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Teenage Emotions

Capitol / Quality Control

May 26, 2017

The most polarizing figure in hip-hop today never asked to become a provocateur or rap reformist, but he was happy to oblige. When confectioner Lil Yachty and his team of teenaged separatists broke rank, more influenced by Kid Cudi and Chief Keef and pop-rockers Coldplay than the cliche rap Mt. Rushmore types, they challenged long-established ideas about what rap should sound like.

Yachty’s refusal to engage with rap’s legacy renewed a culture clash that’s been waged between warring factions for decades now. But his enthusiastic, sometimes silly delivery and his all-around cheerfulness have endeared him to a new generation of rap fans. Feel-good tunes quickly made him both a leader of the current rap youth movement and the one most likely to cross over to pop audiences. Platforms of positivity and inclusivity seem a fitting countermeasure in a climate where the most popular rap group in the country will denounce a colleague for being gay . A selling point has always been the whimsy, Yachty’s flippant disregard for convention, focusing on playful melodies that sound like jingles for Nicktoons. He is most comfortable when gleeful and thrives on fun, but can struggle to sustain ideas. Lil Yachty’s debut album Teenage Emotions , released after a breakout mixtape and an Apple Exclusive , is his most complete work yet, but it doesn’t contain the nuance its cover and title suggest.

Teenage Emotions feels hollow next to the real, complicated emotions of teens; his stories here are usually rendered without depth or dimension, more like sketches of impulses. But in his element, Yachty’s rare feel for earworms and his unorthodox cadences let him cut corners, unleashing a series of non-sequiturs with such levity that it’s like frolicking in a bouncy castle. He is our master of joy. Songs like “All Around Me” and “FYI (Know Now)” fill bubblegum productions with his animated flows. “Harley” leaps and bounds through repetitions. The intro, “Like a Star,” beams with exuberance before drifting into a more delicate tune, one that is genuinely pleasant, and it’s the first of many signs that Yachty is figuring things out.

Yachty has polished the edges of his Auto-Tuned warbles since the Lil Boat mixtape, which were often grating in their attempts to find a pitch. And he’s growing more proficient in songcraft, constructing tunes that don’t suddenly sputter and stall out. Early records sounded like they were carelessly-assembled and that cheekiness was almost half of the appeal. But Teenage Emotions is refined and moves with more purpose. Over a woozy WondaGurl production, Yachty pushes in and out of falsetto on “Lady in Yellow,” turning a repeating stanza into a refrain but occasionally changing the lyrics. Opposite singer Grace, who he originally teamed up with for DJ Cassidy’s “Honor,” he seems poised for a crossover on “Running With a Ghost” and his Diplo collaboration, “Forever Young,” is a satisfying pop rap delight. These moments showcase Yachty’s charms. Where he gets into trouble is when he seeks the approval of rap pundits.

At some point, the finger-wagging purists got into Yachty’s head because being the scapegoat for ruining an entire genre can have that effect on a person. But he dramatically overcorrected, spending far too much energy trying to pass himself off as an acceptable rapper’s rapper, or as someone agreeable to classicist sensibilities. Several songs on Teenage Emotions try to fit into a model Yachty was never built for, and he ends up with lines like, “She blow that dick like a cello.” Listening to him tense up during tough talk on “DN Freestyle” and “X Men” is painful. These moments are off message and off brand. What results is an album that’s half fun, half struggle—loosening one minute then tightening up the next, but always dilly dallying.

Despite some indecision on to whom he's speaking, Yachty does challenge himself to take on new roles on Teenage Emotions , and in certain instances he’s bewitching. On “Made of Glass,” a soothing synthpop ballad, he sings of unrequited love, unseen by the girl of his dreams. As he moves in unison with the sample on “No More,” which is distorted and disorienting, he laments being pursued by gold diggers. It’s one of the few times he engages thoughtfully with his celebrity. On “Priorities,” he assesses the decisions he’s made, finding a nice singsong balance. Though far too long and sometimes aimless, Teenage Emotions is the mind of a child star blown-up and on exhibition at the epicenter of modern rap. It’s there to be gawked at and appreciated, and  then  maybe enjoyed.

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On Teenage Emotions , Lil Yachty Tries to Stay Positive

When I met Lil Yachty a year and a half ago, he was a cherry-braided outcast creating a path to fame where one didn’t really seem to exist. The handful of tracks on his SoundCloud page mixed kiddie cartoon and video-game ephemera with happy-go-lucky hooks. “I Got the Baag” sampled the Migos’ “Hannah Montana” and Super Mario Bros. 3 . “All Times” was an iced out remix of the theme to Nickelodeon’s Rugrats . Yachty seemed meek but driven, determined to infiltrate the charts with his patented “bubblegum trap music” — all gooey synths, pillow-y low end, tender melodies, and lighthearted subject matter — and smartly introduced himself to all the people up and down the Eastern seaboard who would be instrumental in making it happen. He arrived on the New York hip-hop media circuit fresh-faced but already very popular; his label boss and family friend Coach K, of the Atlanta Trap powerhouse Quality Control, pridefully noted that the kid had been pulling in half a million SoundCloud plays a day just off loosies. But in order to advance, Yachty would have to meet the hip-hop peanut gallery.

Yachty played the first move perfectly: His debut full-length mixtape Lil Boat scaled back the big unclearable samples and focused on trippy synths and teen urges expressed through unfussy, unpolished raps and falsetto-heavy choruses. It felt rare and pure. Boat was a beam of joy that owed as much to the music of Sesame Street as anything running concurrently in or around Atlanta. All of this made Yachty the perfect battleground for hip-hop purists grumbling since time immemorial about rappers whose craft isn’t up to snuff.

Older rap diehards have been at ideological loggerheads with hip-hop’s current under-25 set for the last five years. The rallying cry was the 2012 arrival of Chicago’s Chief Keef, a bleak trap rapper who, at just 17-years-old, was branded as a herald of rap’s unruly future because his music vividly projected the harsh physicality of inner-city violence in the plainest terms, when many felt what was needed is someone who could speak eloquently against it. His Finally Rich album was a source of outrage from rap fans who felt like artists, labels, and blogs supporting it were hyping “ignorant” music and capitalizing on young black death. The rift never closed, even when Interscope dropped Keef after Finally Rich lost chart footing, and his legal troubles began to mount. The offended parties just found new records to wage war over.

