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Meet the Members of Lil Yachty’s Concrete Boys Crew

Here’s a breakdown with everything you need to know about each of the members in Lil Yachty’s collective.

Lil Yachty is determined to keep rap collectives alive with his eclectic Concrete Boys crew.

Over the past couple of years, he’s been assembling a collection of artists—Karrahbooo, Camo!, Dc2trill, and Draft Day—who each reflect the new and exciting sound that has been bubbling in the South.

Draft Day is the first ‘Crete signee who can fit on any type of beat with his chameleonic flow; Dc2trill is the spark plug who injects every track with Southern energy; Camo! has some of the most elite wordplay in the group; and Karrahbooo has emerged as the biggest star so far, with a laid-back personality that matches her effortless flow.

“Concrete [means] you’re just a solid individual,” Draft Day said during an interview with Montreality , explaining what bonds them all together. “You’re truly yourself. You know who you are as a person, at the end of the day. You’re gonna stand tall on whatever you put out into the world, whatever you’re doing. Can’t nobody tell you shit, and you’re just solid.”

Before Concrete’s first project as a collective It’s Us Volume 1 drops this week, here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about each of the members in Lil Yachty’s crew.

What songs should I listen to first? “Running Late,” “Box The 40,” “On The Radar Concrete Cypher”

Who is she?

Karrahbooo, a 27-year-old rapper from Atlanta, realized she wanted to pursue rap while working as an assistant for Lil Yachty, before dropping her first song “Money Counter” when he fired her in 2022. At first, her main goal was to be an actor, and as she explained in an interview with Montreality , “I’m only rapping because I saw Boat doing a movie when I was his assistant, and that’s the day I was like, ‘I want to be a rapper,’ because you can just be an actor from being a rapper if you’re fly enough. That’s how Boat did it.” Regardless of what her original dreams were, however, Karrahbooo has become an integral cog in the Concrete Boys machine, earning her place as the most well-known artist in the crew (outside of Yachty) thanks to viral moments like her breakout verse on Concrete’s On The Radar freestyle cypher last year. And her aspirations as an actress can be seen in her cameo in an old Druski skit that resurfaced on social media recently.

What’s her role in the crew?

The First Lady of the ‘Crete doesn’t rap like any of her male counterparts in the crew. Instead, she adopts a syrupy flow similar to Detroit rappers like Veeze and Babytron who intentionally duck and weave the beat. Her laid-back flow has been getting a lot of people talking lately, because of how drowsy her cadence can sound over upbeat production (like on her most recent release “RIP Follies” ) but her unique style is setting Karrah apart from her peers. In most cases, she knows how to ride the beat at her own effective pace, like on “Running Late,” “Box the 40,” and Concrete’s Christmas cypher, where she lets her cadence flow freely like a meandering river. However divisive she may be, she has more charisma than anyone in the crew and she’s dedicated to being herself, which is her greatest weapon.

Can you explain this in basketball terms?

If you take her interviews about wanting to be an actor more than a rapper at face value, Karrah is like the Nikola Jokic of the Concrete Boys: she’s a natural bucket, but she’s very nonchalant about the game itself.

What songs should I listen to first? “With You” f/ Lil Yachty, “Swap Her Birk,” “Jet Lag”

Camo! is an Atlanta rapper who has been releasing music since 2019. He met Lil Yachty on the video shoot for “ Split/Whole Time” and the two would connect again a year later when Yachty invited the young rapper to the studio. From there, Camo continued reaching out to his new mentor until eventually falling under the Concrete umbrella around the same time as Karrahbooo in 2022. He has since appeared in several Concrete Boys cyphers and joined Yachty on a collab called “With You” in 2023.

What’s his role in the crew?

Camo raps with a cadence that is often very similar to Yachty’s, but the sound of his voice is smoother and he might have the best technical rapping ability out of anyone in the group. When Concrete needs hard bars on songs like their “ Concrete Cypher,” Camo is always ready to deliver, despite being one of the younger members of the group (his exact age is unclear, but he said he met Yachty in 2022 when he was just starting college, which would make him around 20 or 21 right now).

He’s lyrically savvy beyond his years, using clever bars to keep Concrete tracks seasoned, making him the scrappy young Rajon Rondo (think ‘08 Celtics era) of the crew.

What songs should I listen to first? “ Grooviest In The World,” “ Fomo,” “Show Me The Money”

Dc2trill was born in Texas, but he split time between Texas and Alabama for most of his life. He dropped his first song called “PassAround” nine years ago when he was in high school, which helped him gain some regional notoriety. Then he got in contact with Yachty after J Bans reached out and said that Boat was a fan in 2019, before eventually linking up a year later. “We ended up recording a couple songs. He pulled me out of the session and was like, ‘Yo, bro I want to sign you, and I want to help you with your music,” Trill explained in an interview with Tapped In . Dc2trill flew out to Detroit with Yachty while he was working on his Michigan Boy Boat mixtape, and was featured on the legendary “Royal Rumble” posse cut that dropped before the tape in 2021. The two have been working together ever since.

