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

By Jeff Ihaza

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

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Cast in this new light, the quality that once made it hard for detractors to take him seriously has become Lil Yachty’s greatest strength. His playful vocal acrobatics, his freewheeling gestures into key ranges he might be less than suited for, create a listening experience rooted in feeling. So we open Let’s Start Here with “the BLACK seminole.,” in which Yachty sprinkles sparse musings from history. The title references Afro-Seminole people, free Africans who lived among Seminole groups in what is now Florida. Yachty’s idea fragments ooze together in the psychedelic groove, careful to keep the theoretical framework loose, allowing the words “Black” and “sex symbol” to float off into space carrying only as much weight as they need to. The statement retains potency in its aloofness. It isn’t unheard of to see rappers treading indie-rock terrain, though the efforts tend to have the sheen of corporate crossover. With instrumentation from Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly, Yachty rolls in like a Black cowboy in a way that feels unforced. “A Black man with mouths to feed,” he whispers.

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

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

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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. 

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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.

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Let’s Start Here.

The first song on Lil Yachty’s Let’s Start Here. is nearly seven minutes long and features breathy singing from Yachty, a freewheeling guitar solo, and a mostly instrumental second half that calls to mind TV depictions of astral projecting. “the BLACK seminole.” is an extremely fulfilling listen, but is this the same guy who just a few months earlier delivered the beautifully off-kilter and instantly viral “Poland”? Better yet, is this the guy who not long before that embedded himself with Detroit hip-hop culture to the point of a soft rebrand as Michigan Boy Boat? Sure is. It’s just that, as he puts it on “the BLACK seminole.,” he’s got “No time to joke around/The kid is now a man/And the silence is filled with remarkable sounds.” We could call the silence he’s referring to the years since his last studio album, 2020’s Lil Boat 3, but he’s only been slightly less visible than we’re used to, having released the aforementioned Michigan Boy Boat mixtape while also lending his discerning production ear to Drake and 21 Savage’s ground-shaking album Her Loss. Collaboration, though, is the name of the game across Let’s Start Here., an album deeply indebted to some as yet undisclosed psych-rock influences, with repeated production contributions from onetime blog-rock darlings Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson and Patrick Wimberly, as well as multiple appearances from Diana Gordon, a Queens, New York-hailing singer who made a noise during the earliest parts of her career as Wynter Gordon. Also present are R&B singer Fousheé and Beaumont, Texas, rap weirdo Teezo Touchdown, though rapping is infrequent. In fact, none of what Yachty presents here—which includes dalliances with Parliament-indebted acid funk (“running out of time”), ’80s synthwave (“sAy sOMETHINg,” “paint THE sky”), disco (“drive ME crazy!”), symphonic prog rock (“REACH THE SUNSHINE.”), and a heady monologue called “:(failure(:”—is in any way reflective of any of Yachty’s previous output. Which begs the question, where did all of this come from? You needn’t worry about that, says Yachty on the “the ride-,” singing sternly: “Don’t ask no questions on the ride.”

January 27, 2023 14 Songs, 57 minutes Quality Control Music/Motown Records; ℗ 2023 Quality Control Music, LLC, under exclusive license to UMG Recordings, Inc.

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

By Yousef Srour

Yousef Srour

• Travis Scott’s Long-Delayed ‘Utopia,’ Featuring Beyonce, Drake, the Weeknd and More, Was Worth the Wait: Album Review 8 months ago
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Lil Yachty has revealed the artwork and release date for his forthcoming album, “Let’s Start Here,” set to debut Jan. 27 on Quality Control Music and Motown Records.

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

The post is captioned : “Let’s Start Here. – 1/27  Chapter 2. Thank You for the patience,” hinting at a potential redux of an already teased album, collectively referred to as “Sonic Ranch.” On Dec. 25, Yachty’s latest album was leaked by Leaked.cx, much to the Michigan rapper’s disappointment. He took to Twitter later that day to post a half-hearted sad-face emoji to express anguish in the untimely launch of a potentially seminal work within his discography.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When are we going to get tired of Kanye?

