Yeat is blowing up. He’s still in his early 20s, but he’s already building buzz and getting major co-signs from the likes of Drake, the Weeknd, Lil Yachty, and more.
Born Noah Oliver Smith, on Feb. 26, 2000, the Portland rapper developed an early interest in music. Though he’s been releasing music since he was a teen, Yeat reached mainstream popularity in 2021 with the release of tracks like “Sorry Bout That” and “Money Twërk.” His starpower continued to rise to new levels with the release of “Gët Busy,” which went viral on TikTok. His continued attention online helped him earn a joint venture deal with Field Trip Recordings and Geffen Records.
Yeat’s most recent project, 2 Alivë, which dropped on Feb. 18, 2022 has already garnered positive critical reception. The 20-track project features guest appearances from Young Thug, Gunna, and more, and it debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
As Yeat continues to gain more popularity, we put together a list of things you should know about the rising rapper.
He came up with his name while he was high
“Gët Busy” blew up on TikTok because of a bell
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In August 2021, a snippet of his single “Gët Busy” went viral online and raised fan attention. The track was officially released on his album, Up 2 Më, the following month in September. “Gët Busy” later found its way to TikTok where it went ultra viral due to the use of ringing bells. In the song, Yeat raps about the bell sound, spitting, “I know this song was already turnt, but here’s a bell.” It was later quoted by artists and influencers including Drake, Lil Yachty, and Druski. Yeat previously said that he likes to include bells in his songs. “I fuck with the bells. Bells are hard,” he said. “It’s not for certain my shit, but for right now, yeah.”
He's been releasing music since 2016
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The 21-year-old rapper has been releasing music for the past six years. Speaking with Our Generation Music, he revealed that he’s been putting music online since late 2016, early 2017. Over the span of six years, he’s dropped seven projects, including his latest album, 2 Alivë. While some of the projects weren’t originally available on DSPs, you can now stream six out of the seven projects on most platforms.
He made up his own lingo
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Yeat definitely has a way with words. He’s known for coming up with words and phrases that you can’t find in the dictionary. “Twizzy” for instance, is a word Yeat came up with on a whim, and it means “twin.” Giving a vague explanation for its origins, he says, “It started when I was out in New York.” Since then, he’s developed his own language of sorts, coming up with words like “luh geeky,” “SHMUNKIT,” and “Luh Shmunkëm.” There are whole Reddit threads deciphering the meaning of each one. He also peppers his songs with eclectic references (“Tonka” is a big one). Though Yeat is making it trendy now, he says his dad was the original GOAT of making up new words. “I think I got it from my dad because he be making up words for shit all the time,” he said. “So I just do that shit randomly.”
He’s Romanian and Mexican
He’s a leader of a new ‘SoundCloud 2.0’ wave
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SoundCloud rap blew up in the mid-2010s, as artists like XXXTentacion, Ski Mask the Slump God, Lil Pump, Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, and Playboi Carti made careers for themselves with high-energy music and moshpit-heavy shows. The SoundCloud rap wave seemed to be on a decline around 2018, due in part to the deaths of major artists like Lil Peep and XXXTentacion, but Yeat is considered to be a leader of the new wave. Along with rappers like SoFaygo, Ken Car$on, Ka$hdami, and SSGKobe, Yeat is a part of the “new underground scene” that’s making synthy “rage rap,” inspired by Playboi Carti and others who came before them.
He says his style doesn’t fit in one category
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Like many artists of the new school, Yeat doesn’t think his music can be put into a box. He’s stated that he takes after Young Thug and Future, who can adapt to many different sounds. “I feel like my style isn’t really set on one thing,” he explains. “I be having mad different vibes, mad different styles. The way I even my voice on different songs, I feel like I got that from listening to a lot of Thug shit.”
Cole Bennett says Yeat is 'the breakout artist of the year'
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Cole Bennett, music video director and founder of Lyrical Lemonade, knows a thing or two about predicting the rise of future superstars. His YouTube channel has helped launch the careers of everyone from Juice WRLD to Jack Harlow, and now he’s betting on Yeat. In early February, Bennett tweeted, “Yeat is the breakout artist of the year,” and he put his money where his mouth is by directing the video for “Still Countin.” Based on clips that have surfaced on social media, it looks like they have other music videos in the works, too. Stay tuned.