As the only artist who didn’t grow up in Atlanta, Dc2trill brings a different sound and perspective to the crew, and he’s been releasing music longer than anyone (besides Yachty). His solo music is very impressive, especially his most recent 2023 album, Family Matters, where he was able to pair gritty rhymes and a southern twang with silky jazz samples. The tape already has motion on the streets with tracks like “Grooviest In The World” and “Fomo,” and it’s clear the people are slowly catching up to the talent that he has.

Think of Dc2trill as Warriors-era Andre Iguodala; he might not always be super flashy, but he’s an MVP-caliber player in the framework of his team

What songs should I listen to first? “How Far Will I Go” f/ Lil Yachty, “Popovich Freestyle” f/ Lil Yachty, “Sunday Talkin”

Draft Day was the first artist officially signed to Concrete Boys back in 2021, and the two had already known each other for several years before that. He’s originally from Broward County, Florida, but eventually moved to Atlanta and started making music when he was in high school. He met Yachty around the same time through mutual friends when he was a freshman in high school. “We just built that relationship beyond music, just as a brother,” Draft Day said in an interview with Lyrical Lemonade. “Through the time, he just saw my work ethic, and now we’re here today. He signed me, and we’re here today.” Anyone paying close attention to the Lil Yachty extended universe is familiar with Draft Day through little cameos like when Drake noticed him looking out into the distance during an interview with Yachty and jokingly said, “I’ve just been looking at Draft Day staring off into the sunset, knowing his time is coming.”

Draft Day has a similar flow as Camo!, except he stays on the beat more than his Concrete counterpart, who sometimes intentionally slips in and out of it. His raspy voice and reliable flow help him add a different complexion to the group’s tracks, and hopefully the excitement generated from It’s Us Volume 1 will give him more momentum as he prepares to drop his first full-length solo project since 2019.

Because he’s helped build the collective from the ground up with Yachty, he has an instinctual understanding of how to rap with the other members of the crew and enhance their rhymes, making him the Chris Paul of the team. He’s an assist master, but is still hunting for that big solo moment to crystalize his career.

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Giovanna Ramos is an Atlanta-based model who formed a close friendship with Lil Yachty after she moved out to Atlanta last year. She’s included in the Concrete Boys family portrait that Yachty recently posted, so we’re including her on this list, and a photo of her gold grills were used as the cover art for Yachty’s “Slide” single art. “I genuinely did not know I was going to be the cover for these projects,” Ramos told Complex about her involvement in the “Slide” visuals. “[Yachty] sent me ‘Slide’ a while back and I kept telling him almost every day like ‘Bro this is my favorite song right now’ and then a few months later he hit me up saying ‘Come over tomorrow, we shooting the video’ and I was super excited.” Gio has been hanging with the crew ever since her involvement on “Slide,” and can be seen in the background of other Concrete artists’ music videos .

Gio doesn’t rap, so she isn’t an artist on the crew, but it’s clear by her inclusion in the family portrait that she’s an important part of Concrete. When you see the ‘Crete, you’ll see her. While Gio doesn’t make music, she provides the swag and energy that every rap collective needs.

Think of her as a player like PJ Tucker: someone who keeps the locker room in check and makes sure the team is staying fly.

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

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.

About That Yacht Life: How Teen Rapper Lil Yachty Made It Big

Meet the 18-year-old Atlanta rapper and Yeezy model making waves.

It was 3 p.m. on a Wednesday in New York, and the 18-year-old rapper Miles Parks McCollum, known to everyone as Lil Yachty, could not stop yawning. His bedazzled grill caught the overhead light of a Chinatown hotel room with each Wookie-like yawp; beneath his beaded red braids, it was almost impossible to tell whether or not his eyes were open.

His voice, which had the hypnotic drawl of a Novocaine-induced stupor, only reinforced the appearance of sleepiness. Only when the subject of Supreme surfaced did he perk up: “It went from me going in there to shop, to them playing my music now,” he declared. His friend Chalis, who came up with Yachty in Atlanta, reminded him that they once saw Joe Jonas in the store. Everyone in the room, including other core members of the “Sailing Team”—producer “Burberry Perry” and “Bloody Osiris,” plus Yachty’s manager, who goes by “ Coach K “—busted out laughing.

“I forgot we seen him,” Yachty recalled with a smirk.

Yachty, who came to seemingly everyone’s attention when he modeled in Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3 show, wore a velvet Supreme sweat suit and Gucci slide sandals. On his neck hung a sizable diamond-encrusted gold medallion with the letters “QC,” which stand for Quality Control. Having only started making music a year ago, this is apparently the prize for going from no one to someone, boy to man, boat to yacht.

Lil Yachty, Perry, Chalis, and Osiris

“In high school, there was a group of older kids who called themselves the ‘Yacht Club,’” Yachty said of his stage name. “I was trying to get in the club.” They eventually let him in, but he had to start from the bottom as Lil Boat, which has since become his alter-ego. “They’re the same person,” Yachty continued. “Same soul. Same body. But one is more calm and the other is more aggressive.”