Wiz Khalifa coined the term “mumble rap” in an interview at Hot 97 that touched on up-and-coming rappers who “don’t wanna rap.” It quickly became a catchall put-down for any youth rap that dared to flout ’90s rap conventions for diction and delivery (even though those same ’90s purists championed groups like Das EFX, who played fast and loose with proper English). Not even the Migos, whose delivery is breakneck but never muddled, could escape the charge. It’s a bad term for music for several reasons, the main one being the audacity to create a whole subgenre out of music you admittedly refuse to listen to closely. Rap is an art form that rewards examination and repeat plays. Yachty’s music was deemed unworthy of the luxury.

Critics winced at Lil Boat . Hip-hop personalities like Hot 97 host Ebro groused about bars. A messy freestyle from a radio appearance got memed around the net as one of the station’s worst ever . Yachty let slip that he doesn’t listen to 2Pac or the Notorious B.I.G. in a talk with Billboard . They put it in the headline. Pitchfork got him to say Biggie was “overrated.” (Boat, in fairness, was born in late 1997 and never saw a day that either rap legend drew air. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t grill teens about figures that never seemed alive to them.)

Controversy can easily outstrip craft for a young rap artist without a lot of points on the board. At radio, you run into guys like Ebro, who adhere to a strict, old-world view of hip-hop — one that’s confounded even by Rae Sremmurd and the Migos — and habitually nudge kids with no media training into damaging statements about music outside their purview. Footage floods blogs hungry for the latest scandal, and suddenly a positive, informative 30-minute interview is reduced to its 15 weirdest seconds, and artists trying to push their music to new audiences are closed off from them forever. The road to rap fans’ outrage is slick, and the press that serves them knows what buttons to push to get it flowing. They hype strife between artists and on-air personalities and then schedule tense follow-up interviews, just like WWE pay-per-view promos.

In the press and on social media , Yachty had quickly become someone rap fans felt should be checked or curtailed rather than celebrated, and he began to use his music to respond. Last July’s Summer Songs 2 opened with the Ebro diss track “For Hot 97” and passed through angry cuts like “Why?,” “Shoot Out the Roof,” and “Up Next 3,” where Yachty appeared to vent about his bad press. Aggression made Summer Songs 2 a rockier ride than Lil Boat and set the scene for Lil Yachty’s formal debut studio album Teenage Emotions , a fascinating sorta-misfire that swears it has nothing to prove but attempts so much in 21 tracks that the assertion can’t possibly be true.

Teenage Emotions ’ biggest mistake is thinking that, as the Album, it needed to behave differently than Yachty’s mixtapes did. There’s a three-track stretch in the middle that whizzes from reggae (“Better”) to Diplo-sponsored EDM (“Forever Young”) to talkbox-infused throwback R&B (“Lady in Yellow”). The lead single “Bring It Back” is a synth-pop ballad. “No More” tries its hand at the fuzzed-out robot soul of Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak . The range is admirable, but Boat is still learning how to use his instrument, and a few of these genre excursions come out looking like simple pastiche.

The songs that run on the mixtapes’ winning bubblegum Trap formula are a grab bag. “Priorities” is a funny “fuck school” anthem with a simple, memorable chorus (“My priorities are fucked!”). “Peek a Boo” and “Harley” grate with hooks that borrow the Migos’ repeat-the-song-title trick but manage none of the magic. “Say My Name,” “DN Freestyle,” “Dirty Mouth,” “X-Men,” and “All You Had to Say” pepper the album with ample words for haters, even after “Dirty Mouth” swears that Yachty’s enemies don’t bother him. (There’s only so many times you can promise to bed your critics’ moms and aunts out of spite before you start to come out looking pressed.) They’re not all bad songs, but they do create frustrating pockets of rage throughout an album from an artist who promised something different from aggro chest-beating, whose strength is good-natured fun.

The anger directed at Lil Yachty over the last year has taken poisonous root in his art. Teenage Emotions bristles when it should bubble, like the Migos mixtape No Labels II , where the young Atlanta group sent shots at critics and imitators when they could’ve been sending up more kooky comedy trap like “Birds” and “Contraband.” It only worked for the Migos because their music had a refined sound and scope that left room for rage, and because they sold their tightly wound round-robin raps well. Yachty’s thing is unbridled happiness and weightless hooks, and Teenage Emotions could’ve used a bit more of both.

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“I hate being alone. That’s why I like being with my friends: we’ve got energy, we’re social as hell. I’m not 30 or anything — I’m 19.”

It was early June when Lil Yachty said this to my face, the two of us finally finding solitude in his Midtown Manhattan hotel room, moments after he took a FaceTime about an $80,000 watch and just two months since I turned 30. I alerted him to my age, and we both laughed at this mildly awkward moment.

When he said he hated being alone, he wasn’t lying. I had trailed him for the past four days in Los Angeles — in cars, hotels, radio stations, restaurants, recording studios, television studios, and retail stores — always in the company of others. Though I was never able to get him alone during this West Coast stretch, I did leave L.A. understanding his likes and dislikes. If I were ever charged with outfitting his green room, I’d know not to get weed and liquor but Domino’s, soda, and Fruit by the Foot.

I’d seen him be exceedingly polite to his elders, laugh at offensive jokes, talk about girls with the moxy of a kid that just made Varsity, handle business in a manner well beyond his years, and yell at his father over the phone, repeating the phrases “I’m not a child” and “You’re treating me like I’m 12,” the argument lasting for so long that the Beats 1 staff was in a literal standstill, wondering if he’d ever hang up the phone and talk to Zane Lowe.

That uninhibited earnestness, blissful ignorance, and ever-connectedness to the grid makes sense for someone who named his debut album Teenage Emotion , then just a few days from being released. It’s an exhausting, almost campaign-like undertaking — to be the teen. But he’s also almost done. In August, his tour of duty concludes. Lil Yachty turns 20.