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Lil Yachty Stuns Fans With Brand New Rock Album 'Let's Start Here'

By Tony M. Centeno

January 27, 2023

Lil Yachty has been teasing his new album for some time, but fans weren't ready for the psychedelic vibes he had in store. On Friday, January 27, the Quality Control rapper stunned the industry with his brand new album Let's Start Here. With help from a live band, Lil Boat puts rap to the side as he offers a fresh alternative rock vibe throughout the project. He self-produced 12 out of the 14 songs with contributions from executive producer SADPONY, Patrick Wimberly, Jake Portrait and plenty other beatmakers. The experimental LP has been in the works for over a year. Last January, he explained that he's always wanted to make an alternative rock album.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by C.V T (@lilyachty)

"My new album...it's a non-rap album, it's alternative. It's sick," he told Ice Box jewelers in Atlanta . "I've always wanted to [do an alternative album] but now I have met all these amazing musicians and producers." "It's like a psychedelic alternative project that's cool, it's different," he add. "It's different. It's all live instrumentation. I've changed my dynamic, you know what I'm sayin'? Like, I'm telling you, this album...I'm creating music a whole lot differently." Yachty embraces his love for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon , which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year , and completely switches up his flow as he croons over live guitars and drums. Prior to the album's release, Yachty hosted an exclusive listening party in New Jersey. Initially he advertised "fine dining" on a flyer that went out earlier this week, but was actually just an assortment of snacks and drinks. Among the theater full of attendees were his friends Drake and Offset , who sat next to him in their reserved section.

Lil Yachty shows off the food menu at his album release party for “Lets Start Here” pic.twitter.com/TCVfv0jU4F — 2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2Blog) January 27, 2023

Lil Yachty at his album release party for “Lets Start Here” with Offset & Drake pic.twitter.com/kLxaWeS7pa — 2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2Blog) January 27, 2023

Drake was in attendance for Lil Yachty’s album release party tonight in New Jersey pic.twitter.com/yL1Yn6yOFJ — Drake Direct (@DrakeDirect_) January 27, 2023

Earlier this week, Yachty also dropped a teaser for the album, which could also be a sneak peek into his upcoming video. Let's Start Here. serves as the follow-up to his viral hit "Poland" and his 2021 album Michigan Boy Boat . The latter features Tee Grizzley , Icewear Vezzo , Babyface Ray , Sada Baby , BabyTron and more. Listen to Lil Yachty's new album below.

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Why Lil Yachty Made an Alternative Rock Album

Lil Yachty is among a bevy of artists who have tried their hand at making a rock album. Jay-Z, Machine Gun Kelly, and Lil Wayne are just a few rhymers who went from rap to rock in their music careers.

On Friday (Jan. 27), Lil Yachty released Let's Start Here. , his first alternative rock album. The 14-song collection features Yachty rapping over psychedelic rock productions that included blaring guitars and out-of-this-world sounds.

Lil Yachty 's attempt at alternative rock shouldn't be a total surprise. In October of 2021, Tame Impala shared Yachty's remix of their song "Breathe Deeper." He also appeared in the group's neon-flashing music video for the song. Apparently, while working on the Tame Impala remix, Yachty was inspired to make his alternative rock album.

But Yachty always had an appreciation for rock music. In a August 2016 interview with Nardwuar, he was presented with a gift: a vinyl copy of Coldplay's 2014 album Ghost Stories , much to his delight. "I can sing every song on this bitch from head to toe. This is my favorite album from them," he said.

When Nardwuar asked Lil Boat  in 2016 if he would like to work with the U.K. band, he said "so bad" before singing portions of Coldplay's song "Always in My Head."

Lil Yachty also hinted that he was recording a rock alternative album in January of 2022. While purchasing some expensive bling at the Ice Box jewelry store in Atlanta, the rapper-producer talked about his experimental project.

