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Lil Yachty Has All-Time Crash Out Session Over Karrahbooo & ‘A Safe Place’ Co-Host Mitch

In case you were living under a rock or just woke up from coma, last night Lil Yachty had a public meltdown on Instagram Live over his former artist Karrahbooo and his podcast co-host and friend Mitch.

First, a clip of his podcast A Safe Place went around of him, Mitch, and Key Glock having a discussion about trying to understand why some want what others have when things got awkward. “Some people gotta eat, gotta feed they family, however the case may be,” Yachty said. “That’s when the militant part comes into play because sometimes, unfortunately, don’t wanna put in work and just want what you have. And that’s a whole different conversation because I ain’t been rich forever.” Adding, “I done been broke before, so who am I to tell this n—a not to go do what you gotta do.

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

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

By Lyndsey Havens

Lyndsey Havens

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

Lil Yachty: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

Someone has sparked a blunt in the planetarium.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nothing Can Faze Lil Yachty’s Confidence

Lil Yachty has come full circle. Before music, Yachty worked as a McDonald’s crew member, during which time, he crafted one of his artistic hallmarks — the signature vibrant red hair that made him stand out when he first stepped onto the scene.

Dropping tracks on Soundcloud in between shifts at Mickey D’s, Yachty maintained his momentum before deciding to move to New York to pursue music full-time. Nearly a decade later, Yachty delivered an energetic halftime performance at the 2024 McDonald’s All-American Games this past Tuesday (April 2). Additionally, he starred in a commercial for McDonald’s Canada , which featured him delivering a trippy rendition of the Menu Song.

Yachty’s most recent solo album Let’s Start Here showed us that his name is no longer synonymous with the Soundcloud era. Inspired by psychedelic sounds, Let’s Start Here proved to listeners that Yachty is serious about his artistry and is no flash-in-the-pan. And since its release over a year ago, Yachty has not taken his foot off the gas.

Last month, Yachty announced the launch of Concrete Recordz , as part of a partnership with Quality Control and HYBE. On the roster is his new rap collective, Concrete Boys, comprised of rappers Camo!, DC2TRILL, Draft Day, Karrahbooo, and Yachty himself.

Uproxx chatted with Yachty ahead of his halftime performance, as well as the release of Concrete Boys’ compilation album, It’s Us Vol., 1 , which is set to drop Friday (April 5). With 10 years in the game, Yachty isn’t letting up anytime soon — not before pushing more bounds with his own artistry, and cultivating a new generation of movers and shakers.

Hey Yachty, how are you?

I’m blessed, man. Happy that we are having nice sunny days. I had a milkshake. And I’m lactose [intolerant], but I took my lactose pills. I took two of them. And they’re working, so we’re good. It’s always a plus when you’re lactose, and you drink milk, and you’re good. That might be too much information, but you asked, and I’m truthful.

[Laughs] I’m not tripping. How are you feeling, leading up to your performance?

It’s always a good feeling to have a full-circle moment in life. I worked for McDonald’s, and it was the first job I ever had when I was 15 or 16 years old. My McDonald’s commercial also just came out for McDonald’s Canada.

I love your commercial. It’s really trippy! How did that collaboration come together?

Separate from this, actually, McDonald’s reached out. And they wanted to redo the classic song, and I thought that was awesome. And very few artists get the opportunity to do these types of things, so it was actually a no-brainer.

What are some of your fondest memories as a McDonald’s crew member?

My mom was a very business-savvy woman. I had long, black braids back then. When I was about to go in for my interview, my mom was like “Oh, you can’t have braids, you have to look professional if you want to get hired.” She took me to the barbershop, and she made me cut off my hair.

I went to the interview, got hired, and on my first day working, everyone had long hair. I remember coming home to my mom crying and being like “You made me cut my hair! I would’ve still gotten the job.”

She felt so bad, and she was like “Okay, well let’s do something different.”

And I was like “I don’t have hair,” and then she said “dye it red.”

That’s the origin of my red hair.

And you’ve never shared that before?

You honestly just unlocked that memory in my brain. I forgot all about that.

So you’ve got It’s Us Vol. 1 , dropping Friday. It’s the first album with the Concrete Boys crew. What was the process like assembling talent for this collective?

These are my friends. So it wasn’t like I was looking high and low for talent. These were friends that I’ve made along the way. The most important thing to me is my friendships — and trying to bring everyone up to a level of success so they can provide for their families is the goal. Plus, I’ve always just loved the idea of groups and crews.

How do you envision your label Concrete Rekordz growing, say five or 10 years from now?

Man, that’s more than enough time. You could say one year from now. But five or 10 years from now? That’s much more time than any artist needs to become successful. I want to make sure I say that. With today’s time, and internet [platforms], six months is all you need. But in five years, I plan to have four moguls, doing their own things, starting their own labels.

Your last album, Let’s Start Here was a sonic risk, as you experimented with psychedelic sounds. What kind of sounds are you exploring for your next project?

I can’t tell you, my guy. But what I will tell you is that I’m definitely not done taking risks. I can’t say what I’m doing next, but I can say that I’m not done taking risks. That wasn’t a one-and-done.

You also have an album with James Blake coming out soon. What can you tell us about that?

I’m really excited about it. It’s really amazing. When [artists] make collab projects, I think a lot of times, they don’t access the full extent of what could be. Me and James really connected and just created a brotherhood. We made a really special project that is far beyond both of us, and I’m super excited for it to come out.

Can you give us a hint as to when it’s going to drop?

It keeps getting pushed back, man. It was it was supposed to come out this month. But I don’t know if it will. But it’s done. Mixed and mastered.