Buy the Lil Yachty issue of The FADER , and order a poster of the cover here .

Achieving fame for your movement as much as for your music is, to many, suspicious. Red flags are often raised when the public can’t figure out what they’re being sold, if this new, different thing is real or a joke, if an artist cares about their craft or is trolling for stardom simply because they can. Years ago, when Donald Glover — then just a successful comedian — introduced the world to Childish Gambino , a die-hard fanbase emerged, as did an equally large contingent of haters and skeptics. Some people just didn’t like the music, from his voice to his subject matter, but most of the distrust was due to the assumption that this was nothing more than a vanity project. And when that happens in hip-hop, a notoriously proud universe, it’s often frowned upon.

In the past year, Lil Yachty has been an easy target for those who simply can’t figure him out. While speaking to Zane Lowe, he went on about the music he likes and his inspirations, a list that, seen through a cynical lens, may be random for the sake of being random and, through another, completely understandable. In a matter of minutes, he brought up Nelly and Tim McGraw’s “Over and Over Again,” Baby Bash, “Can You Stand the Rain” by New Edition, Slipknot, Gambino, and Fall Out Boy. When he got to Kid Cudi, he slowed down. Phrases he used to describe his love for Cudi included “relatable for emotional people,” “pioneer,” “dream journeys,” “dope sense of style,” “guardian angel,” and “tour guide.” These are the influences of a rapper who infamously said he couldn’t name five songs by Biggie or Tupac, then doubled down by calling Biggie “overrated.”

Both Funkmaster Flex and Joe Budden — hip hop’s current Statler and Waldorf — have taken issue with Yachty’s way of approaching life, Flex referring to him as a “mumble rapper” and Budden calling shenanigans on Yachty’s incessant positivity. For Budden, a man currently having a career resurgence purely off the strength of being a curmudgeon, Yachty was the perfect target. Unfortunately, it’s hard to win a shouting match against someone who won’t shout back. When Budden brought Yachty on his Everyday Struggle web show and said, “You can’t tell me you wake up every day happy 24/7, because to say that you are lying,” Yachty responded with a soft seriousness: “When you come from living in a dorm room with no clothes, no girls, no cars, and then you go to having three cars, girls, and money, you can’t help but be genuinely happy that things are moving in a positive direction.” As for his response to Funk Flex, a man almost 30 years his senior, Yachty said on Instagram: “I’m just enjoying life countin’ up my change. None of this is that serious to me. Take a chill pill my guy.”

It’s a masterful, near-political dismantling of the old heads, just another thing that makes Yachty a heroic figure to many of his teenage peers and a thorn in the side of many of his rap elders. He is his own spin room, polling phenomenally in his district, even while outside detractors continue to get louder.

Still, inquiries into whether or not it’s all a schtick aren’t without warrant. And the more you keep digging, with the young rapper constantly providing reasons for you to question the seriousness of his professional existence, the more you’re forced to realize that the teens have changed the rules, and the easiest way to get left behind is to get hung up on reality.

Atlanta, Georgia, hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996. A year later, Lil Yachty was born Miles McCollum in Mableton, a northside suburb. He grew up mainly with his mother, but he remembers his father, a prominent hip-hop photographer, playing J Dilla in the house, and fondly calls back the first tape he ever owned: Kris Kross. Yachty’s upbringing was polar, some moments highly relatable, others not even close. While at Pebblebrook High School, his mother made him cut his hair — then long black braids — so he could get a job at McDonald’s. After his tenure of mopping floors began, however, everyone around him started to colorfully style their hair. The result: the Yachty that visually stands out from the pack, his signature mop of red braids now famously adorned with beads that chandelier on his face. At the start of the summer of 2015, he moved himself to New York City, doing what so many others do — trying to get noticed. By August, he was back down South, arrested for credit card fraud.

The arrest proved to be a hurdle, but in no way a roadblock. His ability to make connections proved to be his truest early skill. By February of 2016, his public existence of a few songs, a look, and an Instagram account made it to Kanye West, who put him in his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show. In March, he put out his debut mixtape, Lil Boat, which included the breakthrough hit “Minnesota.” In April, he contributed the catchy opening verse to the D.R.A.M. song “Broccoli,” a radio mainstay. In May, he released the video for “1 NIGHT,” which is like rolling Tumblr, MGMT, Lisa Frank, and Montauk into four minutes of film. That same month, he appeared on Chance The Rapper’s critically adored Coloring Book . Like that, Yachty had arrived — a snowball effect of success.

In June, he did his first interview on New York City’s famed Hot 97, in which many of his ongoing conversation tropes appear: explaining the youth, discussing fans online, debating old vs. new rap, and talking about how much money he’s made in a relatively short amount of time. “Yachty’s always gotten it,” Hot 97 personality Peter Rosenberg told me. “We had to have the old heads conversation, but we liked him personally. He’s wise beyond his years for sure.”

As 2016 trucked along, he made the XXL Freshman list and signed with Quality Control Records, the home of then-rapidly rising trio Migos . By October, Yachty was in a Sprite commercial with LeBron James. Once caught scamming, he was now in a very real position to not only pay for things, but to provide. Yachty, truly a mama’s boy, routinely acknowledges how he “over-spoils” his mother. But it’s clear how much he loves her, and the feeling is mutual. When I was sitting with one of Yachty’s publicists during a photoshoot in New York, she showed me a text from “Mama Boat.” It was a lengthy Flipagram slideshow she made of photos of her son as a child: class pictures, mother-and-son shots, the requisite naked baby photos. It went on for so long I thought I’d blinked and it was actually on a loop. But no. It was still going. Because moms.

Talking about the cuteness of little Lil Yachty was a far cry from how we began. I’d met him for the first time a week earlier, on a Tuesday morning at Los Angeles’s Power 106 radio station, before he was slated to be a guest on The Cruz Show . Within seconds, I was already confused. I extended my hand for a shake and Yachty, his assistant, Nick, and his security, Twan, all opted for the pound. As I followed them into the green room, the three passed around hand sanitizer. None of them had even looked me in the eyes. The first thing I wrote down: “brats.”

