessing Lil Yachty on the mic either. He’s got goals outside the booth. “I love acting,” he admits. “It’s really cool.” With six official projects ranging from mixtapes to albums currently under his belt, Yachty sees a future in which he graduates from hip-hop. “I don’t plan on being a rapper forever.” He’s already landed roles as the voice of Green Lantern in the 2018 animated film Teen Titans! Go to the Movies and the 2019 comedy How High 2 , in which he plays a teen stoner named Roger who discovers a secret strain of weed. Now he has two more movies and a spot in a television show on the way; one of the three is based on his life story. He’s hush on any further details. Yachty’s dream role? To play a killer similar to the character Rico in Paid in Full . Rappers-turned-actors like Will Smith also inspire him and prove making the jump to a successful acting career is possible.

Watching Yachty land TV and movie gigs in real time motivates Earl, who’s known the Grammy Award-nominated artist since they were 7 years old growing up in ATL. “This nigga’s a star,” Earl maintains. “When you see somebody that you actually grew up with, that you actually go to school with, that you actually be doing day to day shit with go and do this shit... you just be like, damn, that’s fire. And you get inspired. Man, my nigga is a businessman, bro. This nigga is a jack of all trades. This nigga really do this shit.”

Coach K has also seen Yachty’s progression firsthand, having signed the rapper at the age of 18, shortly after Yachty left Alabama State University, where he attended for two months. “It’s crazy, we signed Yachty in 2016,” Coach K reflects. “In school, it’s like four years of high school and then you graduate and go to college. This last year, he’s taking the time, it’s like his senior year in high school. And it’s like he’s been preparing himself to get ready for college, you know? When you get ready to go to college, it’s like you’re on your own, a lot of things start changing, you’re kinda in between from here to there. I think it’s when he took this year out, you know, in really just discovering [himself]. There’s a lot of things he did in the film industry and now I think that’s what brung everything back to completion. We worked this [ Lil Boat 3 ] album for the last year-and-a-half. I’ve seen him turn me in four albums… You never want to get in the way of the artist and their process… I think it’s in those four years, he’s had time to grow up and figure out who he is. He was the ‘King of the Teens’ when we first signed him, he’s still young as hell, you know? It’s that transition. He’s come into himself.”

And moved up in tax brackets, too. Just three years shy of hitting 25, Lil Yachty is a self-proclaimed millionaire. Buying a $400 Denim Tears Black Jesus blanket as he randomly scrolls through Instagram is as standard as eating pizza every day. In Yachty’s world, both are the norm. More money may bring more problems depending on who you ask, but when you’ve been able to keep the same circle of friends since kindergarten like Yachty has, life is good. His reality will be even better once Lil Boat 3 arrives. “It’s a heavy-hitting album,” he promises. “I’m ready to drop. My god. I want to put it out so bad.” Coach K believes this project will further solidify Lil Yachty as not only a trendsetter who breaks barriers, but an artist deserving of his credit. “I’ma get my respect before I’m done,” Yachty adds. “I’ma get it.”

See Exclusive Photos From Lil Yachty's XXL Magazine Spring Issue 

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With his debut mixtape, ‘Lil Boat,’ Lil Yachty fully shed the mumble rap label, transitioning from SoundCloud sensation to major label star.

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Lil Yachty’s debut mixtape, Lil Boat , is one of the pre-eminent releases of the SoundCloud era. Released on March 9, 2016, it made Lil Yachty a star, spawned multiple hits, and further legitimized the DIY-style rap that emerged at the beginning of the decade.

The Atlanta MC entered the crowded rapper-singer fray with a work that’s split into two distinct sides, seeing him grapple with dueling elements of his personality and career. The first half of Lil Boat sees Yachty flex his flow, while the second half finds him crooning in AutoTune. That may be a slightly reductive way to look at the collection (in reality, he does both throughout), but there’s certainly a kind of TI vs TIP split-personality concept to the whole affair. Yachty uses his style to demarcate who is who, and, despite his glee throughout, Lil Boat is a surprisingly subtle work for the chaotic time it represents.

Listen to the best of Lil Yachty on Apple Music and Spotify.

A standout work

Yachty’s debut mixtape is a standout work for the usual reasons – great name, great cover, and two singles that will forever be associated with Yachty and the era from which he emerged: “One Night” and “Minnesota.”