Yeat says he doesn’t have a music process
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Yeat says he doesn’t necessarily have a music process. He just goes with the flow. “Whenever I feel like recording, I just record,” he said. He also doesn’t use an engineer—he usually just records himself and produces a lot of his own music, using a template that artist Weiland previously gave him. “I do everything myself.”
He thinks dropping acid helped influence him to rap
“Sorry Bout That” was a breakout moment for him
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Yeat’s 2021 single “Sorry Bout That,” which appeared on his project 4L, went viral on TikTok, and is currently one of his most viral songs to date, with more than 140K videos using the song. Speaking on how the song came together, Yeat says it was spur-of-the-moment. “I really just be living my raps, and be talking about whatever I’m going through at the moment. All my music is like that. It’s just about whatever is on my mind. I don’t be writing or none of that.”
He listened to a lot of T-Pain growing up (and was inspired by Young Thug and Future)
His dad is a musician, too
LAPD shut down his concert due to overcrowding
![Yeat is already pulling a cult following. In late February, the LAPD shut down a listening event that the rapper held for his latest album 2 Alivë at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles, due to serious overcrowding. Video obtained by CBS Los Angeles showed multiple police cars lined up outside the venue as a crowd of fans eagerly waited along the sidewalk and street. “Yall insane,” Yeat wrote on Instagram. “[Shut] da shit down NEWS pulled up we #TRËNDY we gone do a part 2 don’t worry.” Fans peacefully left the premises of the venue and partied at a gas station down the street.](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1PBACOVS-vU/mqdefault.jpg)
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Yeat is already pulling a cult following. In late February, the LAPD shut down a listening event that the rapper held for his latest album 2 Alivë at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles, due to serious overcrowding. Video obtained by CBS Los Angeles showed multiple police cars lined up outside the venue as a crowd of fans eagerly waited along the sidewalk and street. “Yall insane,” Yeat wrote on Instagram. “[Shut] da shit down NEWS pulled up we #TRËNDY we gone do a part 2 don’t worry.” Fans peacefully left the premises of the venue and partied at a gas station down the street.
Yeat has received love from Drake, the Weeknd, Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, Gunna, Young Thug, and more
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Yeat is already getting co-signs from some of the biggest names in the industry. He first caught the attention of artists like Drake and Lil Yachty thanks to his viral songs on TikTok (specifically the infamous bell lyric) and has been connected with A-listers through Field Trip Recordings founder Zack Bia. There is a famous photo of Yeat posing with Drake that was shared on Instagram in Sep. 2021, he was seen onstage with Lil Yachty at ComplexCon, and the Weeknd played his music at a birthday party in Feb 2022. Meanwhile, YSL ringleaders Young Thug and Gunna each appeared on his new album 2 Alivë. And Lil Uzi Vert recently went on a long rant during an Adin Ross Twitch stream, explaining why Yeat is so important right now.
He’s been described as a “visionary artist”
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According to his label boss, Zack Bia, Yeat is an all-around “visionary artist.” He told Complex in Feb. 2022 that Yeat is one of a kind “in terms of creating a whole lingo, having a very unique style of music, and building a whole world around it.” Explaining that Yeat is a self-contained artist, he added, “He’s created something so unique that people can really buy into, so I don’t want to take credit for any of it. It’s all Yeat, and I’m just here to plug in the plays behind the scenes, and help facilitate all the relationships. I’m here to make sure the music is packaged right and handle all the things that a label executive should.”
In Bia’s mind, it was only a matter of time until an artist like Yeat emerged from the new underground and carried the torch of boundary-pushing rappers who came before. “Artists like Young Thug and Carti have already broken down a lot of doors, the internet’s completely changed with TikTok, and the way the world is set up now, there’s a perfect storm for someone new and unique to come,” he explained. “It’s time for a new generation. I feel like there’s been artists that have dominated the last decade, and now as we usher in this new era of music, it was primed for someone new to come in, and I think Yeat is that artist.”