"My new album...it's a non-rap album, it's alternative. It's sick," he said. "I've always wanted to [do an alternative album] but now I have met all these amazing musicians and producers."

"It's like a psychedelic alternative project that's cool, it's different," he continued. "It's different. It's all live instrumentation."

"I've changed my dynamic, you know what I'm sayin'?" he added. "Like, I'm telling you, this album...I'm creating music a whole lot differently."

Leading up to the release of the  Let's Start Here. album was a little difficult. The project, initially titled Sonic Ranch , leaked online in December of 2022. One track, "The Black Seminole," features live guitars, spacey keyboards and Yachty rapping in an echoic voice. "Sex symbol, the Black Seminole/A sex symbol, the Black Seminole/African Rambo with more ammo/Can't be escaped, I'm on every channel," he delivers.

So Why Did Lil Yachty Make an Alternative Rock Album?

Much like Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, it's all about creative freedom. In an October 2009 interview with Billboard , Weezy described his rock project, Rebirth , as his "freedom album."

"When I said I was doing a rock album, it was about doing a freedom thing. This album isn't hip-hop," the Young Money leader explained to the publication. "When I do my Carter albums, I know I've got to rap, I know I've got to spit...I also know the things I shouldn't say, the things I shouldn't talk about. There's none of those limits on this album [ Rebirth ]. I say what I want, how I want. That's what this album is: a freedom album."

Lil Yachty loves to express himself and doesn't limit his artistry when it comes to creativity. Earlier this month, the "Poland" rapper announced that he wanted to form an all-female backing band. Yachty held several tryouts in different cities, including Atlanta.

On Jan. 12, Yachty wrote in a since-deleted tweet on Twitter: "Putting together a band of women, please pull up to tryouts Thursday."

The 25-year-old rhymer also shared four pictures of text of his requirements for the group. Apparently, Yachty is looking for two to three background singers, a drummer, a keyboard player, a guitar player and a bass player for his all-women band. The location of the auditions was in Lithonia, Ga.

@naomathesun such a cool experience. grateful 4 u @lilyachty #lilyachty #allfemaleband #atlantageorgia ♬ Poland - Lil Yachty

There's no word if Lil Yachty has assembled his all-women band yet, but it will be interesting to see what he has developed with his backing musicians.

As for his experimental rock album, Let's Start Here. ,  fans are already praising  Lil Yachty 's new direction.

Listen to Lil Yachty's Let's Start Here. Album Below

See 20 signs you’re a lil yachty fan, more from xxl.

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Lil yachty debuts at no.1 on billboard’s rock albums chart.

His latest album 'Let's Start Here.' marks his first No.1 album on any Billboard chart.

By Marc Griffin

Marc Griffin

Staff Writer, News

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Lil Yachty ‘s  Let’s Start Here . , his fifth studio album, has become his first No.1 and did so by claiming Billboard ‘s Rock Album Charts top spot. 

Billboard  reports that the alternative psychedelic rock album has secured the coveted spot atop the Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, and Top Alternative Albums charts for the week of Feb. 11, 2023. 

His latest effort moved 36,000 units in its first week, and the LP’s success echoed the artist’s sentiments to be “taken seriously” as a musician . 

“This album is so special and dear to me. I think I created it because I wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. You know? Not just some SoundCloud rapper,” the Mableton, GA-native, expressed during his listening session, according to  Yahoo! News . “Not some mumble rapper. Not some guy that just made one hit. 

J. Cole Previews Two Songs In Second Volume Of 'Might Delete Later'

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Questlove (@questlove)

And his album positively impacted a couple of acclaimed musicians in the game, including Questlove. 

In a Jan. 28 post to Instagram, the iconic Roots drummer detailed how surprised he was at Lil Boat’s musical transition while praising his new body of work. 