As a title, Lil Boat was perfect. Serving two purposes at once, it created a fitting alt.moniker for the MC while helping a lot of people to pronounce his name (did you actually say it like “yacht”?). Nautical luxury isn’t the most commonly-evoked lifestyle in hip-hop (outside of Puffy), so that theme alone was enough to put Yachty in his own lane. And then there’s the artwork: not a yacht, barely even a boat; it’s basically a little wooden dinghy. Beautifully composed, the image looks like a classical painting, bordered in a red that matches Yachty’s hair. It’s almost Americana in tone – though Yachty’s music is anything but.

All hail “King Of The Youth”

Yachty may be poised and confident on that cover, but he’s also lost in the gloom at sea – an apt metaphor for the musical style he was leading. While not traditional in any sense, Yachty is honest with his emotions in a way that younger generations have always been, and Lil Boat found him attempting to navigate his way through the emotionally turbulent years of his late youth. Shortly after his breakout, Yachty would declare himself “King Of Teens” or, alternatively, “King Of The Youth.” This might have sounded ridiculous to adults who weren’t even sure how to pronounce his name, but those adults were no longer in charge. Lil Yachty was not part of some hip-hop assembly line; like other DIY pioneers before him, Yachty and his crew were making these songs at home, often in a matter of minutes.

Outside of the Vikings football team and Ice Cube ’s “What Can I Do?,” Minnesota doesn’t get name-checked very often in hip-hop. Simply naming a track after a state was seemingly in line with the aforementioned “half-Americana, half trolling” theme of Lil Boat – but, of course, the song isn’t actually about Minnesota. It’s more of a celebration of Lil Yachty’s arrival on the scene. The draw and significance of having both Quavo and Young Thug on a song in 2016 is hard to overstate, and their guest appearances turned “Minnesota” into a certified-gold hit. At the time, Quavo was just months away from releasing “Bad And Boujee,” while Thug was fresh off Barter 6 and in the middle of his Slime Season run. Together, he and Yachty appeared at Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3 fashion show, on February 11, where The Life Of Pablo received its public unveiling. Just two days after releasing his debut mixtape, Yachty was at the epicenter of one of hip-hop’s biggest cultural shifts.

Unprecedented moves

Lil Boat was big enough that Burberry Perry – Yachty’s right-hand man at the time and the producer behind most of the mixtape – came under pressure from the fashion label Burberry and was forced to change his name. That wasn’t exactly an unprecedented move, but the speed with which it happened certainly was. It’s not often that an internationally renowned fashion house serves a cease-and-desist to a kid who got famous on the internet and was barely old enough to vote.

Perry’s production on Lil Boat ’s lead single, “One Night’ (Yachty’s best-known song to date), guided the way for the rest of the collection. Even the beats he didn’t produce fall right in line, all cascading bells, and whistles alongside keys that let you hear Yachty’s grin throughout.

Lil Yachty’s emergence closely resembles that of the Odd Future collective, who, years earlier, more or less launched DIY rap on the internet (depending on how you view Lil B’s rise to fame). Seemingly overnight, Yachty was partnering with Urban Outfitters and the aptly titled Nautica clothing brand. His rapid ascent would have sounded like fan fiction just a few years earlier but, after his breakout, many artists began following his path to fame on a regular basis.

Having hit it big in such a short space of time, Yachty wasn’t about to slow down. He went on to guest (and absolutely steal the show) on “Broccoli,” a DRAM song with a Yachty-perfect beat. As one of the stars in Quality Control ’s shining roster, Yachty was operating alongside some of the biggest acts in hip-hop. With Lil Boat, he fully shed the “mumble rap” label, completing the transition from SoundCloud sensation to major label star.

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Why Lil Yachty Says It’s Time to ‘Wake Everybody Up’

After laying relatively low in 2019, the Sailing Team's captain returns with a massive chip on his shoulder to put a bow on his momentous Lil Boat series.

By Michael Saponara

Michael Saponara

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Lil Yachty is coming for his respect. After not releasing any projects and remaining relatively quiet in 2019, the Sailing Team’s captain returned in May with a massive chip on his shoulder, to put a bow on his momentous Lil Boat series with the third and final chapter.

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The series is something the 23-year-old holds near and dear to his heart, as it served as his introduction to rap’s mainstream and put him on the map just a year after graduating high school. With the stakes raised at a pivotal point in his career, Yachty went back to the drawing board five times wiping the slate clean until he found the desired patina for LB3 to take shape.

