Lil Yachty Now Knows What Instrument Squidward Played

After much debate, Lil Yachty clarifies the difference between a cello, a flute, and a clarinet as it regards his bars on "Peek A Boo."

May 28, 2017

Lil Yachty’s “Peek A Boo” has been on Billboard magazine’s “Hot 100” chart for two weeks, and it’s currently peaking at the No. 78 position. While the dichotomy between Yachty rapping about female genitalia, a game/song combination generally reserved for infants, and references to New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony all on the same song make for some interesting talking points, there’s one line in particular that has folks talking. The line in question comes at the 1:05 mark of "Peek A Boo," where Yachty spits the following:

The obvious issue with Yachty’s metaphor is that a cello is a stringed instrument, and unlike a clarinet or any other woodwind, blowing it wouldn’t produce any noticeable sound. Needless to say, critics dragged Lil Boat for what appeared to be a struggle bar while fans shrugged it off.

It would seem the source of Yachty’s mix up has two sources. Like many, Yachty appreciates a good episode of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. Somehow he confused the SpongeBob character Squidward’s clarinet with a cello and then a flute. And there’s more blame to go around.

“I’m gonna blame my A&R,” Yachty said of his now-infamous flub during an interview for Genius’ “Verified” series. “He listened to that song many times, and he allowed me to say that, okay? I guess for a second, I thought a cello was a woodwind instrument and it is not. Nobody ever said shit. Nobody ever pulled up a picture and said, ‘Hey man, I don’t know if you know what this is. But it ain’t that.’ I fucked up. I thought Squidward played the cello. He don’t. That’s a flute.”

Yachty took to Twitter to reiterate to the world that he knows what instrument Squidward plays.

Yachty's line has elicited tweets on both sides of the fence.

For the record, Squidward plays a clarinet named Clarry, meaning at the bare minimum, Yachty landed in the woodwind family before he saw the error in his ways. One bar pretty much sums up how polarizing Lil Yachty can be.