The exception was Yachty’s manager, Kevin “Coach K” Lee. Seeing Coach, I lost interest in Yachty. Atlanta is a big city, but damn near microscopic when you have two black people of a certain age both intertwined with the city’s music landscape. Within minutes, our name game had gotten lengthy, and in the green room both Coach and I FaceTimed a mutual friend, DJ Speakerfoxxx. As Coach ended the call, I looked up — Yachty had a different expression for me. Knowing Coach had garnered me a brief smile.

Wiping it quickly away, he found a marker and began writing on a nearby dry-erase board. As a guy from the station came to alert him that it was time to begin, Yachty left a message, seemingly to no one in the room.

“Shout out 2 the vegans.”

I hung back for a second and stared at the board. Yes, this was weird. It felt like I was being baited by a manufactured faux-savant. But it also felt oddly familiar.

Finally entering the studio, Yachty sat in a chair, surrounded by a bounty of candy. Questioned about his food choices, he responded, “I don’t eat fruit.” Who was this kid?

The interview was a buildup for the show’s now-viral, entertaining gimmick: having rappers read the children’s book Llama Llama Red Pajama over a popular beat while throwing in their own ad-libs. Before this happened, however, the hosts told Yachty that there was someone on the phone that wanted to congratulate him on his album. It was Lil B .

“He’s my inspiration,” Yachty said, stunned. “If it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t be here.” I thought back to the note he left on the dry erase board.

In 2011, the height of the cult of Lil B, I saw his first show in New York at Hammerstein Ballroom. At one point, after the room full of teens were done throwing their shirts, chef hats, jewelry, shoes, and even a cell phone onstage as offerings to Lil B, he knighted a kid, said “I knighted him,” and declared, “Shout out to all my dudes that got hair on they chest. Shout out to all my dudes that got hair on they butts.”

At the time, the rap world was wildly divided on Lil B: was he a shame or a shaman? Six years ago, I was firmly convinced of the latter, often laughed out of conversations with rap purists for expressing a genuine appreciation for the liberating music and movement of Lil B. And now here I was, an older skeptic of a rapper who came up on Lil B, has a framed picture of Lil B in his Atlanta home, and, while more commercially popular, is essentially Charmeleon to Lil B’s Charmander.

Yachty acknowledged the connection on the show, saying that he admired the way Lil B connected to his fans, made his fans feel as if they knew him and that he cared. But even musically, there’s some connective tissue — lyrical moments of brilliance surrounded by stretches of “What is he talking about?” and “Is he a good rapper?”

Yachty’s process of making music, however, has been lauded by those who have worked with him. Atlanta producer Su$h! Ceej spent time toward the end of 2016 with him, and described studio sessions as “no pressure, all fun, all natural”: “He knows what beats he wants and is very specific with the sound he’s trying to create, freestyling everything at first and fine-tuning as he goes, making a lot of songs in a short amount of time depending on how many pizza breaks or what video games are in the other room.” As for Cleveland’s TrapMoneyBenny , who produced Teenage Emotions ’s final track, “Momma (Outro)” : “He’s one of my favorite people to work with.”

The combination of lyrical question marks, cosigns, and an intense connection to fans are the hereditary traits between The Based God and Lil Boat, resulting in rappers who are both atypical and vulnerable. And for anyone who has a rigid idea of how a rapper should act, it’s uncomfortable.

This connection to his fans trumping all was on full display back at the Beats 1 offices. Yachty sat in a chair, smiling from ear to ear, surrounded by producers and cameras, preparing to FaceTime fans for a segment. He’d just launched into yet another Fruit Roll Up as they waited for a guy named Lars from Norway to answer the phone. Lars never answered. “I get it, my family would murder me if I was talking on the phone at that hour,” Yachty said. “But no lie, if I was Lars, I would have taken that beating.”

The second person picked up. “It is I,” Yachty said. A guy wanted advice about how to find a girl he met in a moshpit at his concert. Instead of giving him a short answer, Yachty earnestly went through the most logical ways to track her down. “Go through the hashtags,” he said. “Or maybe she’ll hear this? You never know.” It was clear this was his happy place: talking to fans. The next caller was a woman. As soon as Yachty popped up, she began to cry. “Ohhhh, don’t cry,” he said, his face playfully scrunching up.

A third caller mentioned that she wished her boyfriend were there, because he’s a huge fan. Yachty suggested that they get his number. The girl was shocked, as was everyone in the room. They got the boyfriend’s number and called him. He freaked out. “Weird, I’ve never called another girl’s boyfriend,” Yachty said in a deadpan.

The entire room, once doing a great job holding back laughter, could no longer contain silence. It was like watching a 19-year-old black, male Delilah, from the calming voice, mild demeanor, extreme comfort as he talked to strangers, and genuine care about people that like him. “That definitely wasn’t the first time I’ve FaceTimed with fans,” Yachty said afterward. “It was just the first time it was recorded. I used to do that shit just for the fun of it.”

He’s not always so positive, though. Just 30 minutes earlier, he was forced to experience the full onslaught of the content machine. Two men talked to him about Musical.ly, a video social network app, while he wore a crown and giant star shades. He wore an unchecked pout on his face. In this moment, I was watching the self-proclaimed champion of youth age out of something.

“Some of that shit is so lame,” he later told me. “I push this ‘king of the teens’ shit, but they be thinking teens like 13. On some super corny, under-underage shit. It happens all the time.”

With each passing day, I became more interested in sitting down privately with him, finding out what he was like once all the distractions disappeared. Yet as we spent more time together, that sit-down also started to feel less essential. Not only was I getting the real him, all the time, but the distractions were never going to disappear.

At first, it was slightly off-putting to watch him seem uninterested in the beginning of interviews and side conversations. Yachty doesn’t necessarily love being on all the time, and his days in a press cycle often involve a great deal of stasis followed by the immediate ask to be Lil Yachty The Rap Star. But the more I saw, his changing moods yet constant effort became increasingly relatable and human — he’d set himself up to be a machine, within the machine.