On the set, Boat blends melodic bubblegum trap that sounds as if there’s something lodged in his throat and the loopy rhymes of vintage Yachty, alongside a myriad of special guests to execute the project’s vision. The rapper also notches three co-production credits on the album as well.

Yachty has remained low-key inside his ATL mansion for much of the quarantine. He’s dabbled in his fair share of playing video games, recording new music, continuing his kids’ menu diet of waffles, pizza, and chicken nuggets — which he combats with some yoga and hitting the gym to balance “eating like an eight-year-old and trying to be healthy at the same time.”

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Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police on Memorial Day, the ensuing protests setting the city ablaze saw Yachty’s infectious “Minnesota” hook take on a new meaning. “You need to stay up out them streets if you can’t take the heat,” he raps on the icy 2015 track.

After collecting his thoughts for a couple of days and even debating making the trip to Minneapolis himself on LB3 release day, Yachty took action by donating $3,000 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, and joined protestors (May 30) on the frontlines walking the streets of Downtown ATL. Yachty showed maturity and leadership beyond his years when getting on the megaphone to  deliver a powerful speech. “We gotta stand for something or fall for anything,” he proclaimed.

Dive into our interview with Yachty below, as he debates an artist’s responsibility to comment on social issues, always hearing the haters no matter what he does, how Drake ended up on “Oprah’s Bank Account,” and more.

Billboard: Wrapping up with Lil Boat 3 , what does the series mean to you?

Lil Yachty: It’s just where I started my music career. It will always have a special place in my heart. It’s what brought me into music. It will always be a very important project — both the first and the last one. I think they play a pivotal role, with the first one being my introduction and this third one being a stamp to remind people that I really do this s–t.

Your last album was Nuthin 2 Prove , but now it’s “ComebackSZN Boat” time with your Twitter name. Do you feel like you’ve got a chip on your shoulder with this project that you’re still right here?

[A] big chip. I feel like I took a long break and it’s time to wake everybody up.

You kicked off LB3′ s rollout with “Oprah’s Bank Account.” What did you think of the fans’ reception to it?

I think it was a good reception, but at the same time, a lot of people were upset — black people specifically — with the whole man in a dress thing, but it wasn’t that deep.

How did you get Drake on there? Did you guys talk about how that song ended up being the one that Drizzy broke the record with for most Hot 100 placements?

Drake actually asked me to be on there. I met Baby when he was doing a meet-n-greet and I hung out with him. [Drake] thanked me for it. I told him, “No need to thank me, sir. You did all the work.”

How did you end up linking with Tyler, Rocky, and Tierra Whack on “T.D.” and why did you sample that Tokyo Drift song?

Originally, that song was supposed to be me, Rocky, and [A$AP] Ferg. I guess Rocky played his verse for Tyler and then Tyler was like, “Oh, I’m getting on this.” Then I was like, “I know somebody that would kill everybody [on this].” So I reached out to Tierra Whack because she’s a really good friend of mine, and I really wanted her to have that look. I knew she was going to go crazy, which she did. I just love that song by the Teriyaki Boyz.

What was your role in the co-production of the three tracks you produced on the album?

I picked the sample for “Tokyo Drift.” For “Can’t Go,” I made the melody. For “Wock in Stock,” I did the 808s. It’s a difficult process.

Talk to me about “Till the Morning” with Durk and Thugger.

We’ve been sitting on that record for a very long time. I want to say it dates back to at least 2018. We just wanted to see who was going to drop it first. Yeah, we had all did it together. Durk is that n—a. He’s dumb-chill and humble.

The Boat Show has let fans into your life during quarantine. We see you eating waffles, pizza, chicken nuggets, hitting the gym, and doing some yoga.

I don’t know, I guess that’s a twist between eating like an eight-year-old and trying to be healthy at the same time.

I’ve been on the Mountain Dew Baja Blast wave. Are you a Baja Blast guy?

I f–k with the Baja Blast heavy. I like to go to Taco Bell and get it. It’s crazy, I’m a snack connoisseur.

Have you been playing a lot of Warzone as well?

I just got my first win with Tee Grizzley like two days ago. That game, I love it, but the Warzone ain’t easy. I’m a beast online — like Team Deathmatch. You got to move different on Search and Destroy.

I enjoyed your “Can You Stand The Rain” New Edition cover, but some people were hating on it.