“How should I put it? I really really really really love this record and I love when artists pull off a good departure record (departure albums are when musicians pull a COMPLETE creative left turn —-most times as a career sabotage of feeling doomed to not be able to live up to a standard they set,” he captioned his post. “Not being able to make the Thelma & Louise jump. Quitting the job/relationship before you give em a chance to fire you—)—-some famous departure albums backfired (Sgt Peppers wound up making the Beatles even MORE important, further proving you can’t just do tin pan alley showtunes & think THAT is gonna get rid of the screaming fanbase….now the entire world wants a piece of you). 

“This aptly titled  #LetsStartHere  lp might be the most surprising transition of any music career I’ve witnessed in a min, especially under the umbrella of hip hop. I remember  @divinestyler_1  has a sophomore release that shocked me & im still processing the 3rd  @junglebrothers4life  lp some 30 yrs later. But man….whatever you put in your Wheaties bro….keep goin.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by C.V T (@lilyachty)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by DJ Akademiks (@akademiks)

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Lil Yachty Launches Concrete Rekordz in Partnership with Quality Control/HYBE

Hip-hop sensation Lil Yachty unveils his latest venture, Concrete Rekordz, in collaboration with Quality Control Music/HYBE. The announcement coincides with the release of the music video “Family Business” by Concrete Boys’ Karrahbooo and Camo!.

Concrete Rekordz will serve as the home for Concrete Boys, comprising Lil Yachty, Karrahbooo, DC2TRILL, Draft Day, and Camo!. Their debut compilation album, “It’s Us Volume 1,” is slated for release on April 5th.

Introduced during Lil Yachty’s The Field Trip Tour, Concrete Boys gained rapid traction with their single “MO JAMS,” amassing over 2 million views on YouTube. With Lil Yachty’s guidance, the group is poised to make waves as culture shifters in the music industry.

Beyond his rap career, Lil Yachty assumes the role of record label executive with Concrete Rekordz, further contributing to the growth of Quality Control Music/HYBE. With their combined efforts, the label aims to continue shaping the future of hip-hop and beyond.

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

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

You can see the video for “Family Business” below.

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‘Underdressed at the Symphony’ Album Review: Faye Webster Muses on Love, Endings, and the Quirks of Life

For Faye Webster, being “underdressed at the symphony” is a therapeutic experience. As she encountered various challenges — from a rough break-up to the stresses of her increasing fame — Webster found herself gravitating toward the concerts at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It was these spontaneous trips that inspired her fifth album, “Underdressed at the Symphony,” released on March 1.

A break-up album, a reflection on her growing fame, and an ode to the quirks of life, Webster’s fifth album muses on love and loss, confidence and self-perception, memories and nostalgia. Along with pedal steel guitarist Matt “Pistol” Stoessel, keyboardist Nick Rosen, bassist Bryan Howard, and drummer Charles Garner, “Underdressed at the Symphony” features Webster’s unique blend of subdued indie rock, modern country, and electronic R&B.

With 10 tracks, this short but sweet album brings fans Webster’s typical wispy vocals and simple, poignant lyrics that allow the instrumentation to shine. The casual, laidback tunes don’t demand too much from the listener, providing a cozy background track tinged with jazzy elements and orchestral touches — listeners may feel almost as if they are in the room with Webster and her band as they perform a relaxed jam session.

Although the album is implicitly about moving on from a break-up, Webster often dances around the idea of love rather than openly discussing her relationships. Songs like “Thinking About You,” “But Not Kiss,” and “Lifetime” touch on these wistful feelings of lost love, while featuring Webster’s signature soft vocals, oft-repeated refrains, and lo-fi sound effects. In particular, the opening track, “Thinking About You,” is bound to become a classic, taking on an upbeat, jazzy tone interspersed with tinkling bell chimes in a song that is both playful and yet somehow still colored with her signature melancholy.

Webster continues to wax poetic on lost love in “But Not Kiss,” where she sings about her longing in a piece that is also melancholic but nonetheless infused with bright chimes and strings.“I want to sleep in your arms, but not kiss / I long for your touch, but don’t miss,” she sings, the lyrics punctuated by brief bursts of chords interspersed with “Yeah, yeah.” One strength of the album is the unique orchestral details that reference the title of the album.

