lil yachty stack it up

• Artists add

Stack It Up

Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher

• Highest Rated
• Most Recent
• Oldest First
• No Comments

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

• Artists - L
• Stack It Up Lyrics
• Artists - S
• Speedy Ortiz

More Featured Meanings

Most popular lyric tags

More lil yachty lyrics.

• Song for U Lyrics
• Up There Music Lyrics
• Westside Lyrics
• Til the Morning Lyrics
• Whew’ Chile Lyrics

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Let’s Start Here.

By Alphonse Pierre

Quality Control / Motown

February 1, 2023

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 be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper or some mumble rapper.” This is the speech rappers are obligated to give when it comes time for the drum loop to take a backseat to guitars, for the rapping to be muted in favor of singing, for the ad-libs to give it up to the background singers, and for a brigade of white producers with plaque-lined walls to be invited into the fold. 

Rap fans, including myself, don’t want to hear it, but the reality is that in large slices of music and pop culture, “rapper” is thrown around with salt on the tongue. Pop culture is powerfully influenced by hip-hop, that is until the rappers get too close and the hands reach for the pearls. If anything, the 25-year-old Yachty—as one of the few rappers of his generation able to walk through the front door anyway because of his typically Gushers-sweet sound and innocently youthful beaded braid look—might be the wrong messenger. 

What’s sour about Yachty’s statement isn’t the idea that he wants to be taken seriously as an artist, but the question of  who  he wants to be taken seriously by. When Yachty first got on, a certain corner of rap fandom saw his marble-mouthed enunciation and unwillingness to drool over hip-hop history as symbols of what was ruining the genre they claimed to love. A few artists more beholden to tradition did some finger-wagging— Pete Rock and  Joe Budden ,  Vic Mensa and  Anderson .Paak , subliminals from  Kendrick and  Cole —but that was years ago, and by now they’ve found new targets. These days, Yachty is respected just fine within rap. If he weren’t, his year-long rebirth in the Michigan rap scene, which resulted in the good-not-great  Michigan Boy Boat , would have been viewed solely as a cynical attempt to boost his rap bona fides. His immersion there felt earnest, though, like he was proving to himself that he could hang. 

The respect Yachty is chasing on  Let’s Start Here. feels institutional. It’s for the voting committees, for the suits; for  Questlove to shout him out as  the future , for Ebro to invite him  back on his radio show and say  My bad, you’re dope.  Never mind if you thought Lil Yachty was dope to start with: The goal of this album is to go beyond all expectations and rules for rappers.

And the big pivot is… a highly manicured and expensive blend of  Tame Impala -style psych-rock, A24 synth-pop, loungey R&B, and  Silk Sonic -esque funk, a sound so immediately appealing that it doesn’t feel experimental at all. In 2020, Yachty’s generational peers,  Lil Uzi Vert and  Playboi Carti , released  Eternal Atake and  Whole Lotta Red : albums that pushed forward pre-existing sounds to the point of inimitability, showcases not only for the artists’ raps but their conceptual visions. Yachty, meanwhile, is working within a template that is already well-defined and commercially successful. This is what the monologue was for? 

To Yachty’s credit, he gives the standout performance on a crowded project. It’s the same gift for versatility that’s made him a singular rapper: He bounces from style to style without losing his individuality. A less interesting artist would have been made anonymous by the polished sounds of producers like  Chairlift ’s Patrick Wimberly,  Unknown Mortal Orchestra ’s Jacob Portrait, and pop songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, or had their voice warped by writing credits that bring together  Mac DeMarco ,  Alex G , and, uh,  Tory Lanez . The production always leans more indulgent than thrilling, more scattershot than conceptual. But Yachty himself hangs onto the ideas he’s been struggling to articulate since 2017’s  Teenage Emotions : loneliness, heartbreak, overcoming failure. He’s still not a strong enough writer to nail them, and none of the professionals collecting checks in the credits seem to have been much help, but his immensely expressive vocals make up for it. 