So earlier this week, you said that some rappers are angry because they’re “ ugly as f*ck ,” and therefore, lack confidence. What would you say is the key to maintaining confidence?

[Laughs] Well, I was just talking sh*t. But, I don’t know, man. I don’t take things too serious. I enjoy the life that I was given and try to stay stress-free. I’m well aware of the blessings and the cards I was dealt, and I’m just grateful. I think I can I can only speak for myself when I say that it’s very easy to be happy.

It’s been about a decade since you moved from Atlanta to New York to pursue music. As an artist, and now, the owner of your own label, what would you say is the biggest thing you’ve learned in your career?

Staying true to yourself and not letting anyone’s negative comments bring you down. The negative side of the internet isn’t real. It’s not a real place. It’s all just trolls and make-believe. It’s not real, it doesn’t translate over into the real world.

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Lil Yachty Sparks Rumors Of Drake Rift With Instagram Unfollowing Drama

Lil Yachty has caused confusion among fans with some curious social media activity involving Drake .

Eagle-eyed fans noticed on Tuesday (August 20) that Yachty had unfollowed Drizzy — with whom he’s become close friends and collaborators in recent years — on Instagram.

After the move sparked speculation about the two falling out, Lil Boat appeared to re-follow Drake shortly afterwards.

Drake is also the most recent person that Lil Yachty has followed on the social media platform, implying that he did indeed unfollow his “Another Late Night” collaborator.

He refollowed lmfao https://t.co/c5QisAgC0W pic.twitter.com/U9SV0WqB5O — attorney (@aubreysattorney) August 20, 2024

If you unfollow Drake and click Yachty’s following, it shows Drake is his most recent follow (Instagram orders from most recent follows). He 100% unfollowed him. pic.twitter.com/NEWvabpxtG — attorney (@aubreysattorney) August 20, 2024

While it is not known if issues have emerged between two, Lil Yachty unfollowing Drake came shortly after it was reported that the 6 God is planning to release their leaked song “Super Soak” as a solo track.

“I heard it’s coming out, people, with a music video,” claimed Akademiks on his Rumble livestream earlier this week. “Now, it’s some interesting shit going on here. I hear the ‘Super Soak’ track is coming out, music video included. One caveat: there’s no Lil Yachty on it.

“That’s a little confusing to me […] because it was Yachty’s song initially. Drake sent that to Yachty for it to be on Yachty’s Concrete [Boys] project .

“This is not a source from Drake, by the way. I have multiple other sources outside of Drake. And Drake doesn’t even know I’m telling y’all this.

Drake & Lil Yachty Given Ultimatum By Mr. HotSpot Over 'Super Soak' Sample Controversy

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Lil Yachty Talks Fame, Cryptocurrency, and Being a Social Media Darling

This year’s Young Hollywood creators are focused on the people at the front of the culture, pushing us to think, laugh, dance, and cry. It takes extraordinary talent to shine through a year of pandemic, protests, and a presidential election. But these rising stars did just that. Meet the Class of 2021 .

Lil Yachty isn’t exactly new to fame. Since earning the coveted spot on XXL ’s Freshman Class in 2016, the talent has collaborated with Chance the Rapper, the Migos, and Diplo (to name a few) — in addition to putting out four studio albums. Yet he’s still young – not old enough to legally rent a car on his own. But he’s got the air of an old soul, a person for whom fame and money hasn’t changed so much as chiseled into something finer, more observant, more disciplined.

The Atlanta-native, born Miles Parks McCollum, decided to leave college at Alabama State University to pursue his music career. Shortly after, he shot to fame thanks to his 2016 mixtape Lil’ Boat . Since then, he’s made his presence known in the rap game with a slew of successful projects, all of which showcase vast musical influences that range from Soulja Boy to Daft Punk.

It’s been a whirlwind ride since 2016. With touring a no-go due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Yachty’s had a chance to catch his breath and reflect. It’s not a complete standstill, though. He’s always working. He’s branching out into TV (stay tuned for an upcoming show) and cryptocurrency, teaming up with Swiss-based startup Fyooz to launch his own “YachtyCoin” that fans can invest in. And if you haven't heard one of his viral TikTok songs —where have you been?

Teen Vogue: How has social media helped you create your own path?

Lil Yachty: I mean whatever you put out is who you're perceived as. It's really easy to create a narrative. You can use social media in any way possible to build an image or break an image. I've learned how to successfully bend the narrative of any situation possible that I'm involved in because I know how to work the internet.

TV: If feels like your generation has so much more control over your brand and who you are than artists from previous generations.

Yachty: Yeah. Maybe just to be free. That's the biggest message that I feel like the older generation still has not accepted. To be free, to be yourself, be open, be honest, accepted too. Just be you. That's still not a thing, like it's still not and not accepted all the way.

TV: You're into cryptocurrency, how'd you get into that?

Yachty: I was just talking about it two seconds before we got on the phone. I've known of cryptocurrency for maybe five, six years, since like 2015. Just doing stuff on the dark web. I had already experienced Bitcoin in high school. So I had always known, like I'm not new to the cryptocurrency at all. Like I've been on the wave for quite some time.

TV: What’s working as an actor that has been like?

Yachty: Trying to, trying to. Trying to. It's a slower process. It takes time. I'm working on my TV show, Public Figures , HBO Max. And it just takes time. Everything's very slow. And then corona’ doesn't speed anything up, any faster.

TV: What can you tell me about the show before it hits?

Yachty: It's about me. That's about it. I wish I could tell you more, but I can't. [laughs]

TV: What do you think the hardest thing about being famous is for you?