Maybe Yachty will become a marionette like so many other celebrities, a rapper that promotes more brands than has songs. So far, he’s done a Target ad with the pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen and has a partnership with Nautica , in addition to Sprite. Or perhaps he’ll gravitate in another direction and just be subversive for the sake of drama, another thing he has experience in, from tweeting “fuck J. Cole” to a past beef with Soulja Boy over a fashion model.

Listening to his album Teenage Emotions , it’s an identity crisis. It’s what you expect from someone being pulled in 10 directions at once, caught between youth and adulthood. On “X Men,” arguably the album’s gulliest moment, he still finds a way to do it with a slight wink, ending a verse with, “All of you niggas is marks/ You stinky and dirty like farts.” It’s as if he’s trying to find the right way to rebel, this album showing the various lanes that he might pick: hard and tough, sweet and romantic, young and goofy.

Right now, though, he’s opting out of a singular path, primarily choosing calm and collected. I pushed him on talking about Lil Uzi Vert , for example, with whom a rivalry had been suggested in an earlier radio interview, his answer prompting a clickbait-drenched blog post suggesting there was beef. That bothered Yachty. “Me and Uzi aren’t friends,” Yachty calmly offered. “We used to be cool. It’s not beef, it’s just competition. That’s all it is. We’re not friends.” He says what’s on his mind, and he’s quite personable, eventually. Just sometimes it takes a bit for him to recharge the battery.

The morning after Yachty’s full day of radio, he turned his attention to doing television. And on set in the CBS Studio Center lot, the room just let out a collective gasp. Did Martha Stewart realize what she just said to Lil Yachty, out loud, in front of an entire studio audience? Yachty had just come on stage as a guest on the weed-and-euphemism-filled circus that is Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party , a VH1 show that often makes SNL’s “What’s Up With That?” sketch look like Catholic mass.

It was clear the only prep Martha received about him was that he didn’t drink or smoke, so she talked to him like an innocent child. When it was time to discuss the Teenage Emotions album cover — an artistic exercise in inclusion — the image was not available. The network hadn’t gotten the image cleared. Taping stopped and the Doggfather stood up, chastising the powers that be for never getting stuff cleared. In a very loud, swear-filled finger wag, Snoop appropriately referred to Yachty’s album cover as “this nigga’s shit.” So Martha, sitting at a table with her co-host, Yachty, comedian Gary Owen, and actress Laverne Cox, leaned over — while wearing a sari for their Indian food-themed episode — and, both maternally and ignorantly, said, “Yachty, does it upset you when Snoop says ‘nigga shit?’”

The room filled with every imaginable reaction: anger, horror, embarrassment, laughter, joy, pain. Throughout the exchange, Martha Stewart did not seem to understand what the big deal was. Yachty’s reaction: a huge smile. It had been a long morning of sitting and waiting, following a day of interviews that involved a great deal of sitting and waiting. Once he finally made it on stage, he was charismatic, but seemed to be running on fumes. When Martha had her record scratch moment, though, Yachty came alive. By the end of the show’s taping, he was playfully running around the stage with Snoop, avoiding a crew of belly dancers that had just brought out a giant yellow snake, in this, a wildly appropriative episode of television.

The taping of the show lasted so long, Yachty missed his next engagement, a meeting at the Grammy offices to become a member. That meant the following stop was Urban Outfitters, to sign posters of his album cover. Pulling up to the Hollywood locale, however, we were early, a fact that puzzled Yachty almost to the point of embarrassment: “Wait, so y’all got me, the rapper, here first?”

It was true — it looked as if no one had come to see him. Twan, his security, countered with, “No, there’s a long line.” Everyone in the car thought this was just him being a supportive friend. But when the van circled the block, a long line snaked through a side alley, causing Yachty’s crew to erupt in laughter. Seconds later, a car drove by playing “Broccoli.”

“Ooh, that’s me,” he said, finishing a pack of M&Ms. Yachty was alive, yet again.

In our time together, the black Sprinter van we travelled in became something of a second home, powerless against the lull of Los Angeles traffic. The swings in his personality were on full display during these rides. Sometimes he was dead quiet, other times chatting on his phone, once or twice making fun of his boys for literally anything. It also was a time for him and Coach to catch up on news, like the moment Coach found out they were being sued over the song “Peek A Boo” by a rapper who made a song titled “Pikachu.”

Coach played “Pikachu” for the van and we all laughed. Yachty seemed a bit nervous, not knowing if this was real or not, but Coach reassured him that it was nothing. The brief back-and-forth was representative of their relationship, less of the typical manager-artist vibe and more super smart kid and wise camp counselor.

“It makes things pretty one-sided sometimes,” Yachty said of Coach. “Like, technically the manager works for the artist. What the artist says goes. But I know Coach always has the best intentions, so sometimes he just tells me what to do. And I don’t really have any say. I mean, I have a say so, but for the most part I don’t really care to say anything.”

The following day was Yachty’s final media jaunt before the release of Teenage Emotions . The excitement began at Mel’s Drive-In, a retro diner in Hollywood. The old-school feel of the restaurant echoed the attire Yachty would be wearing during his performance: a baby blue prom blazer, white tuxedo pants, and a white ruffled shirt a la Randy Watson from Coming To America . The restaurant overflowed with people having meals with their families, plus a scattering of teenagers who knew Yachty was en route. When he walked in, his red beads and camouflage jacket both matching and contrasting, the place became a zoo. Yachty stood on a table in a side patio amid screams of “Fuck Joe Budden” and kids offering him things they brought, from cash to their own shoes.

Yachty’s Lil B moment had come full circle. Attempting to give a speech, his words were drowned out by the throng of screaming fans. Finally, they got quiet and Yachty simply said, “Follow me.”

There were enough fans to fill Hollywood Boulevard, but we walked up the sidewalk. From a distance, it looked as if a young Venus Williams was leading an army with the tactical knowledge of Douglas MacArthur, and the masses were ever-growing. At one point, two teenage girls saw the Million Teen March, ditched their Uber ride, and ran across a busy intersection to join in.