People hate on me regardless, bro. It’s just a given. I’ll never be the most likable artist. I did that in 2017, bro. One night, it was like five in the morning, I was on IG Live with fans and I dropped it.

You still gotta keep the confidence up, though.

Oh, I’m that n—a.

How are you still keeping up with the shopping?

Bro, I shop every single day.

Are the stores coming to your place?

That and I do a lot of Grailed and eBay shopping. I had to change my username because it was too obvious at first. I’m on my ’85 collection right now. I’m trying to collect all of the 1985 Jordan’s. I got about eight right now, it’s just so expensive.

With the riots going on across the country in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, do you feel artists have a responsibility to speak out?

I feel like this is a tricky conversation. Some people generally don’t want to say something that would upset people, while other people are just minding their own business. It should resonate more if you’re a black man. It’s just difficult.

I’m not fuckin with what’s goin on in Minnesota, thinking bout flyin out there and walkin the streets with the people… what celebrity will meet me there? Dead ass — CONCRETE BOY BOAT^ (@lilyachty) May 29, 2020

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What Does a Drake Feature Mean for an Album? ‘Everything,’ Says Rapper Lil Yachty

The Atlanta talent releases "Lil Boat 3" today.

By Shirley Ju

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Lil Yachty is no stranger to breaking the internet. In March, he dropped the track “Oprah’s Bank Account” featuring Drake and DaBaby along with a nine-minute visual that lampooned the entertainment mogul, played by the rapper himself, and her talk show. The clip was directed by Director X and featured Yachty costumed in a dress and high heels and ignited its share of backlash. One Twitter user on Twitter claimed the artist “fell off” and was just trying to “sell records.”

Yachty was quick to shut down such criticism, clapping back on social media: “Bitch, it’s just supposed to be entertaining… it ain’t even that deep, y’all N–a’s so in denial with y’all masculinity shit like this bother y’all.. Relax.”

Bitch it’s just supposed to be entertaining… it ain’t even that deep, y’all Nigga’s so in denial with y’all masculinity shit like this bother y’all.. relax https://t.co/Ql2NZCdY1C — CONCRETE BOY BOAT^ (@lilyachty) March 11, 2020

Still, it was a bold move to poke at the beloved celebrity and her deep pockets. Defending the clip, Yachty tells Variety , “I was trying to say Oprah’s rich as f–k. If you look like her bank account, then you look pretty damn good. It’s about being fine. Like, you look good!”

Signed to Quality Control / Capitol Records / Motown Records , the 22-year-old born Miles McCollum exploded onto the Atlanta rap scene four years ago with his standout single “One Night” and debut mixtape, 2016’s “Lil Boat.” Capturing a young fanbase with his playful hits, he’s been working towards releasing his multi-part Lil Boat trilogy, the final third chapter out today (May 29).

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With “Lil Boat 3,” Yachty enters a new phase musically. “Vibes,” says Yachty of the 19-track collection. “Seriously, it’s uptempo. I got some slappers on there and it’s fun.”

Yachty’s stats are impressive: over 3 billion streams across his music catalog. Still, he downplays his talents. “It’s what I do — make songs. I wouldn’t call it an ability, it’s a hobby [that] just comes to me.”

Yachty credits middle school, where he would “play and make spoofs,” for his humorous approach. That time in his life is also when he first heard Drake. “He’s one of my favorite artists since fifth grade,” says Yachty. “Now he calls me sometimes. It’s really cool.”

To have Drake as a friend is one thing, but getting him on a feature is a feat unto its own. “I mean, he’s the biggest artist in the world so he has to really want to do it,” says Yachty. “ I can’t speak for anybody else but for me, it means everything to have a Drake feature. I’m so thankful and appreciative.”

On “Lil Boat 3,” Yachty has more fire features, including A$AP Rocky, Tyler The Creator, Future, Young Thug, Lil Durk, Lil Keed, DaBaby and Tierra Whack. Draft Day appears on the track and in the video for “Demon Time.” Watch it below.

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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.

Who the Hell is Lil Yachty, and Why Do Kanye West and Drake Care About Him?

The Atlanta rapper just released his new mixtape "Lil Boat," and is the newest, hippest oddball from his city's hip-hop scene making headlines.