Yachty: So many people create opinions when you're a celebrity on everything you do, whether you change your hair color, whether you wear a bright, a different color shirt, or you decide to try something new. People have an opinion on everything you do. If your family does something, someone does, whatever happens, everything is under a microscope. You can't fuck up peacefully. You can't make any mistakes in peace. Everything you get ridiculed for. The hardest thing is learning to adjust and learn how to move more precisely which takes fucking up. You have to fuck up to learn. And that's the only way you learn actually is by messing up and fucking up.

TV: What does your support system look like? Like I know your mom is really involved. She manages you.

Yachty: Yeah, but she doesn't understand. I mean it's not that big, I got my best friend, and I have my manager, and that's about it. It's just difficult. I don't have many celebrity friends, so certain things on certain scales of levels, they're just hard to explain, especially not to come off without sounding like, I don't know, sounding like a certain way.

TV: What’s something you learned about yourself in 2020 that kind of surprised you?

Yachty: I just matured a lot. I learned how to live alone. And I just matured a lot. I learned a lot about my growth. I just grew all of a sudden. I have been moving so much. I've been on the road constantly for four years. Then I had this type of real halt. First time stopping, like really stopping. I had time to finally take everything in and really understand the things, the success I had, the things I've done, where I've been, where I came from, who I am, where I'm going, I just had the time to finally take all that stuff in. There wasn’t a specific moment. I was like, wow, now I really made it, but not on a full level. Everything happened too fast to ever take it in. I was constantly moving every day for years to where you could just sit and really... You just adjust. You quickly adjust.

TV: What advice would you give to folks coming up?

Yachty: I think you need to realize talent. I'm not saying be the cockiest person in the world, but you should definitely realize talent. If you have it first, that's really important. It's hard to come to a game being shy. And you need to realize, it's tougher said than done, but you should realize, if you don't have that talent, you maybe shouldn't be doing it, especially if it's not your passion, you're just doing it because you think it's a quick way for money, or you know somebody who made it, or you've seen somebody else do it.

People really think money solves everything, and you'll never understand this if you don't ever get it. You can never understand a rich man's problems, and the man who's been rich all his life could never, probably would never even try and understand a poor man's problems. It is what it is. That's just life.

I remember before I was famous, like motivational speakers would come to my school or someone talking to tell us how to follow your dreams. It just sounds so cliché. I hate saying it, but it's true. But that's why I hate saying it, because I hated hearing it. But it's true though.

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How Lil Yachty Got His Second Act

By Jeff Ihaza

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The evening before Lil Yachty released his fifth studio album, Let’s Start Here, he gathered an IMAX theater’s worth of his fans and famous friends at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City and made something clear: He wanted to be taken seriously. Not just as a “Soundcloud rapper, not some mumble rapper, not some guy that just made one hit,” he told the crowd before pressing play on his album. “I wanted to be taken serious because music is everything to me.”

There’s a spotty history of rappers making dramatic stylistic pivots, a history Yachty now joins with Let’s Start Here, a funk-flecked psychedelic rock album. But unlike other notable rap-to-rock faceplants—Kid Cudi’s Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven comes to mind, as does Lil Wayne’s Rebirth —the record avoids hackneyed pastiche and gratuitous playacting and cash-grabbing crossover singles; instead, Yachty sounds unbridled and free, a rapper creatively liberated from the strictures of mainstream hip-hop. Long an oddball who’s delighted in defying traditional rap ethos and expectations, Let’s Start Here is a maximalist and multi-genre undertaking that rewrites the narrative of Yachty’s curious career trajectory.

Admittedly, it’d be easy to write off the album as Tame Impala karaoke, a gimmicky record from a guy who heard Yves Tumor once and thought: Let’s do that . But set aside your Yachty skepticism and probe the album’s surface a touch deeper. While the arrangements tend toward the obvious, the record remains an intricate, unraveling swell of sumptuous live instruments and reverb-drenched textures made more impressive by the fact that Yachty co-produced every song. Fielding support from an all-star cast of characters, including production work from former Chairlift member Patrick Wimberly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait, Justin Raisen, Nick Hakim, and Magdalena Bay, and vocals from Daniel Caesar, Diana Gordon, Foushée , Justine Skye, and Teezo Touchdown, Yachty surrounds himself with a group of disparately talented collaborators. You can hear the acute attention to detail and wide-scale ambition in the spaced-out denouement on “We Saw the Sun!” or on the blistering terror of “I’ve Officially Lost Vision!!!!” or during the cool romanticism of “Say Something.” Though occasionally overindulgent, Let’s Start Here is a spectacular statement from hip-hop’s prevailing weirdo. It’s not shocking that Yachty took another hard left—but how exactly did he end up here ?

In 2016, as the forefather of “bubblegum trap” ascended into mainstream consciousness, an achievement like Let’s Start Here would’ve seemed inconceivable. The then 18-year-old Yachty gained national attention when a pair of his songs, “One Night” and “Minnesota,” went viral. Though clearly indebted to hip-hop trailblazers Lil B, Chief Keef, and Young Thug, his work instantly stood apart from the gritted-teeth toughness of his Atlanta trap contemporaries. Yachty flaunted a childlike awe and cartoonish demeanor that communicated a swaggering, unbothered cool. His singsong flows and campy melodies contained a winking humor to them, a subversive playfulness that endeared him to a generation of very online kids who saw themselves in Yachty’s goofy, eccentric persona. He starred in Sprite commercials alongside LeBron James, performed live shows at the Museum of Modern Art , and modeled in Kanye West’s Life of Pablo listening event at Madison Square Garden. Relishing in his cultural influence, he declared to the New York Times that he was not a rapper but an artist. “And I’m more than an artist,” he added. “I’m a brand.”

