'Lil Boat' - Lil Yachty REVIEW

      Lil Yachty is an up and coming rapper hailing from Atlanta. Atlanta is going through a rap music renaissance consisting of talented young rappers exhibiting their skills to form a new sub-genre of the now world-known 'Trap Music'. This sub-genre has many different names, the most consistently used is 'Suburban Trap' or rap that is carried by story-lines that they face in their every day lives. These story-lines are accompanied by usually upbeat instrumentals. These story-lines usually are about drugs, money, and girls, but some artists take it upon themselves to differentiate themselves form the crowd, artists like Future, Rich The Kid, and our subject, Lil Yachty.
     When people ask Lil Yachty what name he has for the type of music he makes, Yachty responds with 'Bubblegum Trap'. With this definition, we can assume 'Bubblegum Trap' means happy, upbeat songs, layered with autotune over joyous and bouncy instrumentals. Lil Yachty's story starts with an internet meme, of a guy dancing to his song '1Night' which blew up on Twitter, Instagram, and the culmination of modern day hip-hop's premier website, WorldStar. Yachty took this attention and released a few more songs that quickly gained attention. He then made his way up to New York with his friend and world-known social media mogul Ian Connors. Connors introduced him to the most influential person on the planet, Kanye West, and West saw his fresh, and different style. With his red braided hair, his futuristic all-white shield style sunglasses, and his outfit decked out in Nautica. West got him in some Yeezy threads and put him on the runway for his Yeezy Season 3 showcase.
 
 (At YZY SZN 3, to the left, (Yellow) Ian Connors, at the right,(Also yellow) Young Thug)
      With this attention he released a surprise mixtape entitled 'Lil Boat'. 'Lil Boat' holds everything that makes Yachty's sound unique, a fresh, happy take on hip-hop. Production coming largely from his friend Burberry Perry, who has the best name in music at the moment. His instrumentals sound like Video Game soundtracks coming from Arcades in the 80s. These instrumentals steal the show in songs like 'Run/Running' where producer Earl teams up with E-Bundles. His name is simply just 'Earl', nothing more to it. They sample a Super Mario Bros. sound-effect, along with a synth riff. The first part of the song is happy, but not lyrical, the second part 'Running' is the lyrical half, and still has production second to none.
     The song '1Night' has an added minute and a half to it, making it even catchier and gaining 4 million more plays on Soundcloud. The song has a simple piano beat, and upbeat but sad lyrics. People are dancing to it but they don't notice the troubles he has with women and how fame affects his life negatively. 'Minnesota (Remix) ft. Quavo, SkippaDaFlippa, and Young Thug' kicks off with the catchy hook 'Cold like Minnesota, 'cause it gets cold like Minnesota', a sing-a-long song about how things can get heated if you mess with the guy. Atlanta rap group 'Migos' member Quavo adds a nice verse to it, even though it does not make much sense. SkippaDaFlippa interludes and rhymes fast as always. Young Thug seals the deal with a melodic verse, with a couple of quotable lines;
'I got more diamonds than your jeweler, I make her come back like a Yu-Gi, if you ain't knew it now you know it' ,and 'No Nike, she know I do it.'
      Other stand-out songs are 'Wanna Be Us ft.Burberry Perry', 'Good Day ft.SkippaDaFlippa' and my favorite 'Out Late, a nice melodic touch on a story about a girl he hangs out with.
    
      Overall this is great for a review mixtape, but Yachty has some work to do on his lyricism, and he needs to crank out some longer verses. Quality production, happy feeling, upbeat sound, melodic but some flat lyrics. Good mixtape 7/10. LISTEN HERE


(Lil Yachty, with Rick Rubin)
More ball and music soon.                               --KSP--