Actually, for all the commotion about the genre jump on this project, the real draw is the ways in which Yachty uses Auto-Tune and other vocal effects as tools to unlock not just sounds but emotion. Building off the vocal wrinkle introduced on last year’s viral moment “ Poland ,” where he sounds like he’s cooing through a ceiling fan, the highlights on  Let’s Start Here. stretch his voice in unusual directions. The vocals in the background of his wistful hook on “pRETTy” sound like he’s trying to harmonize while getting a deep-tissue massage. His shrill melodies on “paint THE sky” could have grooved with  the Weeknd on  Dawn FM . The opening warble of “running out of time” is like Yachty’s imitation of  Bruno Mars imitating  James Brown , and the way he can’t quite restrain his screechiness enough to flawlessly copy it is what makes it original.

Too bad everything surrounding his unpredictable and adventurous vocal detours is so conventional. Instrumental moments that feel like they’re supposed to be weird and psychedelic—the hard rock guitar riff that coasts to a blissful finale in “the BLACK seminole.” or the slow build of “REACH THE SUNSHINE.”—come off like half-measures.  Diana Gordon ’s falsetto-led funk on “drive ME crazy!” reaches for a superhuman register, but other guest appearances, like  Fousheé ’s clipped lilts on “pRETTy” and  Daniel Caesar ’s faded howls on the outro, are forgettable. None of it is ever  bad : The synths on “sAy sOMETHINg” shimmer; the drawn-out intro and outro of “WE SAW THE SUN!” set the lost, trippy mood they’re supposed to; “THE zone~” blooms over and over again, underlined by  Justine Skye ’s sweet and unhurried melodies. It’s all so easy to digest, so pitch-perfect, so safe.  Let’s Start Here. clearly and badly wants to be hanging up on those dorm room walls with  Currents and  Blonde and  IGOR . It might just work, too. 

Instead, consider this album a reminder of how limitless rap can be. We’re so eager for the future of the genre to arrive that current sounds are viewed as restricting and lesser. But rap is everything you can imagine. I’m thinking about “Poland,” a song stranger than anything here: straight-up 1:23 of chaos, as inventive as it is fun. I took that track as seriously as anything I heard last year because it latches onto a simple rap melody and pushes it to the brink. Soon enough, another rapper will hear that and take it in another direction, then another will do the same. That’s how you really get to the future. 

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Pitchfork. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

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

By Brady Brickner-Wood

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.

Wayfair's Dining Sale - Up to 60% off + free delivery

Military Members save 15% Off - Michaels coupon

Enjoy 30% Off w/ ASOS Promo Code

eBay coupon for +$5 Off sitewide

Enjoy Peacock Premium for Only $1.99/Month Instead of $5.99

Enjoy up to 20% discount - Samsung Promo Code

• facebook-rs

How Lil Yachty Got His Second Act

By Jeff Ihaza

Until the pandemic, Lil Yachty never stopped to think about how quickly he became famous. “It was a full year from walking across the stage in high school to then I’m in this penthouse in midtown Atlanta , I got this G-wagon, put my mother in a house,” Yachty explains. “It’s a fast life. You not ever getting the chance to think about a lot of shit.”

Yachty’s 2016 hit “Minnesota,” which had the treacly energy of a nursery rhyme, earned the then-17-year-old the title “King of the Teens.” But since then, he’s become an elder statesman of a certain brand of young superstar — and something like the Gen Z answer to Diddy. He collaborated with brands like Nautica and Target; he appeared in the movie How High 2 ; he signed an endorsement deal with Sprite. Signees to his new label imprint, Concrete Boys, even get an iced-out chain.

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

Born Miles Parks McCollum, Yachty embodies many of the ways the music industry has changed in the past decade. He rose to fame on the internet and commands attention with or without new music. Over Zoom in March, he’s calm and reserved, pausing intently before he responds to questions. The youthful exuberance is still there, though. At one point, his mom, who lives nearby, calls to ask what he wants from the grocery store. “I need Pop-Tarts,” he says sweetly. “I really want them cinnamon-bun Pop-Tarts.”

