Lil Yachty Takes a Chance on “Let’s Start Here,” His New Album

On his most recent album, Let’s Start Here, Lil Yachty more than ever demonstrates his versatility.
The narrative around Lil Yachty’s artistic talent has changed dramatically over the previous six months. Yachty has clearly developed as an artist from the debut of the track “Poland,” which went viral, to his appearances on Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss. Even so, he was regarded by both critics and supporters as a member of the mumble rap pack.

Lil Yachty has taken a step in a new direction with Let’s Start Here. His most recent work, a psychedelic rock-influenced attempt, completely departs from rap. The album comprises 14 songs in all, several of which have uncredited appearances. Let’s Start Here features contributions by Teezo Touchdown, Baby K, Foushée, Justine Skye, and others. Yachty is credited with production on 12 of the 14 songs. In addition, the tracklist has significant contributions from SADPONY, Justin Raisen, and Patrick Wembley.

Lil Yachty had an album listening event last night with Drake and Offset in New Jersey. He clarified that the ambitious sound came about as a result of him being written off throughout the years as an artist.

“I believe that I just wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, so I made this.” Not just some rapper from Soundcloud, not just some rapper from Mumble, not just some dude who had one hit. I wanted to be treated seriously because music is everything to me, you know. I value music in all its forms. Lil Yachty remarked, “Not just rap and hip-hop, but anything. If we’re being completely honest, a lot of n***as have begun mimicking the stuff. I thought, “Well, if everyone can do this, that’s great, but I’m going to show you what y’all can’t do.”