Let’s Start Here: Lil Yachty Album Review by Benjamin Moyle
Background
‘Let’s Start Here’ is Lil Yachty’s 5th studio album. Dropped on January 27, 2023, ‘Let’s Start Here’ is a leap from the Atlanta rap star’s previous works, sonically and genre-wise. Leading up to the release of the album, Lil Yachty hosted several private listening events where he expressed to the crowd that "Think I created it because I really want to be taken seriously as an artist. --- Not just some Soundcloud rapper, not some mumble rapper, not some guy that just made one hit." Lil Yachty also told the crowd that he felt as though anyone could make the music he had been making. On this album, Yatchy wanted to make something that he felt no one else was making. This is why we see such a big deviation from Lil Yachty’s established sound in this album. Let’s Start Here’ is at its core a psychedelic rock album. Lil Yachty said that ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ by Pink Floyd was a strong influence on his album, and that psych rock is one of his favorite genres. It’s not just psych rock that Lil Yatchy pulls from to make his album, a passion for funk and R&B can be felt throughout the whole album. And of course, Lil Yachty’s signature hip-hop style comes through to make the album we have today. During one of Lil Yatchy’s private listening events, he told the crowd "Music is everything to me. I respect all walks of music." Leading up to this album, Lil Yachty has had a very successful run. His previous 4 albums charted within the top 20 of the Billboard 200 with his second studio album peaking at number 2. Lil Yachty’s single game is nothing to sleep on either. In 2016 he featured on ‘Broccoli’ by DRAM and would go on to be nominated for a Grammy for his work on the track. Ever since he first gained recognition in 2015 for his singles ‘One Night’ and ‘Minnesota’, Lil Yachty has been on the up-and-up in the public eye. All of that makes the release of ‘Let’s Start Here’ all that much more interesting. Lil Yachty had a style that worked and fans that love him for it, so that makes this genre jump all that more interesting to listen to.
Review
‘Let’s Start Here’ takes that idea of doing something different to heart on its first track ‘the BLACK seminole.’. The track starts the album with synthesizers very reminiscent of those off of Pink Floyd’s song ‘On the Run’ and then quickly departs from this to this musical nod to submerge the listener in a modern psych-rock extravaganza. The song as a whole is a noticeably well-put-together piece that allows Lil Yachty to come in and let you know what this album is going to be all about. There are other moments in the song inspired by Pink Floyd and it is worth noting that they are done in a way that feels more like a respectful nod than just Lil Yachty ripping them off. The songs that follow all continue the psych-rock theme but all bring something new to the table. ‘The ride-’ brings a poppy feel-good beat and ‘running out of time’ has a super greasy bass line that allows a funktastic beat to build off of it. ‘:(failure:(‘ is Lil Yachty’s spoken word piece about his thoughts on failure and success as a large rap star and is certainly not a playlist maker, but shows a nuanced side to Lil Yachty that is seldom seen in the industry. Yachty tries out a lot of different things on this album and, for the most part, it all comes together quite nicely. Speaking of coming together nicely, every song crossfades into the next song perfectly, some songs even start setting up the next song far in advance of the end of the song. This shows how dedicated Lil Yachty was to making an album of this caliber. Its also worth mentioning that the features on ‘Let’s Start Here’ are well utilized. The stunning vocals of Diana Gordon on ‘drive ME crazy!’ It’s not just the musical part of this album that has a lot to offer, but the lyrical part too. Lil Yachty has a lot of respect for his lyrical talent, doing a lot of work for artists such as the likes of Drake, and has written and co-written over 60 songs. ‘Let’s Start Here’ is no exception to the standards Yachty has set in the past and flexes his vocal muscles hard throughout this whole album. ‘Let’s Start Here’ to me is an album about growing up. Sonically, Lil Yachty has transitioned into something he sees as more. This manifests in the album’s lyrics with many songs being about some aspect of growing up. In the first song ‘the BLACK seminole’ Yachty sings “No time to joke around, the kid is now a man”.
Final Thoughts ‘Let’s Start Here’ is what I would consider and successful genre jump for Lil Yachty. Whether the jump will be commercially successful remains to be seen. We’ve seen a lot of genre-jumping in the past couple of years, especially in hip-hop. Some are more successful than others. I’m optimistic to see where Lil Yachty goes with his new sound. Lil Yachty set out to create something that none of his contemporaries were doing and I think it indisputable that he succeed in doing so. I would give ‘Let’s Start Here’ by Lil Yachty an 8.5/10.