Chalis, who is two years older, was one of the charter members of the Yacht Club. “We were starting waves,” he said. “We used to record in my closet in Atlanta. We had a bum-ass mic and we put a sock on it. We had nothing.” After graduating, Chalis sailed off to New York. Once he was installed there, Yachty sent him a list of kids he followed on Instagram for Chalis to befriend. The advance team set the table for last summer, when Yachty arrived in town to stay with Chalis; together, they broke onto the scene, successfully networking with the likes of Ian Connor and Eileen Kelly .

“I just thought I’d give it a shot,” said Yachty. “I just wanted to get cool.” He shrugged and then paused, as if his rapid success had finally just hit him. “I was just in a dorm room. I was at Alabama State—I was literally just there !”

Last week, Yachty attracted a crowd so large at his VFiles show that the police had to barricade the street. He then went on to perform at the Museum of Modern Art, followed by a show in Philadelphia with Young Thug. On Tuesday, he released his music video for “ 1 Night ,” which is quickly making its rounds on the Internet for its meme-friendly visuals. “He’s one of the most focused young guys I’ve ever met,” said Coach K, who’s worked with stars like Young Jeezy, Migos, and Gucci Mane. “He’s going to be really big .”

When he’s onstage, Yachty comes to life. In one clip of a performance posted to his Instagram, he jumps up and down so energetically that his sweatpants practically fall off. His hair thwacks his face in sync with the beat. He dives into the audience. He is buoyant, like, well, a yacht.

Yeezy Season 3 at Madison Square Garden. Photo by Getty Images.

“He’s got a lot of little white boy fans,” Osiris said of the usual crowd.

“Like lemme-get-a-pic-for-the-gram !” Burberry Perry chimed in.

Music is something that Yachty simply tried, and found that he had a knack for it. “Growing up, my dad used to play India Arie, Coldplay, and Paul McCartney ,” he recalled. His father, Shannon McCollum , is a photographer who’s worked with everyone from Outkast to Dead Prez, so maybe the spotlight is the beam by which Yachty was meant to chart his route. His raps, which have the same hazy quality of his speaking voice and are infused with nonchalant humor, have little to do with the trap artists—like Migos, Young Thug, Young Jeezy, and Future—that came before him in Atlanta. In fact, Yachty claimed he’s not interested in the genre; instead, he described his sound as “colorful” and “soft.”

Meet Lil Yachty, the Teen Rapper Making Waves

Louis Vuitton shirt, $850, louisvuitton.com ; Dries Van Noten tank top, $140, barneys.com ; Ami trousers, $355, amiparis.fr .

Raf Simons v-neck knit, $1,700, rafsimons.com ; Theory T-shirt, $75, theory.com ; Ami trousers, $355, amiparis.fr ; Converse sneakers, $55, converse.com ; Lil Yachty’s own jewelry.

Louis Vuitton shirt, $850, louisvuitton.com ; Dries Van Noten tank top, $140, barneys.com ; Lil Yachty’s own jewelry.

Prada shirt, $710, and sweater, $930, prada.com ; Ami pants, $350, amiparis.fr ; Falke socks, $28, sockhopny.com ; Louis Vuitton sneakers, $785, louisvuitton.com ; Lil Yachty’s own jewelry.

“When you think of trap, it’s like hard, gutter stuff,” explained Chalis, whose job description seems to be happily filling in Yachty’s long silences. “But we’re young kids; we’re not like that. Obviously, we love trap and are influenced by where we come from, but Yachty is fun. His voice is angelic! A lot of rap you can’t relate to, but Yachty is young. Not even a year ago he was a regular civilian.”

While Yachty claimed the only music he listens to is his own, his friends name-dropped people like Lil Uzi Vert , who is 21. “Why so many Lil’s?” I asked.

“It’s because everyone wants to be a kid again,” explained Osiris.

I turned to Yachty and asked him what else he might hope to accomplish next. He stretched out his arms and yawned deeply, and then mumbled something in his drowsy baritone.

“You want to what?” I asked.

Yachty stuck his hand down his Nautica boxer shorts and closed his eyes: “I just want to be mainstream.”

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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.

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About lil yachty.

