Art is subjective. It always has been, and it always will be. Eighteen-year-old Atlanta native Miles McCollum knows and thrives off of this reality. McCollum, better known by his stage name Lil Yachty (and by his various alter-egos including Lil Boat, RD and Darnell Boat), makes a type of music that fuses trap rap, bubblegum pop and enough auto-tune to comfortably blanket T-Pain’s entire discography. His biggest influences? Soulja Boy and Lil B. His hairstyle? Ketchup red braids that look like something your buddy added when he or she got a little bit carried away while creating their NBA 2K MyPlayer. His posse? The Sailing Team: a mix of rappers, producers and close friends rocking equally unparalleled aesthetics.
And let’s make this clear: If you’re going into a Yachty album expecting Shakespearean lyricism, conventional rhyme structure or universal appeal, you’re going to fucking hate it. However, approach the work of Mr. Boat, a product of the same age of viral fame, memes and internet mania that turned Lil B into a household name, with a fun-seeking, open mind and there is a chance you just might really like the guy.
Summer Songs 2, Yachty’s second mixtape of 2016 following his Lil Boat debut, is 14 tracks and 45 minutes of Yachty being Yachty. Following an introduction by his Darnell Boat alter ego on the album’s opener, “Intro (First Day of Summer),” Yachty begins in his classic sort-of-rhyming form: “That’s right, That’s right, That’s right/ N—-s Kawasaki bike riding on a N—- wave.” It’s the perfect introduction in terms of showing why Lil Yachty is rap’s most polarizing figure. On one end, he’s ignoring the aspect of rap that most hold dearest — the rhyme. The flip side of the argument is exactly what Yachty’s speaking on, that this is his wave, his sound and his own fully unadulterated style.
On “Why? (Interlude),” Yachty achingly croons an auto-tuned question and response for those who stay far from joining the Lil Boat boat: “Why do they hate on me?/ You should want me to be great, homie.” Perhaps a large degree of the hatred is from those who feel he has no potential to ever be “great, homie.” Later on, Yachty proposes an answer to the source of his skeptics: “Why do they hate on me? Walk around with all this bank on me/ I’m a walkin’ bank, homie.” His point is valid, as people may indeed dislike Yachty for his cash flow. Ultimately though, it’s more of the fact that Yachty acting as a human embodiment of Wells Fargo is a result of lyrics like, well, “Walk around with all this bank on me/ I’m a walkin’ bank, homie.” Listeners feel they themselves could put minimal effort in, maybe even freestyle, and come up with that exact line or perhaps one slightly more impressive. The issue? They didn’t, and Yachty did.
Recently, a video of Yachty struggling to freestyle during an appearance on the massively popular New York-based “Hot 97” radio program, earned Yachty a brand new influx of those hoping for his demise. Intelligently, Yachty drops his hardest hitting verse on “For Hot 97,” a direct response to the aforementioned incident: “Stop all that flexin’/ Woke up all my n—-s like stop all that restin’/ Might have my OG come and do a little pressin’/ You n—-s is pussy/ I see it I feel it, I know it, I smell it.” While he may not be a freestyle god, he definitely isn’t the first rapper to struggle with the non-writtens. Yachty can in fact rap, but why should he bother when his distinct anti-classic hip-hop formula earned him his established cult following.
There’s a little bit of everything on Summer Songs 2. Those seeking aux cord material shall look no farther than the gritty, G Herbo-featured “Up Next 3,” a reference to past Yachty tracks “Up Next” and “Up Next 2”. If you need your daily dose of Migos, group member Offset offers a guest appearance over a holy, speaker-knocking beat on “DipSet.” Also, for all those struggling in this cruel, cruel world, Yachty brings forth “Life Goes On,” an ode to those suffering from either unemployment or backstabbers.
So give Yachty and Summer Songs 2 a play and determine whether you belong to the Lil Boat bandwagon or the anti-Boat mob. For me, Yachty brings an irresistible level of energy to each track, the same sort of life-loving vibe that his role model Soulja Boy introduced to the scene way back when we all knew every goddamn step to the Superman dance. Let’s just hope that when Yachty finally comes across his own Soulja-esque $400 million deal, that, well, it’s actually a $400 million deal.