Kanye West brought a lot of musicians into his extended circle on his February still-unfinished album The Life of Pablo and also, at the Yeezy Season 3 event when he debuted it. A few of the figures have been rappers specializing in Atlanta-flavored trap music; most notably, rising icon of the genre Young Thug appears on TLOP ’s “Highlights” and played model in the Yeezy presentation at NYC’s Madison Square Garden . But there are also the more nationally anonymous, up-and-coming figures: the distinctly Future-styled Desiigner from Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, sampled on “Father Stretch My Hands Part 2,” and rising ATLien Lil Yachty , who just appeared for dramatic effect in the Yeezy fashion show.

Both artists are musical personalities to which one might rightfully give the side eye. Yachty, in particular, comes as part of a long and increasingly exhausting tradition of young Atlanta rappers who have adopted detuned crooning, Autotune chemtrail effects and Migos-style flows as a baseline for their sounds. Years deep in the trend — post- ILoveMakonnen , mid-Awful Records buzz — the “ATLien” shorthand has begun to feel tired. Atlanta, these days, is a small world where every artist with a trending hit and a pronounced, off-kilter sensibility seems to get a fair shake at the international blog limelight.

But Yachty, who just released his debut mixtape yesterday, didn’t just steal that: He got some of Kanye West’s. He also recieved airtime on Drake’s OVO Radio for one of his odder and most cloying Soundcloud rips “Minnesota.” “It get cold like Minnesota,” Yachty intones ad infinitum in his airy falsetto, over a spooling toy piano riff and Super Mario Bros. sound effects. It’s music that’s easy to hate — “death of rap” music to any traditionalist. Perhaps, though, it’s easier to love, especially if you like dancing that involves only your arms.

Most elaborate, erratic movements, of course, are what have gotten Yachty, and other recent Atlanta rappers, to break through; dance and other viral videos posted and disseminated by youths of the ‘net often give new tracks like Yachty’s veritable hit “1 Night” an important platform. Trails of YouTube and Soundcloud receipts, doubtless, led Kanye and Drake to Yatchy. With breakthrough street rap hits, this kind of grass-roots buzz is fairly typical, and spreads like wildfire.

Yachty’s first full-length statement, Lil Boat , operates under the same principles as his Soundcloud page, evidencing the 18-year-old rapper/singer’s discerning taste for what is cool. Even if Yachty’s own identity is crowded out by the shrewd production, full of shrill timbres and kitschy sound effects, these songs generally hold together well as consummate, broad-scale records. Charmingly, they always sound a bit unfinished. Yachty knows not to wear out the one idea that usually grounds his songs, or when he’s run out of cheeky similes.

Lil Yachty is not an artist anyone wants or needs, and It would be nice to see the styles of a city other than Atlanta be getting some shine, rather than continuing to pore over and debate every new Makonnen-esque act to come out of East Atlanta. Increasingly, this kind of music seems to get away from the genuine spark of inspiration that once made trap music so exciting, even as it attempts to get weirder and push the boundaries of what “rap” can be. Yachty’s song dip often in the realm of gimmick and self-conscious overcuration; fashion and ephemerality feels very on the surface. Check out this video for a new song, slapped with Lil B’s “RARE!” Tag and sampling a sped-up “Bittersweet Symphony”:

Rapping “cool” for “cool”s sake should not be grounds for categorical condemnation, and it’s not as simple as that, either. Yachty’s distinct singing voice, when it’s given some room to breathe on the track, lends the best songs a personal, intimate touch; if nothing else, it beats Post Malone ’s. And it’s a sound we might as well get used to, again; with Yachty definitively on the rise, it doesn’t seem likely that the stream of Atlanta must-hear early-20-somethings will led up anytime soon.

Maybe We Know a Little Too Much About Lil Yachty

By Andre Gee

Last year, I spoke with Lil Yachty about mystique. Our conversation about his Let’s Start Here album got awkward when he told me he didn’t want to reveal too much about its creation. I asked him about plans to release a documentary he recorded about the project, and he told me, “I doubt I’ll drop it. Just like me not wanting to do any of these interviews. I don’t really care to talk about it, [because] you give it all away [when] you pull the curtain back.”

When I asked him if he put a premium on artists with an allure of mystery when he was younger, he told me, “Coming up, you didn’t have all this social media. Even if [they] did an interview, you didn’t get every element of something. It’s the simple things you knew, but they left a lot of room for ‘Wow, how did he make this?’… Which is the beauty in art.” 