Lil Yachty makes it look easy. An Atlanta-raised rapper with a sleepy flow and a bright, almost childlike outlook, Yachty (born Miles Parks McCollum in 1997) rose to prominence in 2016 with a pair of mixtapes (Lil Boat and Summer Songs 2) that recast the booming caverns of 2010s rap as something soft, sweet, intuitive, and a little goofy—a sound Yachty once called “bubblegum trap.” Dozens of features and guest appearances followed, including cosigns from Kanye, Chance the Rapper, Calvin Harris, and Macklemore. In 2017, he released his first full-length album, Teenage Emotions. His second, 2018’s Lil Boat 2, took a harder, darker turn but retained the clarity that made his early music stand out. Like Lil Uzi Vert (or Young Thug before him), Yachty represents a turn away from the conventional metrics of rap, favoring slogans over bars, hooks over metaphors, fluidity over stricture, and vibe above all. (He famously—or infamously, depending on your stance toward tradition—once told Billboard that he couldn’t name five songs by either 2Pac or Biggie.) But he’s also emblematic of a broader shift from understanding rap music as an end in itself to seeing it as an extension of the person who made it, a facet of a bigger image or experience. No wonder he FaceTimes with fans, or started his career primarily as a presence on Instagram—for him, the project is social. Still, it wouldn’t make a difference if the music itself weren’t striking—and if he weren’t so casual about it too. Speaking to Beats 1’s Zane Lowe shortly before releasing Teenage Emotions, Yachty—guileless and ever-intuitive—said, “I didn’t know [my sound] was different. I didn’t know until it took off. Then I was like, ‘Well, I don’t sound like nobody else.’” He paused. “I don’t even know if that’s a good or a bad thing. But it’s a thing. It’s a thing.” Yachty’s only expanded his sonic appetite. In 2021, he paid homage to Detroit-area rap with Michigan Boy Boat, an album that saw him adopt the jittery soundscapes and deadpan bars of the region. He added to his repertoire once again with 2023’s Let’s Start Here., a psychedelic rock album that sees Yachty stretch his vocals and soundscapes in even more unpredictable directions. From there, he released Concrete Boys, the debut project from his Concrete imprint. Featuring dexterous flows and spurts of melody from his crew, the 2024 effort affirmed his knack for curation and aesthetics. He’s graduated to a well-tended status as an industry tastemaker and a spitter capable of trading bars with J. Cole. On the track “The Secret Recipe,” we find Lil Boat rapping about being the source of plenty of rap and fashion trends. It’s a fitting song title for a young veteran who’s made a career out of good taste.

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Lil Yachty’s Psychedelic Relaunch: ‘I Don’t Have To Be High To Make It Sound High’

By Andre Gee

I n 2016, a 19-year-old Lil Yachty emerged as a fresh-faced, red-haired maverick eagerly planting Generation Z’s flag in hip-hop . Songs like “Minnesota” intrigued many, but rap traditionalists denigrated him as a “mumble rapper” — an upstart who, they claimed, was insulting the essence of hip-hop one warbled vocal run at a time. That didn’t stop Yachty, though. In the years since, he’s kept trying new things , even as many other artists have gotten stuck retreading tired formulas. “Who cares?” he says now. “It’s going to go, or it’s not. You only have one life, bro. Just do shit.”

But he does offer a few details about the six-month recording process in Texas, New York, and elsewhere, which he says was “fun” at every juncture. At times, he played the work in progress for “heavy hitters” like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, A$AP Rocky, Drake, and Tyler, the Creator. “Everyone was ecstatic,” he says, “which made me feel good.”

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Do you think hip-hop could be more accepting of younger artists as they learn and grow? I don’t know. I don’t really care either. Who cares? I don’t need acceptance from nobody. People seek too much validation.

What was the initial catalyst for you to start this album? It was a phone call with Tyler that made me act on it. I always wanted to do it, but that was the battery.

What was the dynamic of that phone call? Were you like, “I want to explore something,” and he was like, “Go for it”? I don’t fully remember, but he was very motivating and inspiring. I didn’t tell him my ideas, but it was more so, “Whatever it is in your heart and in your mind that you want to do, do it. And do it fully, don’t shortcut it. Don’t cut any corners.”

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You’ve referenced psychedelics in interviews. How big a factor was that in the recording process? None. Zero. I can’t record music on drugs. I have to be fully sober. But I’ve done it enough times to know what I want. I don’t have to be high to make it sound high.

You said growing up you listened to all types of music. Did you ever hear the stigma of “That’s white-people music”? Yeah, of course. I don’t give a fuck, bro. It’s so hard to affect me or offend me. I do what I want to do. You feel me? People say this album is white-people music. Who cares, man? What is white-people music?

You’ve said you made this in part because you “wanted to be taken seriously as an artist and not just a SoundCloud rapper, not just a mumble rapper.” What would you say to people who feel like SoundCloud rappers and mumble rappers deserve to be taken as seriously as any other artists? See, that’s the thing. I can’t speak for nobody else. I’m not some spokesman for the people. I’m not vouching for anyone else’s work ethic or creativity, only mine. I want to be taken seriously. I’m not no mumble rap. I’m not just some SoundCloud rapper. I’m not speaking on all SoundCloud rappers. I’m speaking on me, you feel me? I want to make that apparent. This is for me, because everybody don’t have that work ethic. Everyone ain’t going to put the hours in to understand a new genre and how to execute something the right way. 

“See, that’s the thing. I can’t speak for nobody else. I’m not speaking on all SoundCloud rappers. I’m speaking on me, you feel me? This is for me, because everybody don’t have that work ethic.”

You’ve said you had a period of trying to prove you can rap. How do you feel about those efforts now? I love it, man. They made me a man. They made me strong. They made me care more about the craft — because I do. They made me want to learn, be better, sharpen my sword.

