LP Review: Lil Yachty – Teenage Emotions
Wilf Amis · 29 May 2017
Hip Hop’s nautical outcast is back with his fifth project since the start of 2016, but this time the stakes are high because it is, on paper, his studio debut.
Following Darnell Boat’s introduction, Lil Yachty’s second line of the entire project summarises one of his strangest contradictions: “I still never took a sip of beer / Still fuck hoes by the pier.” Yachty constantly claims in interviews that his commercial success benefits from his clean image, his being drink and drug free, but the idea that he is the clean, child friendly rapper is something of a joke when most tracks describe his “fucking on...” your mum, your auntie, your sister, his own stepsister, you, “six different whores” or “little miss lady in the yellow”. Anyway, after the sexual aggression of “DN Freestyle”, we get the lead single, “Peek A Boo” ft. the meme community’s favourite collective, Migos. There’s a lot I could say about this track, but here are three key points to note: 1. The instrumental here is genuinely brilliant. 2. Err, btw Yachty, Migos already have a song called “Peek A Boo”. 3. “She blow that dick like a cello”. This one’s just taken the top spot on a list that was previously headed by Kanye’s “I keep it 300 like the Romans”. Following these two Boat tracks are... two more: “Dirty Mouth” is a fuckthehaters themed banger (where the central message is IDGAF what you think of me, I’ve got hella money – which is a fair point) and the charmless “Harley”, which doesn’t really say anything and isn’t catchy enough to make up for it.
Then the mood shifts, and we get a string of what we assume are Yachty songs. Amongst the more memorable of these is “Better” which takes that Caribbean sound that Drake has been busy appropriating (he even brings in Brummie singer Stefflon Don, who kinda pretends to be Rihanna) giving us a steel-pan-flavoured pop song, and “Forever Young” in which Lil Yachty’s singing is in time. What’s going on? He could have been quantised on any of the numerous out-of-time tracks but that would have sacrificed the amateurish charm; the difference here is “Forever Young” is not for his current audience who appreciate that charm, it is a call for new fans from mainstream radio listeners. It couldn’t possibly be more radio friendly; it is polished, innocent, melodic, features Diplo, and avoids all Yachty’s favourite curses. “Lady In Yellow” follows; it is a slow love song which is (I hope intentionally, but it’s hard to tell) extraordinarily amusing, with a chorus that begins as a child-friendly love song but concludes with Yachty’s main intention towards this yellow-wearer: “Little miss lady in the yellow, hello / Would you like to push petals through the meadow with me? / Little miss lady in the yellow, wassup? / I just got a question, baby, can I fuck on you?”
Hip Hop’s nautical outcast is back with his fifth project since the start of 2016, but this time the stakes are high because it is, on paper, his studio debut.
It’s been only a year and a half since Lil Yachty’s debut mixtape did something radical to the wave of auto-tuned ‘mumble trap’ that has been flooding hip hop recent years. That radical thing was the introduction of positivity, and a motivational message aimed primarily at teenagers that said: Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. Since then, in a relatively short space of time, Yachty has released two collaborative mixtapes, a second solo mixtape, and featured on a string of charting bangers: most notably D.R.A.M’s “Broccoli” and Kyle’s “iSpy”, which each in turn have initiated these respective artists into Yachty’s new subgenre, Bubblegum Trap (a.k.a Trappy-Go-Lucky).
Lil Yachty’s persona is odd to say the least. He represents a very cynical brand of capitalism that we humans tend to consider grotesque, and yet enjoy in vain hope that he’s doing it ironically. He parades his commercial endorsements as proof of his success, and by his own account, built his brand by going to parties and seeking out those with a larger instagram following than him. On paper, he is commercial and he is cold. But here’s the great contradiction: his music is so commercial that it’s underground. And no – I have no idea how that works either.
This is Lil Yachty’s debut studio album, but in reality whilst 2016’s Lil Boat mixtape runs like a cohesive album, Teenage Emotions threatens to run far more like a mixtape with its 21 tracks and harder to follow narrative. Teenage Emotions starts, in a sense, with the cover – a portrait of what Yachty considers the outsiders of his teenage audience, a gay couple, an albino guy, a girl with vitiligo, an overweight girl. This is who he is addressing, but he sits in the audience too, believing he is another disenfranchised teenager.