He can afford lots of Pop-Tarts. Yachty reportedly made $13 million on endorsements in 2016 and 2017. (“Work hard, play hard,” he responds when asked about the number.) He spends more than $50,000 a month on various expenses, according to one recent headline. (“If anything I pay a little more. I have many assets and insurance, plus an elaborate payroll.”) He’s working on a Reese’s Puffs cereal collaboration, a film based on the card game Uno, and he was one of the first rappers to hop on the crypto craze, selling something called a “YachtyCoin” last December in an auction on the platform Nifty Gateway. According to a report from Coinbase, the token sold for $16,050. Yachty explains that when he was first discovered by Quality Control records founder Kevin “Coach K” Lee, “one of the biggest things he talked about was being a brand. Being bigger than just an artist — being a mogul.” 

Related Stories

Teezo touchdown: birth of a rock star, with 'problemista,' julio torres wrote a dark fairy tale. tilda swinton brought it to life.

In fact, collaboration has come to be a useful tool for Yachty as he sheds the King of the Teens title for something more akin to a rap mogul. “I only work with people I have friendships with, who I really admire,” Yachty says. “And I love working with newer artists, up-and-coming artists.”  Within the world of hip-hop, Yachty has found for himself somewhere between a megastar and internet hero, and it would appear that he’s just settling in. “I just fuck with new talent. Not even like, ‘let me sign you, get under my wing,’ ” he explains. “Just ‘hey, I’ve been in this spot before. I know what that’s like, bada bing, bada boom.’ ”

Yachty started Concrete Boys last year. One of the first signees was his childhood friend Draft Day, who offers one of the more exciting features on Lil Boat 3, on the cut “Demon Time.” “I feel old sometimes,” Yachty admits. “I feel old as fuck when someone’s popping and I don’t know who they are. Which is rare, because I be on my shit.”

Yachty is also at the forefront of a new realm of social platforms, namely Twitch and Discord, that engender more direct communication within communities. Yachty frequently talks directly to fans on both platforms, and in April he collaborated with Discord on “sound packs,” which allowed users to replace the app’s normal notifications with sounds he created. 

Kristen Stewart Uncensored: 'I Want to Do the Gayest Thing You've Ever Seen in Your Life'

This bar is closing during the rnc so it doesn’t have to serve trumpers, right-wingers are terrified of our gay kristen stewart cover, gypsy rose blanchard deletes public social media accounts: 'that's not real life'.

I ask Yachty where he sees himself in five years. “Hopefully, a really successful actor,” he responds. “And with a bangin’ eight pack. I’ll probably cut my hair up, maybe a little beard. Real sex-symbol shit, you know what I’m saying?” For Yachty, who opened the door to a new brand of celebrity rapper, it doesn’t register as wishful thinking. His enduring celebrity is proof of what’s possible with a solid flow and internet savvy. “I just want to do everything. Because I’ve realized I can,” Yachty explains. “I’ve learned the power I have. The only thing stopping me is me, for real.”

See Zach Bryan Debut New Song 'Sandpaper' at Newark Concert

• 'smooth me out'
• By Daniel Kreps

The Best of SXSW Day Four: Eliza McLamb, Lip Critic, Rocket, and More

• By Rolling Stone

Faye Webster Closes Rolling Stone's Future of Music Showcase With Late-Night Pedal-Steel Bliss

• By Angie Martoccio

Fletcher Worried She Might Have to Quit Music. Now, She's Healing in More Ways Than One

• Finding the Antidote
• By Waiss Aramesh

The Inventor of Karaoke Has Died, But His Legacy Is Louder Than Ever

• By Rob Sheffield

Most Popular

Oscars: full list of winners, 'oppenheimer' reigns at oscars with seven wins, including best picture and director: full winners list, kate middleton is reportedly ‘struggling’ with this trait of hers amid her recovery, snoop dogg responds to suge knight's claim that he, diddy, and dr. dre are in "secret society", you might also like, box office: ‘kung fu panda’ and ‘dune’ ruling again, mark wahlberg’s ‘arthur the king’ fetches $3 million opening day, exclusive: kourtney kardashian barker talks lemme’s recent target launch ahead of celebratory star-studded brunch, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, celebrate st. patrick’s day with ‘zardoz,’ the strangest sean connery blockbuster ever filmed in ireland, angel city for sale: nwsl’s most valuable team seeks new owner.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

"Stack It Up" lyrics

• Lil Yachty Lyrics

Lil Yachty – Stack It Up lyrics

• Post my meaning
• Write my explanation new To explain lyrics, select line or word and click "Explain".
• Don't understand the meaning of the song?
• Highlight lyrics and request an explanation.
• Click on highlighted lyrics to explain.