Did it ever get to a point with that stigma where it was hard to navigate your career? I don’t think nothing’s hard in life. It just took work and effort, and I still feel like I got more work to put in when it comes to rap and how people perceive me. I care less, though.

How much does the dynamic that you’re talking about here have to do with the stigma against rappers when it comes to award shows and radio play and festivals?  For me, that’s zero. I don’t care about none of that shit. I just make all types of music. It has nothing to do with the fruits and labors that don’t come with being a rapper, none of that. I like to make all music. That’s all it is, totally. It ain’t got nothing to do with not getting the love or respect or not being invited to an award show.

Going forward with your creative process, do you feel like you’ll have that motivation with every album you make, to prove something to a certain audience? Not necessarily. I didn’t make this album to prove that I could. I also want to be taken seriously. But I didn’t make it like, “Oh, man, I need them to take me serious. Let me make this type of album.” I just wanted to make a great album, and I felt like personally, I could do it better this way than if I made a rap album. 

How are things going with your label, Concrete Boyz? That’s next for me. That’s all I care about right now. That’s where we are every day, in the studio getting established together. We got some special artists, and they’re fresh faces. I want to make sure when we drop this, it’s hot, because they’re fire and it’s fresh. You’re gonna hear some fresh sounds. That’s my next project, in the summertime. 

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Have you always been discerning about how much you put yourself out there? No. I got 1,000 interviews on the internet. I hate it. I was young. I didn’t know nothing. Back then, I was trying to be the spokesman for the new generation because no one else wanted to talk. I felt, “I’m going to stand up. I’m going to speak.” But [now] I don’t speak for nobody but me.

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Lil Yachty Breaks Boundaries and Takes on Rap Conservatism

A conversation about the hip-hop eccentric’s experiments, and the benefits (and perils) of collaborating outside an artist’s established genre..

Hosted by Jon Caramanica. Produced by Pedro Rosado.

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Over eight full-length releases since 2016, the Atlanta rap eccentric Lil Yachty has carved out several micro niches — he’s been a novelty rap auteur, a sing-rap warbler, a student and emulator of punchline-heavy Michigan rap.

But his latest album, “Let’s Start Here.,” is stirring debate about how Lil Yachty is testing hip-hop boundaries, and why he feels compelled to test them at all. It’s an exploration of psychedelic rock with pop edges that finds Lil Yachty collaborating with indie-rock writers and producers, which is a sonic, if not dispositional, departure.

On the new Popcast, a conversation about how young rappers often find themselves at odds with their elders, how Lil Yachty has leveraged casualness as he’s experimented with styles, and how collaborating outside the genre you made your name in can be fraught both musically and critically.

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The Rebirth of Boat

Between his high-profile bro-ship with Drake and a decidedly non-rap album in ‘Let’s Start Here.,’ Lil Yachty may have been the most talked-about hip-hop artist of 2023. The question is: What comes next?

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It’s easy now to forget how we thought of Tyler, the Creator before 2017, but it’s worth recounting. As the leader of the Odd Future clique, he was considered something of a juvenile prankster, more known for his (admittedly offensive) provocations than his (admittedly many) talents. Taken at face value, he was a jester in a Supreme cap, Bart Simpson trading his slingshot for a cracked copy of Fruity Loops.

That changed, however, with the release of Tyler’s fourth album, Flower Boy . It was a revelation: candid, confessional, mature—all without losing its sense of adventurousness. Flower Boy was daring and at times gorgeous. Maybe that version of Tyler was lurking inside all along, but it came as somewhat of a shock to the larger listening public. (Including us here at The Ringer , who called the album “radiant” and said it seemed to be made with “more purpose” than anything he had tried previously.)

Tyler’s journey to Flower Boy feels relevant when discussing the most important figure in rap music of this year: Lil Yachty. Once dismissed as a “mumble rapper” or a red-braided featherweight, the rapper born Miles McCollum has undergone something of a transformation the past 12 months. The one-time King of Teens is grown now, and at 26 years old, he finds himself at a crossroads similar to the one where Tyler was at that age.

Yachty’s metamorphosis has included several facets, from becoming something of a spiritual North Star for Drake to going viral with the most addictive song of his career, “Poland.” But when we talk about the renewed sense of artistry Yachty found in 2023, it begins with one thing: Let’s Start Here. , his LP from January, which does away with the “bubblegum trap” of earlier in his career and embraces vibey guitar music. It’s possibly the best album of his career—and almost certainly the biggest pivot any mainstream artist has made in the past few years. But more importantly, it’s a statement of intent that was, like Flower Boy , made with more purpose than anything he had previously attempted. “Fuck any of the albums I dropped before this one. … I wanted to show people a different side of me—and that I can do anything,” the two-time Grammy-nominated artist told Billboard last spring.

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Let’s Start Here. is the multiplatinum-selling artist’s fifth studio album and first official full-length in three years . From the outside looking in, it seemed like Yachty was at peace with doing more of the same musically (save for “Poland”; more on that in a minute) and that his influence had plateaued. He had obviously branched out and stacked up wins in other areas—his 2021 mixtape Michigan Boy Boat is a cult favorite—but when it came to his own music, the progression felt stagnant.