As Sheldon Pearce pointed out in his Pitchfork review of Yachty’s 2016 mixtape, Lil Boat , “There isn’t a single thing Lil Yachty’s doing that someone else isn’t doing better, and in richer details.” He wasn’t wrong. While Yachty’s songs were charming and catchy (and, sometimes, convincing), his music was often tangential to his brand. What was the point of rapping as sharply as the Migos or singing as intensely as Trippie Redd when you’d inked deals with Nautica and Target, possessed a sixth-sense for going viral, and had incoming collaborations with Katy Perry and Carly Rae Jepsen? What mattered more was his presentation: the candy-red hair and beaded braids, the spectacular smile that showed rows of rainbow-bedazzled grills, the wobbly, weak falsetto that defaulted to a chintzy nursery rhyme cadence. He didn’t need technical ability or historical reverence to become a celebrity; he was a meme brought to life, the personification of hip-hop’s growing generational divide, a sudden star who, like so many other Soundcloud acts, seemed destined to crash and burn after a fleeting moment in the sun.

One problem: the music wasn’t very good. Yachty’s debut album, 2017’s Teenage Emotions, was a glitter-bomb of pop-rap explorations that floundered with shaky hooks and schmaltzy swings at crossover hits. Worse, his novelty began to fade, those sparkly, cheerful, and puerile bubblegum trap songs aging like day-old french fries. Even when he hued closer to hard-nosed rap on 2018’s Lil Boat 2 and Nuthin’ 2 Prove, you could feel Yachty desperate to recapture the magic that once came so easily to him. But rap years are like dog years, and by 2020, Yachty no longer seemed so radically weird. He was an established rapper making mid mainstream rap. The only question now was whether we’d already seen the best of him.

If his next moves were any indication—writing the theme song to the Saved by the Bell sitcom revival and announcing his involvement in an upcoming movie based on the card game Uno—then the answer was yes. But in April 2021, Yachty dropped Michigan Boat Boy, a mixtape that saw him swapping conventional trap for Detroit and Flint’s fast-paced beats and plain-spoken flows. Never fully of a piece with his Atlanta colleagues, Yachty found a cohort of kindred spirits in Michigan, a troop of rappers whose humor, imagination, and debauchery matched his own. From the looks of it, leaders in the scene like Babyface Ray, Rio Da Yung OG, and YN Jay embraced Yachty with open arms, and Michigan Boat Boy thrives off that communion.

Then “ Poland ” happened. When Yachty uploaded the minute-and-a-half long track to Soundcloud a few months back, he received an unlikely and much needed jolt. Building off the rage rap production he played with on the Birthday Mix 6 EP, “Poland” finds Yachty’s warbling about carrying pharmaceutical-grade cough syrup across international borders, a conceit that captured the imagination of TikTok and beyond. Recorded as a joke and released only after a leaked version went viral, the song has since amassed over a hundred-millions streams across all platforms. With his co-production flourishes (and adlibs) splattered across Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss, fans had reason to believe that Yachty’s creative potential had finally clicked into focus.

But Let’s Start Here sounds nothing like “Poland”—in fact, the song doesn’t even appear on the project. Instead, amid a tapestry of scabrous guitars, searing bass, and vibrant drums, Yachty sounds right at home on this psych-rock spectacle of an album. He rarely raps, but his singing often relies on the virtues of his rapping: those greased-vowel deliveries and unrushed cadences, the autotune-sheathed vibrato. “Pretty,” for instance, is decidedly not a rap song—but what is it, then? It’s indebted to trap as much as it is ’90s R&B and MGMT, its drugged-out drums and warm keys able to house an indeterminate amount of ideas.

Yachty didn’t need to abandon hip-hop to find himself as an artist, but his experimental impulses helped him craft his first great album. Perhaps this is his lone dalliance in psych rock—maybe a return to trap is imminent. Or, maybe, he’ll make another 180, or venture deeper into the dystopia of corporate sponsorships. Who’s to say? For now, it’s invigorating to see Yachty shake loose the baggage of his teenage virality and emerge more fully into his adult artistic identity. His guise as a boundary-pushing rockstar isn’t a new archetype, but it’s an archetype he’s infused with his glittery idiosyncrasies. And look what he’s done: he’s once again morphed into a star the world didn’t see coming.

Lil Yachty calls out Karrahboo and Mitch during explosive Instagram Live

By Nevaeh Brown
Aug 23, 2024

In a recent Instagram Live session, Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty unleashed a torrent of accusations against his former collaborator Karrahboo and his podcast cohost Mitch. The unexpected outburst has sent shockwaves through the hip-hop community, particularly among fans of Yachty’s A Safe Place podcast.

Karrahboo’s departure from Concrete Boys

Yachty began by addressing the rumors surrounding Karrahboo’s exit from the rap collective Concrete Boys. He accused her of verbally abusing others and criticized her for making a scene about her departure. “Don’t get on here and make a scene ‘bout n—-s kicked you out,” he stated, highlighting the sudden nature of her exit.

Claims of support and betrayal

During the live stream, Yachty claimed he was instrumental in Karrahboo’s rise, stating, “I wrote every f—ing verse you’ve done.” He detailed how he provided her with financial support and jewelry and even styled her. Yachty expressed frustration over her alleged disrespectful behavior toward others, saying, “You talk to people crazy. You tell people that they are nothing.”

Concerning financial accusations

One of the most alarming claims made by Yachty was that Karrahboo is in debt to him for $900,000. “I got every receipt. $900,000 Concrete in the hole,” he asserted, raising eyebrows about the financial dynamics within their collective.

Addressing Mitch and podcast dynamics

Yachty didn’t stop with Karrahboo; he also directed his ire toward Mitch, claiming that the podcast was started at Mitch’s insistence. The tension between the two was palpable, especially during a recent episode featuring rapper Key Glock, where Yachty admonished Mitch for lacking direction in his life.