Lyrics taken from /lyrics/l/lil_yachty/stack_it_up.html

• Explanations new To explain lyrics, select line or word and click "Explain".
• Share link: Embed:
• Correct Add song structure elements Click "Correct" to open the "Correction form". There you can add structure tags, correct typos or add missing words. Send your correction and get karma points! Result of your work will appear after moderating. OK, got it!
• Midnight Sky Miley Cyrus
• ​Positions Ariana Grande
• Therefore I Am Billie Eilish
• Monster Shawn Mendes
• Christmas Saves The Year twenty one pilots
• Willow Taylor Swift

Stack It Up meanings

Write about your feelings and thoughts about stack it up.

Hey! It's useful.

If this song really means something special to you, describe your feelings and thoughts . Don't hesitate to explain what songwriters and singer wanted to say. Also we collected some tips and tricks for you:

• Don't write just "I love this song." Hidden between the lines, words and thoughts sometimes hold many different not yet explained meanings
• Remember: your meaning might be valuable for someone
• Don't post links to images and links to facts
• Write correctly
• Don't spam and write clearly off-topic meanings
• Don't write abusive, vulgar, offensive, racist, threatening or harassing meanings
• Do not post anything that you do not have the right to post
• Please note: We moderate every meaning

Follow these rules and your meaning will be published

• → Artist: L
• → Lil Yachty
• → Stack It Up lyrics

Post meanings

Official video.

More Lil Yachty lyrics

• I Don't Fuck With Niggas
• They Looking
• Who Want The Smoke?
• Just Keep Swimming (Intro)
• GO! (REMIX)
• Oprah's Bank Account
• Split / Whole Time

Featured lyrics

• · Hard Place Lyrics H.E.R.
• · Clout Lyrics Offset
• · July Lyrics Noah Cyrus
• · Broken & Beautiful Lyrics Kelly Clarkson
• · Kill This Love Lyrics BLACKPINK
• · Boyfriend Lyrics Ariana Grande
• · Better Lyrics Khalid
• · Rescue Me Lyrics OneRepublic
• · Old Town Road Lyrics Lil Nas X
• · Lily Lyrics Alan Walker

Write an explanation

Explanation guidelines:

• Describe what artist is trying to say in a certain line, whether it's personal feelings, strong statement or something else.
• Provide song facts, names, places and other worthy info that may give readers a perfect insight on the song's meaning.
• Add links, pictures and videos to make your explanation more appealing. Provide quotes to support the facts you mention.

Request explanation

• Ask us or our community about the part of the song that interests you
• We will try to respond as soon as possible

Thanks for correcting Lil Yachty - Stack It Up lyrics!

• Manage Account

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

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

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

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Honda Music Expand honda-music menu

Summerfest announces performances by Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, JID, Rico Nasty and LIHTZ

In Today's Talker — Lil Uzi Vert will headline the American Family Insurance Amphitheater on the last day of Summerfest.

He'll be joined by special guests Lil Yachty, JID, Rico Nasty, and LIHTZ on Saturday, July 6th.

This will be Lil Uzi Vert's first time playing at Summerfest since 2018 when he played the Harley Davidson Roadhouse.

Tickets go on sale Friday, March 15th at 10:00 a.m. Visit Summerfest's website directly or go to Ticketmaster.com . You can also go to the American Family Insurance Amphitheater Box Office to purchase tickets and include admission to Summerfest the day of the show.

The lineup for Summerfest is starting to taking shape. Leaders with the festival announced performances by Keith Urban , and Tyler Childers .

Summerfest will once again stick with the three weekend format for the festival. The dates are June 20-22, June 27-29 and July 4-6.

You can see the lineup as it currently stands here . Leaders with Summerfest say the final lineup will be announced soon.

Watch the full Today's Talker above.

It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.

Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.