LSH , which is heavily inspired by Pink Floyd–esque psychedelic rock, replaces Yachty’s sticky refrains, trap production, and tongue-in-cheek rhymes with reverberating vocals, drawn-out live instrumentation, and very little wordplay. It’s also important to mention that he had a hand in producing 12 of the 14 tracks . Many of Yachty’s past projects have been predominantly feature-heavy, enlisting high-profile names ranging from Future to Vince Staples, but LSH is noticeably stripped back. The album has a seven -minute intro whose back half is completely devoid of lyrics. This is planets away from the repetitive earworms of his early career like “Minnesota” and “Peek A Boo.” That said, he doesn’t totally leave his trademark intoxicating melodies behind on LSH . “sAy sOMETHINg” and “paint THE sky,” a pair of back-to-back highlights, show what’s possible when he finds the right balance between his distinctly stretchy, auto-tuned riffs and the multilayered, slowed instrumentals.

Conversely, “drive ME crazy!” exemplifies one of the many moments when Yachty takes the back seat and lets his supporting cast take center stage. The love song opens with a groovy bass line and Diana Gordon’s voice gliding over a bed of high-pitched strings. Yachty matches her energy with his own crooning before his verse is hijacked by a kaleidoscope of synths that drown him out. He returns on the back end, closing out the song with a rare bit of rapping over a laid-back, snare drum–laced beat. It’s some of his most thoughtful work to date.

LSH is by no means a perfect album, and Yachty’s shortcomings are exposed on tracks where it sounds like he’s wearing his influences a little too much on his sleeve. Upon multiple spins, both “running out of time” and “THE zone~” feel closer to Tame Impala cosplay than anything groundbreaking.

Yachty’s always been known for being versatile and chameleonic, but not to the degree of making full-on, drug-inspired rock music, so to describe this as a creative risk is quite apt. However, the calculated gambit ended up marking a series of career bests for Yachty. LSH debuted at no. 1 on three separate Billboard charts , became his highest-rated album on Metacritic , and earned endorsements from sources as varied as Questlove and Anthony Fantano . But while a lot has been written about LSH and Yachty’s intentional move away from raps, the heat check that came next is equally as interesting.

Starting in April with “ Strike (Holster) ,” Yachty converted tracks from an already recorded rap album into a handful of singles he released over the next five months. The songs in question—“ Slide ,” “ Solo Steppin Crete Boy ,” “ Tesla ,” and “ The Secret Recipe. ”—range from a freestyle with online superstar Kai Cenat to going bar for bar with one of hip-hop’s finest, J. Cole. These weren’t just a few loosies he was trying to pump out before his next album, either; each song had a corresponding music video to match and felt aesthetically different from the last.

More importantly, the songs felt fresh, and his writing felt much more polished than in many of his earlier rap efforts (the less we talk about “COUNT ME IN,” the better). The decision to return to his roots in between non-rap projects is smart for a few reasons. It holds over his day-one fans by playing the hits, it sustains the buzz he generated from LSH without oversaturating the market, and it gives him a chance to move the needle on the long-standing narrative that he isn’t a “serious” rapper (a notion that’s plagued his career). There will always be those who question Yachty’s lyrical ability, but if nothing else, these drops showcase a noticeably refined pen game without losing his special knack for generating legitimate bangers .

This is a sharp shift from a few years back, when Yachty was (wrongly) seen as more of a mushed-mouth interloper than a capital-A Artist. His rapid rise was met with harsh backlash almost immediately due to some combination of Yachty’s perceived allergy to lyricism in his music and an indifference to rap’s history and the legends who came before him. After Yachty revealed that he didn’t take the storied art form seriously during a Hot 97 interview , the floodgates opened and many of the genre’s veteran gatekeepers (the old heads ) stepped up to take their shots. Funkmaster Flex took to the airwaves to disparage Yachty’s lack of bars, Ebro Darden, who conducted said interview, went back and forth with him online, and Joe Budden said point-blank that he isn’t hip-hop.

Fast-forward to November of this year and Yachty is still ruffling the feathers of rap traditionalists , but this time—in an ironic turn of events—from the other side of the aisle. “The place that hip-hop is in right now is a terrible place … it’s a lot of imitation. It’s a lot of quick, low-quality music being put out. It’s trendy. It’s a lot less risk-taking. It’s a lot less originality,” he said at a Rolling Stone event .

How did Yachty—the same artist who was once maligned for “ruining the culture”—reach a point where he feels empowered enough to act as a spokesperson and critique the very same genre that tried to reject him?

Well, having influence over the biggest artist rap has ever seen certainly bolsters his credibility on the subject.

“This lil Drizzy reppin’ Crete.”