This explosive Instagram Live has not only revealed the internal conflicts within Yachty’s circle but also raised questions about loyalty, respect and financial accountability in the music industry. As fans continue to react to these revelations, it remains to be seen how this drama will unfold and impact the careers of those involved.

a safe place podcast , Concrete Boys , digital , Instagram Live , karrahboo , Lil Yachty , mitch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Music Features

Lil yachty's delightfully absurd path to 'let's start here'.

Matthew Ramirez

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 29: Lil Yachty performs on the Stage during day 2 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Rich Fury/Getty Images hide caption

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 29: Lil Yachty performs on the Stage during day 2 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.

Lil Yachty often worked better as an idea than a rapper. The late-decade morass of grifters like Lil Pump, amidst the self-serious reign of Future and Drake (eventual Yachty collaborators, for what it's worth), created a demand for something lighter, someone charismatic, a throwback to a time in the culture when characters like Biz Markie could score a hit or Kool Keith could sustain a career in one hyper-specific lane of rap fandom. Yachty fulfilled the role: His introduction to many was through a comedy skit soundtracked by his viral breakout "1 Night," which tapped into the song's deadpan delivery and was the perfect complement for its sleepy charm. The casual fan knows him best for a pair of collaborations in 2016: as one-half of the zeitgeist-defining single "Broccoli" with oddity D.R.A.M., or "iSpy," a top-five pop hit with backpack rapper Kyle. Yachty embodied the rapper as larger-than-life character — from his candy-colored braids to his winning smile — and while the songs themselves were interesting, you could be forgiven for wondering if there was anything substantial behind the fun, the grounds for the start of a long career.

As if to supplement his résumé, Yachty seemed to emerge as a multimedia star. Perhaps you remember him in a Target commercial; heard him during the credits for the Saved by the Bell reboot; spotted him on a cereal box; saw him co-starring in the ill-fated 2019 sequel to How High . TikTok microcelebrity followed. Then the sentences got more and more absurd: Chef Boyardee jingle with Donny Osmond; nine-minute video cosplaying as Oprah; lead actor in an UNO card game movie. Somewhere in a cross-section of pop-culture detritus and genuine hit-making talent is where Yachty resides. That he didn't fade away immediately is a testament to his charm as a cultural figure; Yachty satisfied a need, and in his refreshingly low-stakes appeal, you could imagine him as an MTV star in an alternate universe. Move the yardstick of cultural cachet from album sales to likes and he emerges as a generation-defining persona, if not musician.

Early success and exposure can threaten anyone's career, none so much as those connected to the precarious phenomenon of SoundCloud rap. Yachty's initial peak perhaps seeded his desire years later to sincerely pursue artistry with Let's Start Here , an album fit for his peculiar trajectory, because throughout the checks from Sprite and scolding Ebro interviews he never stopped releasing music, seemingly to satisfy no one other than himself and the generation of misfits that he seemed to be speaking for.

But to oversell him as a personality belittles his substantial catalog. Early mixtapes like Lil Boat and Summer Songs 2 , which prophetically brought rap tropes and pop sounds into harmony, were sustained by the teenage artist's commitment to selling the vibe of a track as he warbled its memorable hook. It was perhaps his insistence to demonstrate that he could rap, too, that most consistently pockmarked his output during this period. These misses were the necessary growing pains of a kid still finding his footing, and through time and persistence, a perceived weakness became a strength. Where his peers Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti found new ways to express themselves in music, Yachty dug in his heels and became Quality Control's oddball representative, acquitting himself on guest appearances and graduating from punchline rapper to respectable vet culminating in the dense and rewarding Lil Boat 3 from 2020, Yachty's last official album.

Which is why the buzzy, viral "Poland" from the end of 2022 hit different — Yachty tapped back into the same lively tenor of his early breakthroughs. The vibrato was on ten, the beat menaced and hummed like a broken heater, he rapped about taking cough syrup in Poland, it was over in under two minutes and endlessly replayable. Yachty has already lived a full career arc in seven years — from the 2016 king of the teens, to budding superstar, to pitchman, to regional ambassador. But following "Poland" with self-aware attempts at similar virality would be a mistake, and you can't pivot your way to radio stardom after a hit like that, unless you're a marketing genius like Lil Nas X. How does he follow up his improbable second chance to grab the zeitgeist?

#NowPlaying

Lil yachty, 'poland'.

Let's Start Here is Lil Yachty's reinvention, a born-again Artist's Statement with no rapping. It's billed as psychedelic rock but has a decidedly accessible sound — the sun-kissed warmth of an agreeable Tame Impala song, with bounce-house rhythms and woozy guitars in the mode of Magdalena Bay and Mac DeMarco (both of whom guest on the album) — something that's not quite challenging but satisfying nonetheless. Contrast with 2021's Michigan Boy Boat , where Yachty performed as tour guide through Michigan rap: His presence was auxiliary by function on that tape, as he ceded the floor to Babyface Ray, Sada Baby and Rio Da Yung OG; it was tantalizing curation, if not a work of his own personal artistry. It's tempting to cast Let's Start Here as another act of roleplay, but what holds this album together is Yachty's magnetic pull. Whether or not you're someone who voluntarily listens to the Urban Outfitters-approved slate of artists he's drawing upon, his star presence is what keeps you engaged here.