Despite these euphoric moments where Webster’s songs take on a grand, orchestral quality, most of the songs do not feature any allusions to the album’s title. While the laid-back, simple nature of their compositions makes for a soothing listening experience, the songs feel underwhelming at times. Perhaps more pieces could capture that classical feel, and, although admittedly the idea of being “underdressed” implies a more casual tone, some of her songs still feel slightly plain with their simplistic lyrics and repetitive rhythms.

Nonetheless, this laidback tone does allow for playful moments of levity throughout, in trite, lively numbers like “eBay Purchase History,” “Wanna Quit all the Time,” and a song entitled “Lego Ring” that features Webster’s childhood friend and rapper, Lil Yachty. Some songs evoke a playful sense of self-consciousness — in “Wanna Quit All the Time,” Webster coyly sings “I used to be self-conscious / Well, really, I still am” amid chill guitar beats and a steady drum rhythm.

“Lego Ring” is an eclectic, hilarious song that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Webster sings “I want a Lego ring / I wanna kiss it when I go to sleep” among moments of crashing drums and more languid moments of harmonization with Lil Yachty. In the heartwarming final verse, Lil Yachty sings: “Me and you the dream team / Always together like string beans,” referencing the artists’ friendship.

While another artist may have sounded banal singing these lyrics, Webster’s quirky humor somehow works for her. Silly lines like “I might open my doors / I got a exterminator / So it doesn’t matter if bugs come in” in “Feeling Good Today” are utterly delightful in their amusing irony.

There is also a clear attempt to infuse her songs with different moods, paces, and rhythms, even if the overall sound can occasionally seem similar to each other. For example, in “Feeling Good Today,” Webster overlays her voice with numerous sound effects, splintering her voice in a whimsical song that reflects on the little moments of joy in life. Unfortunately, Webster’s pure vocals feel a little lost among the extensive effects, though listeners may appreciate the experimentation nonetheless.

Webster approaches the concept of moving on from love from different angles, taking a more positive tone in the rock-infused song, “He Loves Me Yeah!” Crisp instrumentation and jazzy piano chords complement the song’s spunky lyrics. Amusing lines like “And we drink water straight out from the tap / He owes me money but I let it pass” may resonate with listeners familiar with the trials and tribulations of relationships.

The album’s titular and penultimate song, “Underdressed at the Symphony,” also features symphonic explosions of music like the earlier song “But Not Kiss” that may come as a delightful surprise to listeners used to Webster’s more subdued tone. She sings about the process of healing from a break-up through the experience of attending the symphony. At the climax of the song, she sings, “I’m underdressed at the symphony.” This verse is interrupted by a beautiful scale of strings that comes crashing down as Webster sings the next line: “Cryin’ to songs that you put me on.” These generous trills endow these songs with an orchestral quality, immersing listeners in the swell of a symphony just as Webster herself would be captivated by the concert experience.

The final song of the album is one of its best. In “Tttttime,” Webster conjures a world where she has copious time on her hands after the presumed end of a relationship. The song’s tentatively major key and optimistic lyrics end the album on a hopeful note: “Take a walk, call my mom … I got t-t-t-t-t-t-t-time.” This piece’s metronome-like beats as Webster stutters the word “time” and graceful string instrumentation also evoke a sweeping orchestral tone, leaving the listener with a warm feeling inside.

“Underdressed at the Symphony” is a delicate, heartfelt expression of Webster’s inner world that presents her unique combination of jazz, rustic, and indie styles. From Webster’s wistful remembrances of past loves to her light-hearted comments on life’s odds-and-ends, any listener will be bound to find something to relate to or simply let loose and find themselves similarly “underdressed at the symphony.”

—Staff writer Arielle C. Frommer can be reached at [email protected] .

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Lil Yachty Launches Concrete Rekordz With Quality Control/HYBE, Shares New Single Off Upcoming Compilation Album

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

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

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

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

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

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

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