Now the music. A familiar voice. Darnell Boat – a returning skit character, the narrator of the debut mixtape – tells us that his two nephews, Yachty and Boat (the bipolar narrative that made the first mixtape into a coherent story returns too making this a sequel of sorts), are back and have some more songs for us. This narrative is just as integral as it was in Lil Boat but beware: this time it’s much harder to follow (they don’t say their own names as much and Darnell doesn’t narrate after the opener). What we need to know then is that Boat is an aggressive rapper, and Yachty a friendly singer.
Following Darnell Boat’s introduction, Lil Yachty’s second line of the entire project summarises one of his strangest contradictions: “I still never took a sip of beer / Still fuck hoes by the pier.” Yachty constantly claims in interviews that his commercial success benefits from his clean image, his being drink and drug free, but the idea that he is the clean, child friendly rapper is something of a joke when most tracks describe his “fucking on...” your mum, your auntie, your sister, his own stepsister, you, “six different whores” or “little miss lady in the yellow”. Anyway, after the sexual aggression of “DN Freestyle”, we get the lead single, “Peek A Boo” ft. the meme community’s favourite collective, Migos. There’s a lot I could say about this track, but here are three key points to note: 1. The instrumental here is genuinely brilliant. 2. Err, btw Yachty, Migos already have a song called “Peek A Boo”. 3. “She blow that dick like a cello”. This one’s just taken the top spot on a list that was previously headed by Kanye’s “I keep it 300 like the Romans”. Following these two Boat tracks are... two more: “Dirty Mouth” is a fuckthehaters themed banger (where the central message is IDGAF what you think of me, I’ve got hella money – which is a fair point) and the charmless “Harley”, which doesn’t really say anything and isn’t catchy enough to make up for it.
Then the mood shifts, and we get a string of what we assume are Yachty songs. Amongst the more memorable of these is “Better” which takes that Caribbean sound that Drake has been busy appropriating (he even brings in Brummie singer Stefflon Don, who kinda pretends to be Rihanna) giving us a steel-pan-flavoured pop song, and “Forever Young” in which Lil Yachty’s singing is in time. What’s going on? He could have been quantised on any of the numerous out-of-time tracks but that would have sacrificed the amateurish charm; the difference here is “Forever Young” is not for his current audience who appreciate that charm, it is a call for new fans from mainstream radio listeners. It couldn’t possibly be more radio friendly; it is polished, innocent, melodic, features Diplo, and avoids all Yachty’s favourite curses. “Lady In Yellow” follows; it is a slow love song which is (I hope intentionally, but it’s hard to tell) extraordinarily amusing, with a chorus that begins as a child-friendly love song but concludes with Yachty’s main intention towards this yellow-wearer: “Little miss lady in the yellow, hello / Would you like to push petals through the meadow with me? / Little miss lady in the yellow, wassup? / I just got a question, baby, can I fuck on you?”
After this, though, we get something very different indeed: “Moments In Time”, a genuinely emotional song about something that we had thus far assumed is alien to Lil Yachty, monogamy. He finds himself deeply in love but can’t see it in a positive light as he’s too afraid that it might be temporary (“I don’t wanna share / Baby, let’s live in slo-mo”). There’s even a genuinely well-written bit where he seems to realise he’s repeating “I” a lot and so suddenly stops as if in fear that his ego is pushing her away. It’s far from a banger, but “Moments In Time” shows a previously unseen Yachty who possesses emotional intelligence.
Suddenly Boat’s back, reintroducing himself as “on some other shit” – he is not about monogamy or insecurity, but sex and money (what else?) and the goes into further detail in a well executed trap banger, “X-Men”, with a feature from Evander Griim, who does a mean Lil Uzi Vert impression. Now Yachty’s response is immediate, as if the conflict between the two alter egos is growing snappier and more heated, we are thrown from one end of the spectrum to the other, the aggressive “X-Men” is followed by the preposterously sweet “Bring It Back”, what feels like a parody of 80s pop with its electric drum fills that would sound far more in place in something from ABC or The Human League. This is one of the most enjoyable songs on the whole album, but it is also categorically the worst, with his ridiculously out of time percussive “chicka-cha” adlibs, and just as out of time crooning (it sounds as if the auto-tune is working harder than ever here). Yachty is ever so hard to read. If he is deadly serious, this is truly awful and can be placed in the same list as D4nny’s “Goodbye”, Rebecca Black’s “Friday”, and Corey Feldman’s “Go 4 It” in the books that document twenty-first century music, but, if he’s not serious (and how can he be?), it is a brilliant parody that pushes the boundaries of what a hip hop artist can do and represents the extremes of the difference between Yachty and Boat.