Yachty has been in the studio recording this album since 2021, and the effort is tangible. He didn't chase "Poland" with more goofy novelties, but he also didn't spit this record out in a month. Opener (and highlight) "The Black Seminole" alternates between Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix-lite references. It's definitely a gauntlet thrown even if halfway through you start to wonder where Yachty is. The album's production team mostly consists of Patrick Wemberly (formerly of Chairlift), Jacob Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra), Jeremiah Raisen (who's produced for Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira and Drake) and Yachty himself, who's established himself as a talented producer since his early days. (MGMT's Ben Goldwasser also contributed.) The group does a formidable job composing music that is dense and layered enough to register as formally unconventional, if not exactly boundary-pushing. Yachty frequently reaches for his "Poland"-inspired uber-vibrato, which adds a bewitching texture to the songs, placing him in the center of the track. Other moments that work: the spoken-word interlude "Failure," thanks to contemplative strumming from Alex G, and "The Ride," a warm slow-burn that coasts on a Jam City beat, giving the album a lustrous Night Slugs moment. "I've Officially Lost Vision" thrashes like Yves Tumor.

Yet the best songs on Let's Start Here push Yachty's knack for hooks and snaking melodies to the fore and rely less on studio fireworks — the laid-back groove of "Running Out of Time," the mournful post-punk of "Should I B?" and the slow burn of "Pretty," which features a bombastic turn from vocalist Foushee. That Yachty's vaunted indie collaborators were able to work in simpatico with him proves his left-of-center bonafides. It's a reminder that he's often lined his projects with successful non-rap songs, curios like "Love Me Forever" from Lil Boat 2 and "Worth It" from Nuthin' 2 Prove . That renders Let's Start Here a less startling turn than it may appear at first glance, and also underlines his recurring talent for making off-kilter pop music, a gift no matter the perceived genre.

At a listening event for the record, Yachty stated: "I created [this] because I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. Not just some SoundCloud rapper, not some mumble rapper. Not some guy that just made one hit," seemingly aware of the culture war within his own genre and his place along the spectrum of low- to highbrow. To be sure, whether conscious of it or not, this kind of mentality is dismissive of rap music as an artform, and also undermines the good music Yachty has made in the past. Holing up in the studio to make digestibly "weird" indie-rock with a cast of talented white people isn't intrinsically more artistic or valid than viral hits or a one-off like "Poland." But this statement scans less as self-loathing and more as a renewed confidence, a tribute to the album's collective vision. And people like Joe Budden have been saying "I don't think Yachty is hip-hop " since he started. So what if he wants to break rank now?

Lil Yachty entered the cultural stage at 18, and has grown up in public. It adds up that, now 25, he would internalize all the scrutiny he's received and wish to cement his artistry after a few thankless years rewriting the rules for young, emerging rappers. Let's Start Here may not be the transcendent psychedelic rock album that he seeks, but it is reflective of an era of genreless "vibes" music. Many young listeners likely embraced Yachty and Tame Impala simultaneously; it tracks he would want to bring these sounds together in a genuine attempt to reach a wider audience. Nothing about this album is cynical, but it is opportunistic, a creation in line with both a shameless mixed-media existence and his everchanging pop alchemy. The "genre" tag in streaming metadata means less than it ever has. Credit to Yachty for putting that knowledge to use.

KARRAHBOOO Calls Cap On Lil Yachty’s Ghostwriting Claims

A fter Lil Yachty’s rant regarding his former artist KARRAHBOOO leaving Concrete Boys, she has finally clapped back and addressed the claims. The artist has called capped on ghostwriting claims and asked him to keep her name out of the “ internet shenanigans .”

Lil Yachty was visibly upset during an Instagram Live rant regarding rumors about him mistreating his former signee, KARRAHBOOO. While addressing the various conspiracy theories online, he highlighted that he was actually protecting her from being outed as rude and disrespectful.

Later in his conversation, he clarified that he wrote all her records, including her popular verse on their ”On The Radar” freestyle, which helped her burst into the spotlight. While shooting down those claims, KARRAHBOOO circled two of her most popular records on Apple Music, daring Yachty to say that he wrote them.

Lil Yachty went even further during his rant to express his frustrations with her attitude, and said she is almost a million dollars in debt and will not be able to get out of it because he is not there to help her make her music and provide her with her style.

This rant was vehemently different from the announcement of her officially leaving the group. During that Instagram Live session he expressed, “I have nothing bad to say. Nothing negative to say about KARRAH. I wish her the best in her career,” Lil Yachty added. “That’s pretty much it. I don’t have anything bad to say … or anything good to say.”

This conversation came shortly after Broccoli City Festival in D.C. where KARRAHBOOO was a glaring omission during the Concrete Boys setlist. During their performance, they excluded the hit track “RIP FOLLIES,” which is a fan favorite for the Hip Hop group.

KARRAHBOOO has not released a solo track since leaving the group, but she is set to go on the road as a special guest for Latto’s headlining tour with Mariah the Scientist. She no longer follows any member of the group anymore and has been removed from the Concrete Boys Instagram page.

Check out their fire “On The Radar” freestyle below!

KARRAHBOOO Calls Cap On Lil Yachty’s Ghostwriting Claims

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

Thanks to Nautica, Lil Yachty Has Officially Sailed Into the Fashion Game

Image may contain Clothing Apparel Shoe Footwear Human Person Sweater Sweatshirt and Hood

There’s a kooky new kid on the fashion block and he goes by the name of Lil Yachty. The 19-year-old Georgia-born rapper, of “King Boat” and the crew called Sailing Team, first gained fame back in 2015 with his EP Summer Songs , the music of which he himself once dubbed “ bubblegum trap ” (he’s sampled sounds from Rugrats and Super Mario Bros.). His major entrée into style however came last year, when the sartorial world took notice of his beaded red braids, hot pink shirts, and preppy plaid vests. He also modeled for Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3 show at Madison Square Garden and was a face of Nautica’s exclusive line for Urban Outfitters.