Report a typo or error // Submit a news tip

Report a typo

Sign up for our new TMJ4 Morning Headlines Newsletter and get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.

Now signed up to receive the morning headlines newsletter..

Celebrating Women's History Month

Hip-hop stars Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, JID, Rico Nasty closing out Milwaukee's Summerfest

Summerfest will wrap up the 2024 edition with a stacked hip-hop show at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater.

Lil Uzi Vert — whose three studio albums from 2017 to last year's "Pink Tape" have all hit the top of the Billboard 200 — is leading a five-act bill July 6 that includes fellow heavy hitters Lil Yachty and JID, plus up-and-comers Rico Nasty and LIHTZ.

Currently, the Summerfest date is the only show on Lil Uzi Vert's schedule aside from Coachella in California next month.

Get daily updates on the Packers during the season.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at the box office (200 N. Harbor Drive) and summerfest.com . Prices have yet to be announced but will include Summerfest general admission July 6.

This is the seventh of nine amphitheater shows announced for the Milwaukee music festival, returning June 20 to 22, June 27 to 29 and July 4 to 6.

The others: Kane Brown with Kameron Marlowe and Nightly (June 20); Motley Crue with Seether and Buckcherry (June 21); Tyler Childers with S.G. Goodman and Adeem the Artist (June 28); Keith Urban with NEEDTOBREATHE and Alana Springsteen (June 29); AJR with Carly Rae Jepsen and Mxmtoon (July 4); and Maroon 5 (July 5).

Pop artist FLETCHER booked for BMO Pavilion Summerfest show

The Lil Uzi Vert show wasn't the only Summerfest show announced Monday. Pop singer FLETCHER, who won Outstanding Music Artist at the GLAAD Media Awards last year, will play the BMO Pavilion on June 29.

Reserved seats also go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. Prices have yet to be announced, but tickets will include Summerfest general admission June 29. Additional seating will be available for the show on a first-come, first-served basis for Summerfest general-admission ticketholders.

Seven other BMO Pavilion concerts have already been announced for the Big Gig: Brittany Howard with The War & Treaty (June 20), Goo Goo Dolls (June 22), Muna (June 27), REO Speedwagon (June 28), Mt. Joy (July 4), Bryson Tiller (July 5) and Ivan Cornejo (July 6).

The nearly full headliner lineup is expected to be released this month.

Summerfest 2024 predictions: 25 artists we think (or hope) will headline the Milwaukee festival

What to know: Milwaukee's Summerfest reveals fest's economic impact down slightly over the past decade

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or  [email protected] . Follow him on X at  @pietlevy  or Facebook at  facebook.com/PietLevyMJS .

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hip-hop stars Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, JID, Rico Nasty closing out Milwaukee's Summerfest

• pop Culture
• Complex Volume
• Facebook Navigation Icon
• Twitter Navigation Icon
• WhatsApp icon
• Instagram Navigation Icon
• Youtube Navigation Icon
• Snapchat Navigation Icon
• TikTok Navigation Icon
• pigeons & planes
• newsletters
• Youtube logo nav bar 0 youtube
• Twitch logo twitch
• Netflix logo netflix
• Hulu logo hulu
• Roku logo roku
• Crackle Logo Crackle
• RedBox Logo RedBox
• Tubi logo tubi
• Facebook logo facebook
• Twitter Navigation Icon x
• Instagram Navigation Icon instagram
• Snapchat Navigation Icon snapchat
• TikTok Navigation Icon tiktok
• WhatsApp icon whatsapp
• Flipboard logo nav bar 1 flipboard
• RSS feed icon rss feed

Complex Sites

• complexland

Work with us

Complex global.

• united states
• united kingdom
• netherlands
• philippines
• complex chinese

terms of use

privacy policy

manage preferences

california privacy

public notice

accessibility statement

COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive.

© Complex Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Complex.com is a part of

Penfield Bring Back Noel Gallagher’s Famed ‘Pac Jac’ As Part Of SS24 Icons Collection

The lightweight anorak was made famous at a ‘96 Oasis gig in Manchester.