Yachty brought his faithful to the entrance of the Hollywood Masonic Temple, home of the Jimmy Kimmel Show , then disappeared into the building. The mob scene was over, for now. The next few hours involved a soundcheck with the band at the outdoor stage and prep in the green room before the show. Yachty was back to more sitting and waiting, which didn’t bode well for his biggest television performance to date.

But just as his energy began to dip, the one missing piece of the puzzle exploded into his room, as if to make everything right: the Sailing Team .

Yachty’s crew from home had flown in from Atlanta, flooding the green room with bodies, dreads, and hugs just as Yachty prepared to hit the Kimmel outdoor stage. It suddenly felt like a party, and the smile on Yachty’s face was a smile I’d never seen, a smile I’d been waiting on. A pizza the size of an ottoman appeared. It wasn’t Domino’s or Papa John’s, but it was large enough to feed all his boys, so it was perfect. Yachty had all he needed: pizza, candy, and his best friends.

Hours later, after his Kimmel performance, the venue was a hotel ballroom full of pink and lavender balloons, a DJ, a photobooth, a stage, and people dressed up. His day had gotten even better. Yachty threw himself, and his friends and fans, a prom.

Of all the elements I’d watched him hop between in three days, this was Yachty at his best. He and the Sailing Team performed Yachty songs old and new. But, in a move you rarely see, they also rapped along and danced to other people’s songs. Jumping around and throwing water into the crowd, they were simultaneously attending their prom and that of the hired prom band.

And although it took him a little while, right before the buzzer went off on his teenage years, Yachty finally got what he wanted, what he deserved, what he earned. For one night, he was Prom King.

Lil Yachty’s Photographer Talks ‘Teenage Emotions’ Cover, Which Includes Gay Couple Kissing

By Steven J. Horowitz

Steven J. Horowitz

Senior Music Writer

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An album cover being proclaimed as “groundbreaking” is a rarity in today’s musical landscape. But when Lil Yachty unveiled the artwork for his major label debut “Teenage Emotions” — which is released today (May 26) on Quality Control/Motown/Capitol Records — it was met with that adjective.

The cover photograph shows the rapper flashing his rainbow grills while seated amid a spectrum of individuals that includes two young men kissing in the corner of the frame. Reactions across the Internet were mixed: many praised Yachty for depicting a gay couple on the cover of a major hip-hop release, while others took to  Yachty’s Instagram  comment section with homophobic remarks.

Photographer Kenneth Capello, who shot the cover, tells  Variety  that while he knew the image was special, he didn’t expect it to be so controversial. “I think hip-hop has changed quite a bit from the ’90s going into the 2000s, with rap becoming so obsessed with [fashion] designers and this and that,” he says. “You have all these designers who are gay, and [rappers] are aware of this, so maybe they cut the [gay] f-word out of some of their songs.

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“I just didn’t think it would be a big deal because [hip-hop] was much more homophobic 10 years ago,”Capello continues. “I’m going to credit the Internet and what I just spoke about that’s changing it. But when it dropped on his Instagram and I looked through the comments, I was seeing all this anti-gay sh-t. It made me go, ‘Oh, that’s still where we’re at.’”

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Capello, who shot magazine covers for Yachty in the past and has worked with artists like ASAP Rocky and Pharrell Williams, explains that while the cover was conceived with designer Mihailo Andic, the idea came from Yachty himself. Capello cast the teens who appear in the image, as well as Yachty associates Erron Vercetti, Earl the Pearl, Mitch and Big Brutha Chubba, and set up the shoot at Yachty’s high school gymnasium in Atlanta. While the assortment of individuals in the photo is diverse — including an albino man and a woman with vitiligo — the gay couple was actually two friends who knew each other and agreed to kiss for the photo.

“When I would cue them to start kissing, I could feel this funny energy,” says Capello. “The principal and basketball coach were there and some of the mentors from high school were there and people were watching like, ‘Huh?’ But Yachty wanted it. When I did the casting, I was like, do you want the so-called outcasts growing up as a teenager? He was like, ‘Yeah, I want the punks, the nerds, the gay kids. ‘Teenage Emotions,’ what you go through as a teenager.’”

Yachty, 19, previously  explained  his intention for including the rainbow of teens in the image. “I wanted to have all of these different aspects of teenage life,” he said. “I thought about all the things I saw in high school for the first time that I had never experienced before. I had never seen two dudes kissing until high school. The topic of obesity was never that serious until high school. I had never seen vitiligo until high school. I’d never seen albino kids until high school. I’d never seen emo kids until high school. Then I just put my homies in the back. Everybody trying to say I put the black people in the back, I don’t understand that. Those is my n—as and they just wanted to be in the picture, so I put them in the back.”

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Mike Will Made-It, Lil Wayne, and Lil Yachty Figure Out if the High Was Worth the Pain in ‘High3r’ Video

By Jon Blistein

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Lil Wayne , Lil Yachty , and Mikę Will Made-It chart some serious highs and serious lows in the new music video for their recent collaborative single, “High3r.”  

The visual jumps between close-up shots of the three artists performing the song and three different vignettes that play off the themes of “High3r.” In the first, a couple’s euphoric night turns horrific after one too many pills; in the second, a wild joy ride ends with a seemingly inevitable crash; and in the last, a lovelorn pharmacists finds himself on the harrowing end of an armed robbery. 

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Prior to dropping “High3r,” Mike teased the album with a video trailer featuring surveillance footage from the studio that showed all the artists he collaborated with, including Chief Keef, Rich the Kid, Kodak Black, J. Cole, Future, and Lil Baby. 

In between Ransom 2 and R3SET , Mike Will dropped a handful of collaborative albums, including records with Yo Gotti (2017’s Gotti Made-It ), Trouble (2018’s Edgewood ), and Chief Keef (this year’s Dirty Nachos ). He also helmed the stacked soundtrack for 2018’s Creed II .