Those are the opening words on “Another Late Night,” a memorable cut from one of the most popular albums of the year, Drake’s For All the Dogs . On the surface, the lyric is a simple hat tip from the Canadian megastar to Lil Yachty (and his blossoming label Concrete Boyz ), who spits the song’s infamous second verse and is credited as a coproducer. But after you dig deeper and reflect on the past 12 months for Yachty, that line—and, by extension, the song—serves as a fitting microcosm of his 2023 run, which is inextricably linked to a fruitful friendship turned partnership with Drake.

lil drizzy reppin crete pic.twitter.com/WstTwnDjbb — CONCRETE BOY BOAT^ (@lilyachty) October 25, 2023

Rewind the clock back to the end of 2022, and two important developments occur: the accidental virality of hit single “Poland” and the start of that Drake alliance. Last October, a snippet of a new Lil Yachty song leaked online and rapidly took over TikTok , so much so that he was all but forced to drop it. Yachty even admitted that he recorded it as a joke and never planned to have it come out. Just days later, “Poland” became his only solo release of that year. The song’s catchy hook and extraterrestrial beat set the internet ablaze almost immediately upon its streaming arrival. “Poland” is now up to more than 130 million streams on Spotify ( The Ringer ’s parent company) and over 30 million views on its accompanying Lyrical Lemonade music video . Not bad for an accident.

Not even a month removed from the “Poland” takeover, Yachty showed up all over Drake and 21 Savage’s surprise collab album, Her Loss . He appeared not as a featured act but instead as an executive producer of sorts, receiving coproduction credits on a fourth of the tracklist. He also supplied a handful of ad-libs on “BackOutsideBoyz” and “Jumbotron Shit Poppin” and even claimed to have chosen the project’s cover art as well. (At least he didn’t go with an AI image, like he did for nightmare fuel on Let’s Start Here .)

Yachty’s involvement on the album felt like a test run from Drake to see if their budding bromance could evolve into a prosperous musical union as well as prove that their past chemistry on “Oprah’s Bank Account” wasn’t a fluke. And boy, did Yachty pass with flying colors. Their collaboration on Her Loss launched a close working relationship between the two, as evidenced by his influence pouring over onto For All the Dogs .

The Concrete Boyz CEO and October’s Very Own boss linked back up for seconds on Drake’s eighth studio album. Yachty’s fingerprints are all over the project, with five coproduction credits as well as his verse on “Another Late Night,” which is the first time he’s been listed as an official feature on one of Drizzy’s songs. And this doesn’t even include two more coproduction nods on Drake’s Scary Hours 3 , a six-pack EP doubling as a FATD deluxe edition. Dating back to last November, that brings the total number of Yachty-produced Drake songs up to 12. Simply put, Her Loss and FATD don’t exist without Lil Yachty. The frequent collaborators have formed an inseparable bond over the past year-plus, which has simultaneously impacted the 6 God’s output and elevated Yachty’s commercial ceiling.

Yachty is no stranger to stardom, having featured on a couple of top-five Billboard Hot 100 hits (“Broccoli” and “iSpy”), being named to the now-iconic 2016 XXL Freshman Class , modeling for Yeezy Season 3 , and racking up millions of streams, all before he was legally old enough to drink. Additionally, he had cemented his status among rap fans and critics alike as a SoundCloud favorite born out of the so-called “mumble rap” era. His influence can be seen in the likes of Juice WRLD , Trippie Redd , Lil Tecca , and Yeat —all artists who shaped the past half decade of rap music in their own right.

Still, there’s nothing quite like the Drake stimulus package. According to Hip Hop by the Numbers , Yachty’s appearance on FATD subsequently boosted his monthly listeners on Spotify by a whopping 40 percent .

Over the years, Drake’s become notorious for attaching himself to the coattails of various artists—adopting the Weeknd’s moody aesthetics, Playboi Carti’s flow, Bad Bunny’s language, Skepta’s U.K. slang, the list goes on—as they just so happen to be peaking in their respective lanes. He’s pretty much got it down to a science at this point: He’ll seek out the hottest sound, find an artist who’s spearheading it, and pair up with them so it doesn’t come off like he’s fully biting their style. In Yachty’s case, it doesn’t hurt that he and Drake seem to be genuine BFFs outside the booth, but it’s also an endorsement of his musical worldview. Drake said it best on “ Wick Man ”: “Boat say he the recipe, I must be the key ingredient.”

Now it’s up to Yachty to use that recipe for himself. His past year hasn’t been without its blemishes— awkwardly minimizing rapper Sexxy Red’s trauma on his podcast, singling out a Pitchfork critic for simply doing his job, calling internet trolls “gay,” and getting sued by the SEC among them—but Yachty is operating on a different plane now. He’s got more visibility, and it’s reasonable to expect that he’ll be more in demand as a producer. (His work with City Girls on “Act Up” shows that he’s more than just a Drake-hit wonder.) The Aubrey cosign has a mixed track record on helping the artist he’s borrowing from—ask Earl Sweatshirt his opinions on that—but given Yachty’s history and stature, he’s more likely to end up a Lil Baby than a BlocBoy JB. And he seems intent on making sure of it—as he told Variety , he’s already planning another non-rap LP for the new year, which could explore sounds beyond what he experimented with on Let’s Start Here .