“I think Chapter One of my career is extremely oversaturated,” he told me. “I was thinking … I’m easily accessible. I’m on TikTok. I’m on YouTube. I’m on Twitter. I’m just everywhere. I didn’t like that.” But 18 months after our conversation, it feels like Yachty’s would-be triumphant next chapter is being marred by the same overexposure. 

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Yachty’s rap career is defined by a collage of viral moments. His first single, 2015’s “One Night,” went viral on SoundCloud. He came into public consciousness during the 2016 live stream of Yeezy Season 3. His “Minnesota” hit was the score to the hip-hop generational war being waged on rap Twitter, with his ignorance of Biggie and 2Pac’s catalog not helping things. And his Everyday Struggle admission that he didn’t know the full details of his QC contract made him fodder for anyone seeking to soapbox about naive rappers signing bad deals. Yachty saw all of the criticism, and he pushed back, arguably losing the musical charm that made him a distinct artist by trying to prove he could rap. He told me, that during that period, “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.’”

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But it never stays strictly about the music with Yachty. During a Let’s Start Here listening event, he told the crowd he “wanted to be taken seriously as an artist and not just a SoundCloud rapper, not just a mumble rapper, not just a guy that made one hit.” Some people felt his comments implied that being “just” a rapper was inferior, but he told me that was “absolutely not” what he was trying to say. Regardless of his clarification, the perception of elitism stuck, and was intensified when he surmised that “hip-hop is in a terrible place” during our November 2023 Musicians on Musicians l ive event . 

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During an emotionally charged Instagram Live session, he claimed that he wrote all of Karrahbooo’s music and threw the remaining Concrete Boys under the bus by claiming he dressed all of them. He and Karrahbooo have since been taking to their stories to clap back at each other, making a bad situation worse. Yachty’s currently being lambasted as the kind of person who can’t wait to tell the world what they did for you — you never wanna be that guy. 

Perhaps people are letting the jokes fly for the moment, and Yachty dropping the right song will shift all the attention away from his mic miscues. Maybe Yachty doesn’t care what the public thinks. But it’s interesting to watch someone who’s repeatedly referenced not wanting to be accessible, and wishing he hadn’t opened his mouth, seemingly be unable to help himself from speaking out — in frequently self-sabotaging ways. It feels like the same digital soil that fertilized Yachty’s career is also his quicksand.

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self-released

March 17, 2016

Atlanta’s Lil Yachty is a pure creation of the Internet. His cult hit "1 Night" found most of its audience through a viral sketch comedy video , and before that, he was being plugged on Twitter  by Ian Connor, a stylist and web curator known mostly for his connection to  A$AP Rocky . He’s indebted to Lil B , too, with free-form verses that mimic Based Freestyles and a carefree energy reminiscent of the Based God’s Myspace days. In short, Yachty thrives in Rocky’s post-regionalist rap universe, a space defined by digital platforms rather than geography. One of his producers goes by Digital Nas. He is definitive proof that modern rap has no gatekeepers, and Soundcloud rap’s laziest possible copy-and-paste job.

There isn’t a single thing Lil Yachty’s doing that someone else isn't doing better, and in richer details. On  Lil Boat , his debut mixtape, he makes a grating mess of these varying influences. The most obvious creative inspiration is iLoveMakonnen , which becomes especially clear on "Good Day," with its creaky falsetto and warbling melody. But Makonnen brings warmth and a feeling of ease to his tracks, while Yachty is constantly straining, as if just getting the words out of his mouth is a struggle. His rapping is jerky and his voice is so flat that Auto-Tune itself seems to buckle under the weight.

Yachty’s main selling point is "fun." This is all supposed to seem easy and unbothered, and it does on cheery tunes like “Wanna Be Us” and “Run/Running.” But everything feels unfinished or undercooked—a handful of songs are just a single verse and a hook, with no clear relationship between the two. So a song like "Not My Bro" opens with a bang and then shrinks back into nothing, a series of pitchy, singsongy whines. It's a lot of things —irritating, boring —but "fun" isn't one of them.

Yachty’s simplicity works in his favor when it comes to catchy hooks. On the better songs here, he sings/raps over bubbly, retro N64-sounding productions (mostly produced by Burberry Perry) that convey childlike wonder and amusement. But the hooks don’t do nearly enough to balance out Yachty’s painful shrieks, and many of his ideas aren’t just basic, they’re sloppily executed. Attempting to form a working model out of the flotsam of the moment is a fool’s errand. But what else is to be expected of a prisoner of shifting tides?