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• Ranking Catalogues

Ranking Every Lil Yachty Album, From Worst to Best

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In the unpredictable rap landscape, few artists have shifted their musical personas as consistently as Lil Yachty. From his breakout platinum single “One Night,” he has navigated an unconventional path, characterized by daring explorations and stark transformations in his musical style. His discography, though varied, reflects a restless creativity that’s not afraid of challenge or change.

His debut album, Teenage Emotions , emerged as an enigmatic puzzle, an eclectic mix of tracks that straddled both the familiar territories of trap and the uncharted waters of ’80s synth pop. Yachty’s subsequent albums, Lil Boat 2 and Nuthin’ 2 Prove , unveiled a grittier sound, with the Quality Control artist straddling between his charming goofiness and a newfound aggressiveness.

By the time Lil Boat 3 arrived, Yachty’s musical maturity was apparent, as he skillfully maneuvered between his signature braggadocio and unexpected depths of darkness. Yet, even this evolution paled in comparison to the audacious shift the Mableton-born rapper unveiled with Let’s Start Here . Swapping his mumble rap hat for a psychedelic soul guise, Yachty presented an audacious project that underscored his artistic versatility and penchant for risk-taking.

So let’s get into it. From his 2017 debut album, Teenage Emotions , to his latest release, 2023’s psychedelic-rock experiment Let’s Start Here , we rank every Lil Yachty album, from worst to best.

Nuthin’ 2 Prove

Released: October 19, 2018

Label: Quality Control, Capitol, Motown

Singles: “Who Want the Smoke?”

Features: Playboi Carti, Juice Wrld, Lil Baby, Young Nudy, Cardi B, Offset, Trippie Redd, Kevin Gates, and Gunna.

Nuthin’ 2 Prove feels like a contradiction in its execution, an album split between rap and melodic pop vibes, where Yachty seems to be in search of his distinctive voice. The first half brims with a menacing production that underpins a series of boasts and threats, hinting at an unfinished evolution from Lil Boat 2 . “Who Want the Smoke?” stands out, but mainly for the guest verses from Cardi B and Offset. The album’s second half fares better, with the Quality Control rapper reverting to his signature goofy-vulgar observations and appealingly straightforward sentiments. Despite its inconsistencies, the album suggests Yachty’s willingness to explore different styles in his quest to continually push the boundaries of what rap looks like.

Released: March 9, 2018

Singles: N/A

Features: Quavo, Offset, Lil Baby, 2 Chainz, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Tee Grizzley.

Following the commercial disappointment of Teenage Emotions , Lil Boat 2 sees Yachty take a more aggressive stance. This album seems to be Yachty’s attempt to assert his position in the rap game, delivering a more raw and rap-focused sound. His technical skills as a rapper are evident, and he manages to hold his own amidst guest appearances from heavyweights like Quavo, Offset, Tee Grizzley, and 2 Chainz. However, lyrically, he falls short of delivering a memorable punch. The softer, melodic cuts like “She Ready” and “Love Me Forever” offer glimpses of the endearing goofiness that originally defined Yachty’s charm. The album, while showcasing his adaptability, also underscores the need for Yachty to refine his lyrical abilities and embrace his unique identity.

Teenage Emotions

Released: May 26, 2017

Singles: “Harley”, “Peek a Boo”, “Bring It Back”, “X Men”

Features: Migos, YG, Kamaiyah, Stefflon Don, Diplo, Grace, and Sonyae Elise.

Riding high from the platinum success of “One Night,” Lil Yachty’s debut album, Teenage Emotions , is a rollercoaster ride through the rapper’s psyche. He pushes the boundaries of his mirthful persona, sometimes stumbling into territories that evade binary characterizations. There are courageous, though uneven, ventures into ’80s synth pop with tracks like “Bring It Back” and “Better”. Despite the album’s 70-minute expanse, Yachty’s boasts often rest on nondescript trap beats, signifying a period of exploration rather than concrete artistic definition. The freshman album offers an intriguing, if raw, glimpse into the enigma that is Lil Yachty.

Released: May 29, 2020

Singles: “Oprah’s Bank Account”, “Split/Whole Time”, “Coffin”

Features: Tierra Whack, ASAP Rocky, Tyler, the Creator, Future, Draft Day, DaBaby, Drake, Lil Keed, Young Thug, and Lil Durk.

As the grand finale of Yachty’s mixtape trilogy, Lil Boat 3 embodies an evolution in the rapper’s musicality. He steps out from behind the generic trap production and Auto-Tuned vocals of his past work, putting his lyrical prowess front and center. Yachty shines solo, yet isn’t afraid to share the spotlight with fellow rappers like Tyler, The Creator and A$AP Rocky. The album navigates through Yachty’s signature goofy braggadocio to moments of experimental darkness, offering a refreshing dynamism. Though bogged down by redundant tracks, Lil Boat 3 signals a promising growth in Yachty’s creative direction.

Let’s Start Here

Released: January 27, 2023

Label: Concrete, Quality Control, Motown

Features: N/A

In an audacious left turn, Let’s Start Here sees Yachty trading in his mumble rap credentials for a psychedelic soul odyssey. This project takes listeners on an unexpected trip through jazzy guitars, boisterous drums, and otherworldly synths, fearlessly traversing from the grandiose heights of “The Black Seminole” to the smooth rhythms of “The Ride” and beyond. Despite its ambitious genre-crossing, Yachty’s bold personality threads the album together into a cohesive whole. This novel experimentation paints the artist not just as a veteran Quality Control rapper, but as a versatile artist unafraid of vulnerability and eager to challenge the boundaries of his own creativity.

MC WordWeaver

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Lil Yachty And Veeze Are Unapologetic About Their Lifestyles In The ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ Video

Lil Yacthy has taken a hiatus from social media, but not from the booth. Today (August 16), two of the “ Hate Me ” rapper’s latest collaborations hit streaming platforms.

As an added bonus, Lil Yachty’s joint track with Veeze , “Sorry Not Sorry,” arrived with an official video presented by Lyrical Lemonade .

The moody visual — co-directed by AMD and Little Miles — has one purpose: to show both recording artists in their elements. As Veeze enjoys a double-cup drink, he lists off what he’s being able to accomplish with his fame.