Now, Lil Yachty is continuing the relationship with his all-time favorite American sportswear brand, as it was announced today that he has signed on to be Nautica’s creative designer. In this new position he will release capsule collections throughout the year and model for ad campaigns. Along with the big news, fans were also treated to a sneak peek of what’s to come with the reveal of a limited-edition collection of logo-bedecked items curated by the lyricist.

Lil Yachty’s eccentric, playfully naïve swag is just the sort of attribute that makes this celebrity fashion mash-up stand out from all the rest. And it’s true of his everyday style game too. If you didn’t know, now you know: King Boat has just sailed into the new year as a fashion force to be reckoned with.

As proof, take a look at some of the well-dressed wild child’s brightest ensembles.

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How Lil Yachty Became Michigan Boy Boat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo by Gunner Stahl

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lil Yachty and Addison Rae Probably Aren't Going to Collab Anytime Soon

Published Dec. 8 2020, 12:45 p.m. ET

When Kid LAROI released the song "Addison Rae," the social media influencer gave it her virtual stamp of approval by dancing to it on TikTok. But Lil Yachty’s feature in a new song has a line about Addison Rae , and now her fans are calling for him to be canceled.

In their eyes, he greatly disrespected her, and it has started an onslaught of backlash from not only Addison's fans but also her on-again / off-again boyfriend, Bryce Hall.

What did Lil Yachty say about Addison Rae?

Lil Yachty is featured on DJ Scheme's new song, "E-ER." In it, he calls out Addison in a similar way that Kid LAROI does, only this time it left a bad taste in fans’ mouths. To them, the rapper disrespected Addison and even sexualized her for the benefit of making a track for DJ Scheme's album, "Family." And they aren't letting up.

The line in the song says, "I want Addison Rae to become my doctor and check on my problems. Put her in a skirt and a scarf like a pilot. He didn’t make it past the first clip like a polyp."

But, fans say, in the explicit version, Lil Yachty actually says he wants Addison to check on his "privates" instead of problems. It has caused an uproar among fans of both Addison Rae and Lil Yachty who either see an issue with the mention of Addison or think her fans are overreacting.

Bryce Hall and Lil Yachty have beef now.

Because of the lyrics, Bryce Hall, who is periodically on and off with Addison, and Lil Yachty, are engaged in a Twitter war. Bryce tweeted to his followers asking what music he should listen to, to which Lil Yachty replied with a link to his music and noted the specific marker to hear the line about Addison.

TODAY IN “GUESS WHO’S CANCELLED?”: Lil Yachty called out by Addison Rae fans for lyrics he included about Addison in new song. pic.twitter.com/ceB7Z6zCSu — Def Noodles (@defnoodles) December 4, 2020

Then, Bryce responded with a photo of himself and Addison. And, not one to let up, Lil Yachty replied to the tweet, telling him he doesn't want Addison. Then, Bryce claimed he received text messages asking if he and Addison would appear in a music video for him.

Lil Yachty then tweeted back , "Listen kid... I wouldn’t have you in my video if my life depended on it. Not my song also... Also I did this verse four months ago. Relax bro. It’s not that deep. Go take some shirtless photos or some."

Are Addison Rae and Bryce Hall back together?

Judging by Bryce’s photo of himself and Addison looking awfully cozy together and the stance he took in defending her *honor* online, it would appear that Addison and Bryce are back together. Again. Over the course of 2020, they broke up and got back together, un-followed each other on social media, and then posted photos together, countless times.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by addison rae (@addisonraee)

For now, it seems, Bryce and Addison are together again. Maybe going toe-to-toe with a rapper about something as inconsequential as a song has brought them even closer together. Of course, only time will tell if they will stay together or if Bryce and Addison will be back to scrubbing their respective social media accounts of each other in a week’s time.

People Think Addison Rae and Lil Yachty Might Be Dating Because of This TikTok

Will Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Ever Get Back Together?