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How Lil Yachty Became Michigan Boy Boat

Before the release of ‘Michigan Boy Boat,’ Lil Yachty sits for an interview about how his collabs with Michigan artists energized him to grow as a rapper.

Lil Yachty has been spending a lot of time in Michigan lately.

Midway through one low-budget music video for a song called “Flintana,” he shows up in a parking lot with a crew of up-and-coming rappers from Flint: RMC Mike, YN Jay, and Louie Ray. At the beginning of the clip, there’s a disclaimer that says, “This song was made the night before, therefore nobody knew the lyrics,” and everything about it has the raw, spontaneous feeling of a collaboration that came to life on a whim at 2 a.m. In other words, it’s in a completely different universe from the glossy sheen of a song like “Oprah’s Bank Account.”

As Yachty lowers himself on the concrete and does push-ups at the end of Mike’s verse, you can’t help but wonder how the hell he ended up in a random Flint parking lot with a bunch of underground rappers in the first place. But he does such a good job matching the spirit of the song, context doesn’t really matter here. It’s all energy. After a few quick bars about pussy and a mouth full of gold, Yachty circles back with a couple Snoh Aalegra and Kevin Federline references to punctuate his second verse. And when he’s not rapping, he laughs along with punchlines from Mike, Jay, and Ray, hyping up his collaborators. “They have fun,” he says now. “They talk about all kinds of crazy shit.”

Later, there’s a Lil Yachty sighting at a Detroit studio with Rio Da Yung OG , and he materializes on two more songs with YN Jay. As the year progresses, Yachty’s Michigan collaborations keep popping up online, and each time he tries out self-described “unorthodox” flows, pushing himself to wild new lyrical territory. On all of them, he sounds more energized than we’ve heard him in years. Before long, it’s clear Yachty has become an honorary member of the Michigan rap scene, home to some of the most exciting ( and quotable ) new artists on the planet.

“They’re mad fucking lyrical in a weird way,” he points out. “The schemes and the cadences and the flows are so unorthodox.”

Yachty says these collaborations have taught him “how to have fun with it” again. He’s having so much fun, in fact, that he decided to make a whole mixtape and call it Michigan Boy Boat . The project will arrive on April 23, and judging by the tags on the announcement Instagram post , it will feature everyone from Veeze to Babyface Ray to Sada Baby to Icewear Vezzo. As Yachty puts it, the project is an opportunity to show love to the scene he’s grown to care about so much.

As the release date nears, the 23-year-old rapper hopped on the phone with Complex to talk about Michigan Boy Boat, three other projects he’s working on, a night in the studio with Freddie Gibbs, and more. The interview, lightly edited for clarity, is below.

Photo by Gunner Stahl  

How did you first get plugged in with the Michigan rap scene? I’ve always loved Detroit rap. I used to work with Pablo Skywalkin back in 2016. And I always loved Tee Grizzley. “First Day Out” was such an insane song, and I thought he was so lyrical. So I was working with him, and then my best friend Mitch started putting me on to other rappers locally who were on the rise, and I just loved their beats and their rapping schemes. I thought they were so dope. So that’s how I got into it originally.

A lot of people were surprised to see you show up in so many music videos with underground rappers in Flint and Detroit last year. How did the collaborations start happening? I was reaching out to them, bro. I was just coming to them. I wasn’t afraid to show love, and I wanted to work with all of them. So I would just hit them up.

What is it about their music that made you want to work with them? They don’t care. They want to have fun. And it’s funny . They’re mad fucking lyrical in a weird way. The schemes and the cadences and the flows are so unorthodox. And the style of Michigan beats just forced me into this really weird scheme. You’ll see when this mixtape comes out. I just rap really unorthodox on it. A lot of people won’t like it. A lot of people think it’s offbeat.

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Do you think these beats have pushed you to grow as a rapper? Yeah, I learned new schemes and cadences. And I learned to have fun with it. They have fun. They talk about all kinds of crazy shit.

Michigan Boy Boat is on the way. What made you want to do a full tape with songs like this? I just wanted to show love. That’s it. I just wanted to show love to all of those guys and their talent. And I feel like I rap my best on those types of beats.

You sound really energized lately. I remember a few months ago, you jumped in Cardo’s room on Clubhouse and told everyone how excited you were about a verse you had just written. Yeah. That verse was so fucking crazy. I was sitting on the toilet.