“I done popped out, feelin’ like Odd Future, Tyler, the Creator my Luis / Them boys ain’t smoked like five opps, that’s a whole pack of loose-leaf / This eighth came straight from auntie / We pink slip boys, no car lease / My cup all pink like a Barbie / I’m sorry, not sorry like Beyoncé,” raps Veeze.

In his verse, Lil Yachty puts up what Veeze laid down in the record’s opening. “I got seven homes filled with clothes, Sauce on the way in this b*tch / I ain’t talkin’ ’bout no TV shows, but I still got Bear in this bitch / I had to figure it out the hard way, no, I don’t care, lil’ b*tch / I never talk sh*t online, but check it in real life, I’ll never struggle again / I done helped out my mans / I put my mom in a brand new Benz,” raps Yachty.

He makes it clear that he hears on the online chatter, but frankly he just doesn’t care.

Watch Lil Yachty and Veeze’s official video for “Sorry Not Sorry” above.

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Joe Budden Says 'No' When Asked If He Thought Lil Yachty's Career Would 'Last This Long'

Budden told Lil Boat that he's created his "own lane."

Joe Budden is giving Lil Yachty his flowers.

The retired-rapper-turned-podcaster appeared on A Safe Place , where the veteran was asked if he thought Yachty was “gonna last this long” in music.

Budden didn’t sugarcoat his answer, simply saying, “No,” which prompted host, Lil Boat to say, “I know you didn’t.”

“Not at all,” Budden continued. “Are you shitting me? You have defied the odds, n***a. [Yachty laughs] I ain’t even about to lie to you. I didn’t think you would be this good. Your last album [ Let’s Start Here ]? N***a, hell no I didn’t think you’d be able to do that.”

“I didn’t think you’d be able to pen some of the things that you’ve penned,” Budden continued, “No matter what your backing is, you kinda stand alone. You’ve created your own lane.”

When Yachty responded, “Fair enough,” Budden said he couldn’t “be prouder” of the 26-year-old.

As Budden said, this is quite the departure from what he once thought of Yachty. Back in 2017, on Complex’s now-defunct show Everyday Struggle , Budden point blank asked Yachty, “Tell me what you want from hip-hop?”

The question left Yachty a bit stunned, as he mumbled, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t think that’s a question you should answer at some point?” Budden shot back.

“Tell me what you want from hip-hop?” — Everyday Struggle (2017) pic.twitter.com/lpY1B2W1TS — Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) August 16, 2024

“I’m making music, bro. I’m just having fun. My fans love it,” Yachty explained, who was 19 at the time.

That comment lit a fire under Budden who said, “You’re gonna have a big problem with just having fun in five years. You don’t sound like you’re very aware of what’s going on and you one of the hottest n***as on Earth.”

When Yachty asked what Budden wanted him to say, Budden continued, “I want you to be aware of your business. I want you to know whether you in a 360 or not. I want you to appreciate the culture that changed your life … I want you, who’s well-spoken and articulates himself well…”

Yachty attempted to diffuse the situation, saying, “My n***a, chill."

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Lil Yachty Thinks He Could ‘Kill’ Joe Budden on a Song Together

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Lil Yachty tells Joe Budden in a recent interview that he could kill the elder rapper if they got on a song together.

Lil Yachty Thinks He Would Murder Joe Budden on a Track

On Thursday (Aug. 8), Boat debuted a new episode of his A Safe Place Podcast featuring rapper-turned-podcaster Joe Budden where they talked about Yachty’s recent controversial comments on New York fashion , streaming strikes, Joe being an “old head” and more. During one part in the sitdown, Boat made the bold proclamation that he could best the retired rapper on a track.

“Do you think, right now, if me and you went in there, Joe, you could pen a better verse than me?” Yachty questioned around the 46:30 timestamp of the interview below.

“Who’s picking the beat,” Joe responded.

“Obviously not you,” Yachty replied.

After joking back and forth about each other’s beat selection, Joe conceded, “If you give me one of them Metroid beats, then you will have the better verse.”

“I’ma dust off one of my Alchemist beats,” Yachty then revealed.

“If I can get to Alchemist…I’m not even dignifying this,” Joe responded. “That would be just a good content piece. I would do it for fun because I’m retired. If I were not retired, just the thought of this would be an insult to me. Over an Alchemist beat, I wouldn’t even allow it.”

A few minutes later, Yachty mentioned that he hadn’t slept, which prompted Joe to say, “If that Alchemist beat was up and you was no sleep…”

“Nah, I would still kill you,” Yachty interjected.

Read More: Social Media Star Mr. HotSpot Offers to Clear Drake and Lil Yachty’s “Super Soak” Song If They Rerecord His Clean Reference Track

Joe budden and lil yachty’s past beef.

Lil Yachty and Joe Budden sitting down for a one-on-one might be surprising to some people considering their past beef. Back in 2017, Joe said he didn’t think Yachty was hip-hop and suggested that Yachty was ruining the culture. This led to the two trading shots on social media . A few months later, Boat wore a “F**k Joe Budden” hoodie at a concert. In December of that year, things appeared to get less serious when they challenged each other to a dodgeball game .

During the new interview, Yachty asked Budden if he thought the Atlanta rapper would still be in the rap game.

“No,” Joe quickly responded around the 23:40-mark of the interview. “Not at all. Are you sh*tting me? You have defied the odds, ni**a. I ain’t even gonna lie to you. I didn’t think you would be this good…I didn’t think you would be able to pen some things you’ve penned…You’ve created your own lane. I can’t be prouder of you.”

Read More: Joe Budden Believes Tory Lanez Was Set Up and Megan Thee Stallion Is a Pawn in the Shooting Case

See Lil Yachty tell Joe Budden he would kill him on a song below.

Watch Joe Budden on Lil Yachty’s A Safe Place Podcast

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August 16, 2024 3 Songs, 7 minutes Quality Control Music/Motown Records; ℗ 2024 Quality Control Music, LLC, under exclusive license to UMG Recordings, Inc.

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