It’s similar to the situation Tyler, the Creator found himself in coming out of 2017. Tyler could’ve easily rested on his laurels after Flower Boy , but instead he doubled down. (His fifth full-length, IGOR , was an even bolder artistic risk than Flower Boy and won him a Grammy; it’s a perfect album.) He’d later return to a more conventional approach with his 2021 Gangsta Grillz homage, Call Me If You Get Lost , but he did so from a position of power: having changed the trajectory of his career and earned the respect of even his most vehement doubters. Yachty took note: “He’s [Tyler, the Creator] 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,” he said in March .

If the past 12 months have done anything for Yachty, they’ve made it clear we should take him as seriously as Tyler takes him—and he takes himself. But if he’s learned anything from Tyler, 2023 simply could be a launchpad into yet another transformation. Yachty titled his big pivot Let’s Start Here. because to him, it’s just the beginning of something. What happens next is arguably more interesting, even if the ending remains a question mark.

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Lil Yachty's Daughter: Everything He's Said About Being a Dad

Lil yachty keeps his daughter out of the spotlight.

Ariana Quihuiz is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has also appeared in Brides.

Erika Goldring/FilmMagic

Lil Yachty is a protective father.

The rapper, who rose to fame in 2015 with his breakout hit “One Night," reportedly welcomed his daughter in October 2021. Despite his successful music career, which includes releasing a psychedelic rock album in 2023 and launching a record label in 2024, he has kept his private life away from the spotlight.

After the birth of his daughter, Lil Yachty chose not to reveal any information about his child or her mother. However, during an appearance on the podcast Going Mental in November 2022, Lil Yachty shared a rare comment about developing a “partnership” with his daughter’s mother.

“I’m real thankful for her. You know, she’s a really caring and understanding woman. She is not troublesome,” he said. “I tell her all the time. I’m real appreciative for her, you know, because It could have been something else. Right. So, like, it’s teamwork. It’s a partnership.”

From protecting his daughter’s privacy to his favorite thing about being a dad, here’s everything Lil Yachty has said about his daughter and fatherhood.

She was born in 2021

Prince Williams/Wireimage

Lil Yachty reportedly welcomed his daughter in October 2021 in New York City, per TMZ . The rapper has yet to reveal his daughter’s name or the identity of the mother of his child, but he did share on Going Mental that he was in the room for his daughter’s birth, and “it was crazy.”

Lil Yachty has a good relationship with her mom

Brian Stukes/Getty

Though Lil Yachty doesn’t speak about his daughter’s mother by name, he has previously opened up about being amicable co-parents. In April 2024, the rapper made an appearance on the podcast DeepCut with VicBlends and shared that he’s thankful he and his child’s mother have a good relationship.

“I’m very grateful to the woman who I brought the child into this world with because she is such a strong individual and she is just like a really great person,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in that experience. I was truly blessed from above ... even though the situation didn’t go ideal like she is just a good person to watch over my child while I’m working and I’m away.”

Lil Yachty added, “I don’t have any doubts that she’s doing any weird s--- ... she’s respectful, and she’s smart and like she’s levelheaded. So I’m grateful.”

Lil Yachty doesn’t share photos of his daughter on social media and rarely speaks about her in interviews. During his appearance on DeepCut with VicBlends , the rapper said he protects his child’s privacy because he prefers to separate his career from his personal life.

“My career is my career, and then, you know, I try to keep my private life as private as possible to protect my sanity and just to like live as normal as I can,” he said. “People just don’t really know anything about me. I keep my personal life very personal, you know, like I’ve never posted my kid. I don’t speak about her publicly.”

Lil Yachty added that while he doesn’t “really care” to dispel rumors he hears about himself, he wants the public to know “my daughter is my world and I love her” and having a child has “changed my life.”

She isn’t interested in her dad’s music yet

Kaitlyn Morris/Getty

The rapper may have millions of fans, but he can’t count his daughter as one of them just yet. In a March 2023 interview with Billboard , the rapper jokingly revealed that his daughter “doesn’t really give a f---” about his music.

“I haven’t played [ Let’s Start Here ] for her, but her mom plays her my old stuff,” he said. “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 s---ton and a lot of Disney movie s---, like Frozen , Lion King and that type of vibe.”

Lil Yachty is excited for her to grow 

During his appearance on the Going Mental podcast, Lil Yachty said that his favorite part of being a dad is watching his daughter grow.

“I’ve never watched somebody learn things. Like watching her learn. Like watching her see her shadow for the first time,” he said. “She’s really silly, but I don’t know, I think it’s just watching her experience things for the first time like candy, or something like a lemon. All these things are just so funny to me, you know like she’s a really dramatic character. She shows everything, so it’s crazy.”

Lil Yachty added, “I’m excited for her to grow because I know I’m my dad’s son right, so my dad like was, I think without trying, he just really influenced me heavily to be a creative. You know my dad was a creative, my grandfather was a creative.”

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