At the height of Britpop’s powers in the 1990s, Oasis had grown into fashion icons. Parkas, peacoats, a mix of ‘60s mod looks and ‘90s baggy style made both Gallagher brothers the talk of the style world. One look, in particular, is making a comeback as Penfield re-release the Pac Jac.

The lightweight anorak was previously re-released in 2015 for the brand’s 40th anniversary and is now being reintroduced as part of Penfield’s Icons Collection for Spring/Summer 2024. The jacket was made famous by Noel back in April 1996 when Oasis took to the stage for a homecoming gig. Riding high on two successful albums— Definitely Maybe and What’s The Story (Morning Glory) —the band took to the stage at Man City’s Maine Road home ground for a rainy headline show.

Knebworth was yet to come so these triumphant gigs in front of 80,000 indie-rock fans carried huge emotional weight for the band and the colour-block Pac Jac has been a highly sought-after piece of memorabilia on vintage sites.

You can shop the new Penfiled collection over at the brand’s webstore .

SHARE THIS STORY

Sign up for the

Complex Newsletter

Your leading source for what’s now and what’s next in Music, Style, Sports, and Pop Culture.

By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you’re agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our

Latest in Style

| BY JOE PRICE

YZY Gap Pop-Up Sale Shut Down by LAPD Over Suspected Theft: ‘This Merchandise Has Been Stolen From Ye’ (UPDATED)

| BY TARA MAHADEVAN

Future's Final Collection for Lanvin Lab Is Here

| BY ARIA HUGHES

How Hugo Boss Is Tapping Into Streetwear to Reach the Gen Z Consumer

| BY JAELANI TURNER-WILLIAMS

Heron Preston and H&M's H2 Collection Has Arrived

| BY ALEX OCHO

Jermaine Dupri Brings Back His Louis Vuitton Pearl Socks, Clowning Resumes

| BY MIKE DESTEFANO

Best Style Releases: Denim Tears, Akimbo Club Hoodies, and More

COS Announces SS24 Runway Show in Rome

Luh Tyler Got Iced-Out Timmy Turner and Other 'Fairly OddParents' Characters From Icebox

Rick Ross Responds to Claim That His $3 Million Audemars Piguet Is Fake

Kanye West, Tyga, and Mia Khalifa Model in Y/Project FW24 Campaign

To get $9 million in pandemic aid, Lil Wayne pledged to operate a 'drug-free workplace.' The feds believed him.

• A pandemic program for indie music venues ended up paying millions to rich musicians.
• Artists had to certify that they ran "drug-free" workplaces. We sued to get the docs.
• Post Malone is open about using shrooms. Lil Wayne loves weed. But they told the feds otherwise.

Lil Wayne is a big fan of marijuana. He often smokes joints on podcasts and onstage, and the word "baked" is tattooed on his forehead. In 2019, he launched a marijuana brand, and a few years before that, he told an interviewer that weed was one of the most important things in his life.

But in 2021, Lil Wayne — whose real name is Dwayne Carter — told the government his touring company was a " drug-free workplace ." The "dangers" of drugs such as weed were communicated to employees, he said, and they were told they could be punished or be forced to go to rehab .

No one at the Small Business Administration appeared to question it, and the government cut a $8.9 million check to Lil Wayne's company Young Money Touring Inc.

Similarly, Austin Post, a singer better known as Post Malone , told the SBA his company Posty Touring Inc. warned employees against using drugs. But in 2020, Post said on Joe Rogan's podcast that he made music while on hallucinogenic mushrooms, whose active compound psilocybin has been a Schedule 1 drug since 1970.

Last year, Post again told an interviewer, " Yeah, I take shrooms ." While he differentiated them from "hard drugs" and alluded to the potential medical benefits of the fungi , they're still banned.

The documents signed by Carter and Post, ​​whose company got $10 million in free government money, were among dozens that Business Insider received after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the SBA. There's no sign the SBA investigated them at all in its rush to cut checks; the agency's inspector general said last year that employees had just four hours to review applications, with little time to conduct due diligence. The SBA's inspector general declined a request for comment on BI's reporting, as its policy prevents it from commenting on specific documents or confirming or denying investigative activity.

In an email sent to BI after publication of this story, the SBA said the drug certification was fairly narrow. It didn't cover "personal actions" of people like Carter, Post or the members of Beach House, or any drug use outside the period from March 2020 to June 2022, the agency said.