In “Running With A Ghost”, Yachty revisits his sweet monogamy as he speeds up to match the pace of Boat’s rapping whist maintaining the auto-tuned tone that distinguishes him from his rapping counterpart. “FYI” hands it back to Boat but in reality the remainder of the album somewhat abandons the bipolar narrative. “Priorities”, for instance has a rap (Boat’s thing) that is self aware, emotionally intelligent and values monogamy (Yachty’s thing) with a verse that is sung (Yachty’s thing) but very sexually aggressive (Boat’s thing). If we were being generous we might say this was deliberate, that Boat is revealing his insecurities and regrets, and Yachty confessing his incest fantasy, as Miles McCollum (it would be too confusing to call the actual IRL person Lil Yachty after all this) saying that we all have both of these sides to us: the open-hearted love-obsessed monogamist, and the hard-shelled sex-obsessed polygamist. Nearing the end, “No More” is Boat’s redemption, his rejection of his previous lifestyle (“I can't keep fuckin’ round with these bitches who don’t want nothin’ more than my money”), and “Made of Glass” is an emotional (but not necessarily all that good) ballad in which Yachty is in love with a girl who doesn’t notice him. Here, Yachty really comes through on the promise of addressing Teenage Emotions, and especially those of the outcasts he sits amongst in the cover’s cinema scene. Finally, the closing track is addressed to his mum and it’s everything you might expect, it’s soppy, it’s loving and completely lacking in creative edge, but it sounds pleasant and we all like our mums so you can't really wrong with that one.
Overall, Teenage Emotions, does leave a lot lacking. In “Better”, Yachty gives his fans the motivational message that something might be “good” or even “great”, “but you can always, always do better”. He does however, fail to take his own advice, as this album reeks of quickly put together songs and a finished package which required an awful lot of improvement before release. But with an output of 80 released songs (spread over 4 mixtapes, an album, 20 guest features, and that Target advert) since the start of 2016, alongside frequent interviews, world tours, commercials and a post as creative director of Nautica, it is hardly a surprise that he hasn’t got time to be a perfectionist. Does this suffice as an excuse? Almost certainly not. This album is 21 songs long, and bits of it do feel like album fodder (“Harley”, “All Around Me”, “Running With A Ghost”). Yachty could have spent the same time on a twelve-track album and created something far more polished and concise, but that is not how he works. Instead, Yachty seems to perpetuate the stereotype of our generation having an almost non-existent attention span – he is avoiding working on any one song for a long time.
And yet this all part of his amateurish charm. Lil Yachty may represent all that is shallow, avaricious, and vain in the perceived image of our generation, but he makes us smile about it. On listening to this the first three times I thought it was just this, shallow and incoherent, I thought it was all about sex and money. But on the fourth listening, I heard something different. The narrative, which had been at first confusing, became the key element which motivates every musical and lyrical decision. If we really believe Miles’s media persona (that he is constantly happy and cares only about sex, money and clothes), then what a great power of empathy he must have for genuine teenage emotions. Teenage Emotions is essentially the argument that we all possess traits of these two characters, Boat and Yachty. In the Lil Boat mixtape, they were comic characters who kept it fun and created an overarching narrative and skit element. On Teenage Emotions they represent something far deeper that can resonate with anyone. Is this as good as Lil Boat? No. But I’d predict a lot people saying it’s god awful, and I’m here to say: ya know what... it’s actually decent. 3 and a bit stars from me.