Overall, it seems like you’re having a lot of fun making music right now. Oh, yeah. And I’m about to drop so much shit, it doesn’t make any sense. I’m definitely having fun.

A couple months ago, you dropped “Hit Bout It” with Kodak Black, which was a crazy moment. What was that experience like? We didn’t record it in person, but I did take a trip out there to shoot the video. When I recorded the song, I was on my Detroit shit. What happened was, I posted a snippet on my Instagram. And he was originally supposed to do a verse for “Pardon Me.” You know, because he was just pardoned by Donald Trump. Then he was like, “Man, I ain’t going to lie. I really want to get on this.” I was super excited, and we made it happen.

In the behind-the-scenes video, it looked like you guys have a tight bond together. What’s your relationship like, and how did that all go down? I don’t know how or why. It just kinda happened. I hit him when he was in jail, and I wanted to show support and that I was fucking with him. And he would call me every now and then. We’d chop it up and just talk. I think he really supported that and respected that. And when he got out, it was just love.

Speaking of collaborations, you were just tweeting about Freddie Gibbs assembling the Avengers for his next album. Yeah, I was with him last night. I put him on some Detroit shit. [Laughs.]

How did you guys link up? After I tweeted that, he DM’d me, like, “Let’s link.” And I was out here and I pulled right the fuck up.

What was that session like? I was super excited. He’s really fire. He’s like a legend. He was super cool. He’s like a gangster. He was super dope, and he’s older. The session was really chill. I didn’t stay long, unfortunately, because I had to go to a session with Mac DeMarco, so I did the song and left. But it was dope as fuck. He’s funny as shit.

You recently tweeted , “I be sittin back watching y’all assumptions on situations and y’all be so off. The internet just be making up shit.” Do you think people have misconceptions about you at this point? What do people get wrong? Yeah, [some people] think I’m gay as fuck. But I have a beautiful girlfriend. And before her, I had plenty of bitches. You know? So that’s a misconception. But I don’t give a fuck.

You’ve been writing songs for other artists a little lately, like “Act Up” for City Girls, which I think opened some people’s minds to how talented you really are. Is that part of the appeal? I love gaining my respect.

As a songwriter for other artists, you have to put yourself in someone else’s point of view, and you’ve pulled it off really well so far. Why do you think it’s come naturally for you? Honestly, I was just bored, bro. One day I was in the studio, bored as fuck. And I was like, “Let me see if I can do this.” I did it.

Is that something you want to do more? I’ve done it a few times. I’ve done it. I stopped speaking on it.

I see. I was going to ask if you’d explore that more and ever write songs for pop artists or anything. Yeah, I’ve done some shit. I don’t want to get into it, but I’ve done some shit.

“Just listen to the f*cking bars because I promise I’m rapping my f*cking a** off.”

I know you’ve been in the studio with Taz Taylor and the Internet Money guys. Can you talk about that? We’re doing an album. I’m about to go see Taz right now. He’s a fucking king. He’s a fucking GOAT. I have respect for him, 100%.

What have the sessions been like so far? I’ve been in LA three days, and we’ve already made 24 songs. We’re working hard, bro. It’s fun. It’s melodic. It’s fully melodic.

Oh, shit. So a totally different sound from this next Michigan Boy Boat project… Yeah, I got projects, man. I’ve got my project with Internet Money. I’m doing my project with Lil Tecca. I got my project with Working On Dying. And then I’ll start my album fourth quarter of the year.

So there’s lots of shit going on. I’m dropping a shit ton this year.

What made you want to make a bunch of different projects that show all your different styles, instead of just holding off and doing one big album? It didn’t start off that way. It honestly started off with me just fucking with all these guys that I fuck with. And they all love me for different things. Taz, he wanted to bring out my melodic side. You know, with Working On Dying, it’s just all types of heat.

Before you go, I wanted to ask about cryptocurrency. You created your YachtyCoin and then made an NFT. And I know you were an early investor in Dogecoin and SafeMoon and all this shit. How did you get into all of this? Well, my manager put me onto the whole YachtyCoin thing. This year and last year, I just took it and ran with it.

There are stories of people who invested early making ridiculous amounts of money. I know you were early, too. Have you seen crazy profits already? Oh, yeah. Ohhhh yeah . Mm-hmm.

What should people know before they press play on Michigan Boy Boat when it drops? Just listen to the fucking bars because I promise I’m rapping my fucking ass off.

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