{"id":804581,"date":"2020-02-25T12:48:30","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T19:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=957457"},"modified":"2020-02-25T12:48:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T19:48:30","slug":"lil-yachtys-music-is-interesting-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/lil-yachtys-music-is-interesting-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Yachty\u2019s Music Is Interesting Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I didn\u2019t expect to still be listening to Lil Yachty<\/a> in 2020. In fairness, it has less to do with him than me: too much of my early career as a music writer was consumed defending the crimson-haired Atlanta rapper<\/a> from traditionalist critics like Joe Budden in the early era of what eventually would be tagged with disrespectful misnomer of \u201cmumble rap.\u201d Still, the return on investment for Yachty\u2019s music had long begun to wane. It began with the critical derision of his 2017 debut album, Teenage Emotions<\/em>, which, in retrospect, was a fine but ultimately negligible release in the SoundCloud rapper-turned-major-label-star ecosystem. Two forgotten mixtapes full of creative retreads followed in 2018, Lil Boat 2<\/em> and Nuthin\u2019 2 Prove<\/em>. The former \u201cKing of the Teens\u201d had to realize that teens\u2019 (and rap writers\u2019) attention spans are supremely fickle.<\/p>\n

But this year, through a mixture of time, distance, and restraint, it\u2019s become hard to deny Lil Yachty\u2019s recalibration. The absence of a full-length project from the Atlanta rapper illuminated the one constant of his short career: 30 seconds of Yachty is always better than 3,000 seconds of Yachty. That was true when Yachty first burst onto the scene with features on Chance The Rapper\u2019s \u201cMixtape\u201d and DRAM\u2019s \u201cBroccoli,\u201d and it\u2019s even more evident now. Lately, Yachty\u2019s been turning in acrobatic performances on songs like \u201cTadoe\u2019s \u201cGet It Bussin<\/a>.\u201d Over a Chief Keef-produced beat, he\u2019ll deliver a thrown off couplet that\u2019s among one of the better verse intros of the year \u2014 \u201cOkay, my Hellcat devil-red \/ And my bitch yellow like deviled eggs.\u201d At one point, Yachty raps, \u201cFive hard knocks at your door like the landlord\u201d as an FX knock fills the next bar and, without missing a beat, he picks up the next line with a \u201cGet low or get wet, boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Then there are more inventive swings, like \u201cCrunk Ain\u2019t Dead Mob\u201d from Quality Control labelmate Duke Duece. There are 16 letters in the phrase \u201cCrunk Ain\u2019t Dead Mob\u201d and Duece ad-libs the acronym across his verse. Yachty takes it one step further, bending the pronunciation of each word.<\/p>\n

(C) For my Crips, don\u2019t get dipped, ice all in my lip<\/em>
(R) Or a nigga can\u2019t be bought, but I stay with chips<\/em>
(U) Know damn well you ain\u2019t gangster and you ain\u2019t gon\u2019 flip<\/em>
(N) The discussion, Wockhardt, no \u2018Tussin<\/em>
(Woo, K) \u2018Ro, what we sell these niggas when they wanna sip<\/em><\/p>\n

Duece\u2019s \u201cR\u201d is an \u201cOr\u201d to Yachty. He turns the ad-libbed \u201cU\u201d into a \u201cYou,\u201d followed by a \u201cknow damn well.\u201d Duke\u2019s \u201cN\u201d is really the word \u201cend\u201d in Yachty\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n