Lil Yachty is just the latest in a long line of weirdo rappers to come out of the Atlanta hip-hop scene (see: Young Thug, Outkast, etc.), but his music seems to have caught the attention of a number of prominent artists. His single "Minnesota" made it onto Drake's OVO Sound Radio, and he even made a cameo appearance at Kanye West's Yeezy Season 3 event—although he pretty much just stood there. Now, after stoking the fires of the internet buzz machine, Yachty finally decided to try and back up the hype by dropping his debut mixtape Lil Boat as a surprise on SoundCloud.
The 14-track offering expands upon the simplistic, Auto-Tune heavy sound he's presented thus far. Most of the tracks are upbeat, spacey affairs, built around a single, repeated melody line. Although he handles most of the tracks himself, he notably recruits fellow ATL-iens Young Thug and Migos rapper Quavo for the remix to "Minnesota." The whole thing is pretty much as strange as you would expect based on the music he's released thus far, with much of it reminiscent of the digital mumble music Chief Keef has been releasing. Nonetheless, with the attention of hip-hop influencers and studio time already in the books with Tyler, the Creator and A$AP Rocky, it looks like Lil Yachty is going to be around for a while.
You can stream Lil Boat in its entirety on SoundCloud below.
