Written Before Listen
Lil Yachty is an Atlanta rapper who signed to Quality Control around 2016. He has been relevant for the past 5 years and started to gain that relevancy with his Lil Boat mixtape. I was never the biggest fan of his style. It wasn’t because It had no substance or anything like that. I do enjoy my fair share of Playboi Carti, Future and Young Thug. It’s just that his style in particular is just very half-baked. It never seemed like he actually cared about making good music and instead kind of came and went. Sure, I do think Lil B is as innovative as the next person does but honestly, I just think Lil Yachty doesn’t compare to how versatile and wide-ranged someone like Lil B is. With that being said, I hope this mixtape changes my perception of Lil Yachty.
Influence
So If you haven’t realized from the title, features and the beats, this whole mixtape is inspired by the current rap scene of Detroit. Not like Eminem or Danny Brown but more of the modern gangsta rap side. Personally, I am not the most familiar with this scene other than Grizzley, 42 Dugg and Sada Baby and even then I’ve never listened to an album from any of the artists mentioned. Do I like the scene from what I heard in Yachty’s tape? Yeah. It doesn’t seem bad. It kind of reminds me of the Bay Area hip hop scene a little bit which I like. It seems like Yachty does the style justice with his lyrics, beat selection and subject matter but the overall delivery of Yachty kind of drops it down for me.
Production
So a lot of the production here goes with a similar theme and feel. The production is usually in the 90/100 BPM range with a lot of trap drums, percussion and chants. Very west coast sounding. Does Lil Yachty work over these beats? No. Songs like “Concrete Goonies” and “Ghetto Boy Shit” are examples of this. A lot of the features usually do a better job than Yachty on these beats and it kind of revives the mixtape in the slightest way possible. Other than that the production is nice but Yachty can’t keep the energy going.
Lyrics
Lil Yachty is not a lyrical rapper. Thats not a bad thing but it sure doesn’t help. There are some pretty bad lines on here such as that Randy Moss line on “Dynamic Duo” and that Papa Roach line too. Every once in a while he drops some funny lines like that “chasing dirty whores” line on “Final Form” or that Cole Bennett line on “Fight Night Round 3”. When it’s all said and done though, I think to enjoy Yachty’s music, you have to listen for the production and not for the lyrics.
Features
There are a lot of features on this mixtape. Starting off with Tee Grizzley who easily has the best verse on the mixtape. Including any of Yachty’s verses. We then have “Don’t Even Bother” which is a song that I should do exactly what the song says because I shouldn’t even bother talking about it. Next up we get “GI Joe” with Louie Ray and he does a great job himself kind of out-performed Lil Boats performance here. We then get a Swae Lee feature on “Never Did Coke” and he surprised me with a somewhat tough verse. He really went outside of his comfort zone on this one. Right after we have “Ghetto Boy Shit” with RMC Mike and his verse isn’t terrible but isn’t anything breathtaking. “Plastic” is right after that featuring Icewear Vezzo and Rio Da Young OG. Both Yachty and Vezzo go off on this beat but Rio Da Young OG unfortunately can’t match the ferocity of Boat and Vez delivering the weakest verse on the song. Luckily that song was one of my favorites on the record. We get another 2 feature track with “Fight Night Round 3” with Babyface Ray and Veeze and just like the previous track, Yachty and another feature go off while one can’t pick up the pace. That rapper in consideration is Veeze who sounds off-beat and very un-intimidating. We have 2 Sada Baby features with “SB2021” and “SB5” and while SB2021 doesnt have the best Sada Baby verse, “SB5” shows him outrapping Yachty. Unfortunately the poor mix on Sada Baby’s vocals on that track kind of ruin it altogether. Rio Da Young OG actually returns for a second feature with “Stunt Double” and he is probably the best part of the song. Maybe that’s because of the poorly mixed beat and the poorly delivered Yachty verse though. Baby Tron is next in the lineup on “Hybrid” and he sounds menacing, dark and intimidating but it’s the flow of his verse that kind of brings the points down. Last song on the project here is actually a posse cut featuring Krispy Life Kidd, Louie Ray, Slap Savage, Veeze and YN Jay. This is basically a posse cut where all names deliver verses that were…ok. Nothing good, Nothing bad, Just…ok. As you can see from the size of the paragraph, features play a very big role on this mixtape and some deliver and some don’t. I honestly don’t see myself (with the exception of Tee Grizzley) listening to any of these guys’ music anytime soon unless I have to review them.
Favorite Tracks
It’s time to shed light on this mixtape because as you can see, I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. I did mention my positive verdicts on “Dynamic Duo”, “Plastic” and “Fight Night Round 3”. I also enjoyed “GI Joe”. I liked the beat, I liked Yachty on there and I enjoyed the Louie Ray feature too. Other than that though, The rest of the tracks show Lil Yachty becoming a non-intimidating gangster as the mixtape progressed.
Verdict
Wow…this was pretty forgettable. Every beat had a similar vibe, Yachty sounded offbeat a majority of the time, the features rarely delivered and it was just another underwhelming Yachty performance. It’s not like I was disappointed or anything but it was for sure a listen that will be easy to forget.