While it may seem like a stretch for the SBA to tie Lil Wayne or Post Malone's pandemic payouts to their drug-law compliance, similar requirements have been in place for recipients of federal funds for decades. States and cities also sometimes demand to know what's in people's bloodstreams before cutting checks; several states have tried to require drug tests for welfare recipients, and San Francisco just voted to require recipients of cash grants to pass a drug screening.

"When you have social status, your substance use is treated in a different way," Harold Pollack, a public-health expert at the University of Chicago, said. "They don't brutalize a lot of celebrities for behaviors that we would very harshly treat in people with less prestige."

'Too much MDMA'

Companies led by Carter and Post were among the recipients of aid under the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, which was meant to help struggling music venues avoid bankruptcy. In 2023, BI spotlighted $200 million in payments from the initiative to big-name artists, many of them already rich and most of them clients of the Los Angeles accounting and asset-management firm NKSFB.

As with many federal programs, recipients had to certify that they followed federal laws. In other words, freewheeling musicians who sometimes got by with a little help from their friends had to commit themselves to the kinds of standards more often applied to defense contractors such as Elon Musk's SpaceX .

Related stories

"The fact that touring artists have a different lifestyle doesn't mean that they weren't impacted in a substantial way by the pandemic," Josh Schiller, a lawyer who has represented clients in the entertainment industry and sued to legalize marijuana, said. "Was there a better use of those grants?" Schiller said. "I think that's really a good question."

Some of the artists who claimed to be drug-free have posted pics on Instagram of working in weed-smoke-filled recording studios. The touring company for the dream-pop duo Beach House, who NME reported blamed a festival snafu on " too much MDMA ," duly professed to be drug-free, but in 2022, the band's official Twitter account cheered the " huge cloud of weed smoke " that blew over the stage when they performed.

"Hell yeah," the post said.

Representatives for Beach House didn't respond to a request for comment, nor did press contacts for Lil Wayne or Post Malone.

The feds could claw the money back

The SBA told grant applicants that they could be sued or even prosecuted for lying.

If "an entity is found to have made material misrepresentations on its application as part of a fraudulent effort to obtain SVOG funding , it will have committed an act of perjury and could be subject to various civil and criminal penalties," the agency's FAQ page said.

But so far, no one has been. And especially in the case of artists using weed, it's likely they won't be because of changing norms around marijuana.

"Federal attorneys are so jammed up with cases now, they're going to look at something like that and say, 'Oh, that's a nightmare. I decline,'" Dan Meyer, an attorney who advises federal employees on security-clearance issues, said.

The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program was well funded enough to cut a second round of checks to recipients. But some businesses that weren't very different from venues and stages didn't qualify for assistance at all. Andrew Preble, who runs a New Orleans escape-room business, said he was frustrated to hear from an SBA official that he should've lobbied Congress.

"I'm not necessarily against everyone getting money," he said. But "then everybody should've gotten money, versus only a few," he added.

Nenette Day, a retired federal agent who worked on pandemic-related cases, said lying to the government to get pandemic-relief funds was outrageous. But she said agencies were trying to stimulate the economy and realized that some of what they were shoveling out the door would be wasted.

"They said, 'We will accept a certain amount of loss because we don't have the luxury of designing a foolproof program,'" Day said.

But the threat of prosecution can spur settlements. Day said that some people who wrongly received Paycheck Protection Program funds gave the money back once confronted.

An SBA spokesperson also flagged that NASA didn't yank SpaceX's contracts after Musk smoked a joint on Rogan's podcast, which is also where Post discussed his use of shrooms before getting an SBA grant. But it said it's keeping an eye out.

"The SBA's process of monitoring and auditing of grant recipients is actively ongoing. To date, about $40 million has been returned from SVOG grantees and additional files have been referred for ongoing criminal investigation or civil recovery," the agency said. "To date, none of the recoveries relate to the drug-free certification." March 11, 2024, 5 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comments from the Small Business Administration given after publication.

Watch: Lil Wayne says Drake is getting screwed out of money by his record label

• Main content