Lil Yachty, an artist who’s entry to fame was during the rise of Soundcloud artists in 2016, recently has been quietly creating the resurgence of his name. Over the past few years, Yachty has been consistent with releasing music. Amongst the range of artists involved with the rise of Soundcloud rappers, Yachty being one of the top prospects within the bunch, he seemed to have expanded and evolved the least compared to other top named artists. Though in 2023, Yachty flipped that statement and has greatly evolved and expanded from then.
With the recent release of his new album, “Let’s Start Here.,” Yachty has completely reconstructed himself within his music and how listeners view him and his work. Along with the immediate outpour of praise, he stated that all he ever wanted, as an artist, is to be respected. Though how did he only now gain this when he’s been making music since 2015?
Yachty took a risk that many other artists tend to shy away from, making music outside their primary genre. Not only did Yachty just take the risk, but he did so while exceeding expectations.
“Let’s Start Here.,” is an alternative style album that has a large presence of psychedelic rock, and takes great inspiration from one of the pioneers in this genre, “The Dark Side of The Moon,” by Pink Floyd. Yachty shines throughout every aspect within this album from the production to the way his vocals align with each song. Yachty has production credits for 12 out of the 14 songs on the album, which vastly shows his true potential.
Not only was Yachty a highlight for the album but the surprise features from Teezo Touchdown, Justine Skye, Foushee, Daniel Caesar, and fulfilling background vocals and feature from Diana Gordon were precise choices for guests as each one of them had phenomenal additions to the songs they were involved with. But one thing that stands out the most in this album is the soundscape of it. Each song hits you with an unpredictable combination of sounds.
On each listen you feel as if you hear something new in each song. The prime example of such is the intro song, “the BLACK seminole.” The song starts off with overlapping pulse like sound effects that then transition into an instrumental drop filled with drums, guitars, and symbols that Yachty loosely flows over. Which then fades into a distanced electronic guitar solo with blaring electric sounds for a while until Yachty comes back in vocally and the soundscape grows to new depths. Diana Gordon vocalizes gorgeously over these overtly combined whimsical sounds from moments of blaring wind, steepness in the drums, and harmonically played piano keys that, on paper, sound outlandish but the way Yachty can truly put sounds together is something really special. And that goes for each song. Every song brings in new elements, new sounds, a whole new presence which is a major factor into why this album is receiving all of its praise and love.
This album was clearly crafted with passion for improvement and heart for music. Listening to it is like running through a field of flowers, or walking around in some ethereal setting. Close your eyes, press play and experience these mental psychedelic sounds. You don’t know what is in store for the next song, as each song gives off a new setting to visualize. Every song is a whole new otherworldly journey in the mind. It is an exhilarating and mind twisting soundscape with so much going into it. “Let’s Start Here.” is not only just an earth-bending project, but is soon to set the way for more artists to venture beyond their primaries and test the water in new areas of music.