Addison Rae Addresses Previous All Lives Matter Tweet

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COMMENTS

CONCRETE BOY BOAT^ (@lilyachty) • Instagram photos and videos
12M Followers, 1,071 Following, 1 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from CONCRETE BOY BOAT^ (@lilyachty)
Lil Yachty Has All-Time Crash Out Session Over Karrahbooo ...
In case you were living under a rock or just woke up from coma, last night Lil Yachty had a public meltdown on Instagram Live over his former artist Karrahbooo and his podcast co-host and friend ...
CONCRETE BOY BOAT^
225K likes, 1,767 comments - lilyachty on February 13, 2024: "this is real.. soon.".
Lil Yachty
Yachty has released six studio albums, beginning with Teenage Emotions in 2017. His second and third studio albums Lil Boat 2 and Nuthin' 2 Prove were released in 2018, followed by Lil Boat 3 in 2020. Yachty's fifth album, Let's Start Here (2023) marked a departure from his previous style, experimenting with psychedelic rock. [ 8] He collaborated with English singer and producer James Blake ...
Lil Yachty Celebrates New IG Feature by Revealing He Threw Up ...
Lil Yachty Gives Fans Rare Look Into Close Friends to Celebrate New Instagram Feature Yachty used the opportunity as a chance to reveal that he "threw up" after his recent set at Tyler, the ...
How Lil Yachty Went From Instagram to Kanye's Inner Circle
Read how Lil Yachty parlayed Instagram fame into a thriving music career and studio work with huge names like Kanye West.
CONCRETE BOY BOAT^
557K likes, 4,484 comments - lilyachty on July 9, 2023: "p.s I don't wanna be nothing like dem other niggas!¡".
Lil Yachty's Rock Album 'Let's Start Here': Inside the Pivot
Lil Yachty's 'Let's Start Here' surprised listeners with its sonic pivot to rock. Now, the rapper is reflecting on the confidence that it inspired.
Lil Yachty Q&A: Conkrete Recordz And Future Projects
Lil Yachty has come full circle. Before music, Yachty worked as a McDonald's crew member, during which time, he crafted one of his artistic hallmarks — the signature vibrant red hair that made ...
Lil Yachty Interview: Let's Start Here Tour And Collabs
Lil Yachty checked in with Complex in an exclusive pre-tour interview. By Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo. Sep 26, 2023. COMMENT. C4 Energy. Lil Yachty is in an energized state of stillness. If that ...
Lil Yachty Sparks Rumors Of Drake Rift With Instagram ...
Lil Yachty has caused confusion among fans after appearing to unfollow then refollow Drake on Instagram following speculation he was axed from 'Super Soak'.
Lil Yachty Talks Fame, Cryptocurrency, and Being a Social Media Darling
Lil Yachty Talks Fame, Cryptocurrency, and Being a Social Media Darling. "Whatever you put out is who you're perceived as." This year's Young Hollywood creators are focused on the people at the ...
Lil Yachty Blasts Karrahbooo and Mitch in Explosive Rant ...
An explosive impromptu Instagram Live from Lil Yachty saw the Atlanta artist slam his A Safe Place podcast cohost Mitch and former Concrete Boys signee Karrahboo.. Yachty began by addressing ...
Lil Yachty and Tierra Whack Talk 'Terrible' Hip-Hop, Grammys, More
Dec 1, 2023 9:00 am. L il Yachty and Tierra Whack are two of the more inventive artists in hip-hop today — two wildly original talents who have charted their own paths without following anyone ...
Lil Yachty and Karrahbooo's Feud Escalates With Bullying ...
Lil Yachty and Karrahbooo Continue Throwing Shots at Each Other On Sunday (Aug. 25), Lil Yachty hopped on his Instagram Story to address Karrahbooo's claims about writing her own rhymes and being ...
Lil Yachty: How Rapper Got His Second Act
How Lil Yachty went from King of the Teens to a multimillion-dollar brand that sometimes makes rap songs.
How Lil Yachty Ended Up at His Excellent New Psychedelic Album
How Lil Yachty Ended Up at His Excellent New Psychedelic Album Let's Start Here Rap's preeminent oddball made a hard left and crafted his first great album.
Lil Yachty Lyrics, Songs, and Albums
About Lil Yachty Miles Parks McCollum (born August 23, 1997, in Mableton, Georgia), popularly known as Lil Yachty, is an American rapper and singer from Atlanta, Georgia. He's known for his ...
Lil Yachty calls out Karrahboo and Mitch during explosive Instagram Live
In a recent Instagram Live session, Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty unleashed a torrent of accusations against his former collaborator Karrahboo and his podcast cohost Mitch. The unexpected outburst has ...
Lil Yachty Is Out to Claim What He Deserves Ahead of Lil Boat 3
Lil Yachty discusses the making of his Lil Boat 3 album, getting respect for his craft, moving further into acting and more in a new interview with XXL.
Lil Yachty's delightfully absurd path to 'Let's Start Here'
Yachty's initial peak perhaps seeded his desire years later to sincerely pursue artistry with Let's Start Here, an album fit for his peculiar trajectory, because throughout the checks from Sprite ...
KARRAHBOOO Calls Cap On Lil Yachty's Ghostwriting Claims
Lil Yachty was visibly upset during an Instagram Live rant regarding rumors about him mistreating his former signee, KARRAHBOOO. While addressing the various conspiracy theories online, he ...
lil yachty fits ️⛵️
7,814 likes, 28 comments - lilyachtyfitss on October 8, 2023: "Probably my favourite outfit from tour so far. New York Field Trip Tour Outfit 1 (Sept. 22nd, 2023) —————————————————————- @lilyachty is wearing… - Marni ( @marni ) Multicolour Crochet Knit Bucket Hat ($200) - Lorenz.OG ( @lorenz.og ) x Arc'teryx Solis Alpha AR Jacket ($1,350 ...
Lil Yachty
Let's Start Here. is Lil Yachty's fifth studio album, it is a direct follow-up to his August 2021 mixtape BIRTHDAY MIX 6. The first mention of the album's existence dates back to
Get on Board: Lil Yachty Just Confirmed His Status as One to ...
Thanks to Nautica, Lil Yachty Has Officially Sailed Into the Fashion Game. There's a kooky new kid on the fashion block and he goes by the name of Lil Yachty. The 19-year-old Georgia-born rapper ...
How Lil Yachty Became Michigan Boy Boat
Before the release of 'Michigan Boy Boat,' Lil Yachty sits for an interview about how his collabs with Michigan artists energized him to grow as a rapper.
Who Is Lil Yachty Dating? The Rapper Is Now the Father of ...
Many have linked the rapper to Instagram model Megan Denise, and suggest that the two first began dating in 2017 but have not yet gotten married. Reports also suggest that, before he dated Megan, Lil Yachty was dating another Instagram model from India. What's more, he has also been linked to model India Love, who appeared alongside him in the ...
Lil Yachty
Lil Yachty: his birthday, what he did before fame, his family life, fun trivia facts, popularity rankings, and more.
What Did Lil Yachty Say About Addison Rae? Her Fans Are Outraged
Bryce Hall and Lil Yachty have beef now. Because of the lyrics, Bryce Hall, who is periodically on and off with Addison, and Lil Yachty, are engaged in a Twitter war. Bryce tweeted to his followers asking what music he should listen to, to which Lil Yachty replied with a link to his music and noted the specific marker to hear the line about ...