Suddenly Boat’s back, reintroducing himself as “on some other shit” – he is not about monogamy or insecurity, but sex and money (what else?) and the goes into further detail in a well executed trap banger, “X-Men”, with a feature from Evander Griim, who does a mean Lil Uzi Vert impression. Now Yachty’s response is immediate, as if the conflict between the two alter egos is growing snappier and more heated, we are thrown from one end of the spectrum to the other, the aggressive “X-Men” is followed by the preposterously sweet “Bring It Back”, what feels like a parody of 80s pop with its electric drum fills that would sound far more in place in something from ABC or The Human League. This is one of the most enjoyable songs on the whole album, but it is also categorically the worst, with his ridiculously out of time percussive “chicka-cha” adlibs, and just as out of time crooning (it sounds as if the auto-tune is working harder than ever here). Yachty is ever so hard to read. If he is deadly serious, this is truly awful and can be placed in the same list as D4nny’s “Goodbye”, Rebecca Black’s “Friday”, and Corey Feldman’s “Go 4 It” in the books that document twenty-first century music, but, if he’s not serious (and how can he be?), it is a brilliant parody that pushes the boundaries of what a hip hop artist can do and represents the extremes of the difference between Yachty and Boat.
In “Running With A Ghost”, Yachty revisits his sweet monogamy as he speeds up to match the pace of Boat’s rapping whist maintaining the auto-tuned tone that distinguishes him from his rapping counterpart. “FYI” hands it back to Boat but in reality the remainder of the album somewhat abandons the bipolar narrative. “Priorities”, for instance has a rap (Boat’s thing) that is self aware, emotionally intelligent and values monogamy (Yachty’s thing) with a verse that is sung (Yachty’s thing) but very sexually aggressive (Boat’s thing). If we were being generous we might say this was deliberate, that Boat is revealing his insecurities and regrets, and Yachty confessing his incest fantasy, as Miles McCollum (it would be too confusing to call the actual IRL person Lil Yachty after all this) saying that we all have both of these sides to us: the open-hearted love-obsessed monogamist, and the hard-shelled sex-obsessed polygamist. Nearing the end, “No More” is Boat’s redemption, his rejection of his previous lifestyle (“I can't keep fuckin’ round with these bitches who don’t want nothin’ more than my money”), and “Made of Glass” is an emotional (but not necessarily all that good) ballad in which Yachty is in love with a girl who doesn’t notice him. Here, Yachty really comes through on the promise of addressing Teenage Emotions, and especially those of the outcasts he sits amongst in the cover’s cinema scene. Finally, the closing track is addressed to his mum and it’s everything you might expect, it’s soppy, it’s loving and completely lacking in creative edge, but it sounds pleasant and we all like our mums so you can't really wrong with that one.
Overall, Teenage Emotions, does leave a lot lacking. In “Better”, Yachty gives his fans the motivational message that something might be “good” or even “great”, “but you can always, always do better”. He does however, fail to take his own advice, as this album reeks of quickly put together songs and a finished package which required an awful lot of improvement before release. But with an output of 80 released songs (spread over 4 mixtapes, an album, 20 guest features, and that Target advert) since the start of 2016, alongside frequent interviews, world tours, commercials and a post as creative director of Nautica, it is hardly a surprise that he hasn’t got time to be a perfectionist. Does this suffice as an excuse? Almost certainly not. This album is 21 songs long, and bits of it do feel like album fodder (“Harley”, “All Around Me”, “Running With A Ghost”). Yachty could have spent the same time on a twelve-track album and created something far more polished and concise, but that is not how he works. Instead, Yachty seems to perpetuate the stereotype of our generation having an almost non-existent attention span – he is avoiding working on any one song for a long time.
And yet this all part of his amateurish charm. Lil Yachty may represent all that is shallow, avaricious, and vain in the perceived image of our generation, but he makes us smile about it. On listening to this the first three times I thought it was just this, shallow and incoherent, I thought it was all about sex and money. But on the fourth listening, I heard something different. The narrative, which had been at first confusing, became the key element which motivates every musical and lyrical decision. If we really believe Miles’s media persona (that he is constantly happy and cares only about sex, money and clothes), then what a great power of empathy he must have for genuine teenage emotions. Teenage Emotions is essentially the argument that we all possess traits of these two characters, Boat and Yachty. In the Lil Boat mixtape, they were comic characters who kept it fun and created an overarching narrative and skit element. On Teenage Emotions they represent something far deeper that can resonate with anyone. Is this as good as Lil Boat? No. But I’d predict a lot people saying it’s god awful, and I’m here to say: ya know what... it’s actually decent. 3 and a bit stars from me.
Comments
Post a Comment