The rap industry is constantly changing along with trendy styles. 

Many of these changes had not resulted in recent success until a complete turnaround for the young superstar rapper, referred to as Lil Yachty (Yot-ee). 

Yachty has been in the music industry for nearly eight years since the release of his first single “One Night” which was released on Soundcloud.

Two years later, at the age of 19, Lil Yachty released his debut album “Lil Boat”. 

The name Lil Boat is supposed to be like an alter ego to Lil Yachty.

Yachty explains in his first album’s intro that Lil Boat is the meaner of the two.

The beginning of the album is the introduction between the similar yet opposing forces, Lil Yachty and Lil Boat.

Since 2016, Lil Yachty has released many singles and now seven new albums. 

Yachty released albums trying different styles of rap seen as “melodic rap” for the majority. Yachty has released branch albums along with sequels, such as Lil Boat 2 and Lil Boat 3, being released every two years.

Lil Yachty’s most recently released album, “Let’s Start Here” is an experimental album taken to a whole new level. 

“Let’s start here” is under the genre of indie and trippy. It takes a Sublime-like turn with the drumming.

Producing the album, Yachty changes his style of singing, while keeping his well-known high-pitched and melodic vocals.

For such a creative turn as this, it is difficult to be successful. Yet fans are obsessing over this style change even if it is not what they are used to. 

The album and its nice melody bring a good dose of dopamine to the brain.

The album cover is also just as unique as the album itself. The cover is an A.I.-generated photo that appears to be of a group of businessmen surrounding a businesswoman. While they all appear to be laughing and smiling, the meaning is just a bit dark.

Lil Yachty describes the photo as a “Demented board of executives.”

In this photo, the faces are not crystal clear. They are a bit distorted and off-center, showing these people are not real, and A.I created it which makes it even more freaky.

After an interview with a music enthusiast at Lakeland, Ty Davis shares his thoughts and opinions on Lil Yachty and his style switch-up for the album.

Davis says that he first heard Lil Yachty in 8th grade, hearing the popular song “Brocolli.” 

He really got into Lil Yachty with the release of Nuthin’ 2 Prove, which was his fifth studio album, released in 2018.

Davis says “What he did with Let’s start here is a major departure from all of his past albums and personally I love it.”

Davis says he loves Pink Floyd and rock and that sort of style. For an artist like Yachty who doesn’t really step out of the box, he pulled it off with this one.

Davis’s favorite part about the album is the music production and instrumentals from his team.

The only thing Davis claimed to dislike was Yachty’s vocal style and how it does not always align with the music.

“That’s not a bad thing. His style of vocals are not bad, just he is so unique that he might not have his flow yet. but I’m confident if he keeps going in this direction, he can start putting these pieces together more fluently.”

Davis hit it right on the head knowing the cover was A.I. generated and saying it looks like important people laughing. He thinks of Yachty defying the music industry.

“The music industry is an absolutely brutal place and most record labels are so controlling over artists,” said Davis. 

Most record labels wouldn’t go with a style change this big but he did and that is how Davis sees Yachty’s defiance.

Davis wants Yachty to keep going this route, even if it’s just one more album, all he wishes was different is the vocals.

Davis agrees with many and says this is one of the best departure albums he has heard and he expects good things.

Davis finishes by saying that Yachty is such a “Funny and charismatic person outside of rapping. Modern hip hop rappers are not deep and thoughtful people.”

Davis thinks Yachty stands out from others which makes him unique and he supports it.

With the success of this album, we might see some big changes in the rap game from Lil Yachty and others.