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How Lil Yachty Ended Up at His Excellent New Psychedelic Album Let's Start Here

By Brady Brickner-Wood

The evening before Lil Yachty released his fifth studio album,  Let’s Start Here,  he  gathered an IMAX theater’s worth of his fans and famous friends at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City and made something clear: He wanted to be taken seriously. Not just as a “Soundcloud rapper, not some mumble rapper, not some guy that just made one hit,” he told the crowd before pressing play on his album. “I wanted to be taken serious because music is everything to me.” 

There’s a spotty history of rappers making dramatic stylistic pivots, a history Yachty now joins with  Let’s Start Here,  a funk-flecked psychedelic rock album. But unlike other notable rap-to-rock faceplants—Kid Cudi’s  Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven  comes to mind, as does Lil Wayne’s  Rebirth —the record avoids hackneyed pastiche and gratuitous playacting and cash-grabbing crossover singles; instead, Yachty sounds unbridled and free, a rapper creatively liberated from the strictures of mainstream hip-hop. Long an oddball who’s delighted in defying traditional rap ethos and expectations,  Let’s Start Here  is a maximalist and multi-genre undertaking that rewrites the narrative of Yachty’s curious career trajectory. 

Admittedly, it’d be easy to write off the album as Tame Impala karaoke, a gimmicky record from a guy who heard Yves Tumor once and thought: Let’s do  that . But set aside your Yachty skepticism and probe the album’s surface a touch deeper. While the arrangements tend toward the obvious, the record remains an intricate, unraveling swell of sumptuous live instruments and reverb-drenched textures made more impressive by the fact that Yachty co-produced every song. Fielding support from an all-star cast of characters, including production work from former Chairlift member Patrick Wimberly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait, Justin Raisen, Nick Hakim, and Magdalena Bay, and vocals from Daniel Caesar, Diana Gordon,  Foushée , Justine Skye, and Teezo Touchdown, Yachty surrounds himself with a group of disparately talented collaborators. You can hear the acute attention to detail and wide-scale ambition in the spaced-out denouement on “We Saw the Sun!” or on the blistering terror of “I’ve Officially Lost Vision!!!!” or during the cool romanticism of “Say Something.” Though occasionally overindulgent,  Let’s Start Here  is a spectacular statement from hip-hop’s prevailing weirdo. It’s not shocking that Yachty took another hard left—but how exactly did he end up  here ?

In 2016, as the forefather of “bubblegum trap” ascended into mainstream consciousness, an achievement like  Let’s Start Here  would’ve seemed inconceivable. The then 18-year-old Yachty gained national attention when a pair of his songs, “One Night” and “Minnesota,” went viral. Though clearly indebted to hip-hop trailblazers Lil B, Chief Keef, and Young Thug, his work instantly stood apart from the gritted-teeth toughness of his Atlanta trap contemporaries. Yachty flaunted a childlike awe and cartoonish demeanor that communicated a swaggering, unbothered cool. His singsong flows and campy melodies contained a winking humor to them, a subversive playfulness that endeared him to a generation of very online kids who saw themselves in Yachty’s goofy, eccentric persona. He starred in Sprite  commercials alongside LeBron James, performed live shows at the  Museum of Modern Art , and modeled in Kanye West’s  Life of Pablo  listening event at Madison Square Garden. Relishing in his cultural influence, he declared to the  New York Times  that he was not a rapper but an  artist. “And I’m more than an artist,” he added. “I’m a brand.”

 As Sheldon Pearce pointed out in his Pitchfork  review of Yachty’s 2016 mixtape,  Lil Boat , “There isn’t a single thing Lil Yachty’s doing that someone else isn’t doing better, and in richer details.” He wasn’t wrong. While Yachty’s songs were charming and catchy (and, sometimes, convincing), his music was often tangential to his brand. What was the point of rapping as sharply as the Migos or singing as intensely as Trippie Redd when you’d inked deals with Nautica and Target, possessed a sixth-sense for going viral, and had incoming collaborations with Katy Perry and Carly Rae Jepsen? What mattered more was his presentation: the candy-red hair and beaded braids, the spectacular smile that showed rows of rainbow-bedazzled grills, the wobbly, weak falsetto that defaulted to a chintzy nursery rhyme cadence. He didn’t need technical ability or historical reverence to become a celebrity; he was a meme brought to life, the personification of hip-hop’s growing generational divide, a sudden star who, like so many other Soundcloud acts, seemed destined to crash and burn after a fleeting moment in the sun.

 One problem: the music wasn’t very good. Yachty’s debut album, 2017’s  Teenage Emotions, was a glitter-bomb of pop-rap explorations that floundered with shaky hooks and schmaltzy swings at crossover hits. Worse, his novelty began to fade, those sparkly, cheerful, and puerile bubblegum trap songs aging like day-old french fries. Even when he hued closer to hard-nosed rap on 2018’s  Lil Boat 2  and  Nuthin’ 2 Prove,  you could feel Yachty desperate to recapture the magic that once came so easily to him. But rap years are like dog years, and by 2020, Yachty no longer seemed so radically weird. He was an established rapper making mid mainstream rap. The only question now was whether we’d already seen the best of him.

If his next moves were any indication—writing the  theme song to the  Saved by the Bell  sitcom revival and announcing his involvement in an upcoming  movie based on the card game Uno—then the answer was yes. But in April 2021, Yachty dropped  Michigan Boat Boy,  a mixtape that saw him swapping conventional trap for Detroit and Flint’s fast-paced beats and plain-spoken flows. Never fully of a piece with his Atlanta colleagues, Yachty found a cohort of kindred spirits in Michigan, a troop of rappers whose humor, imagination, and debauchery matched his own. From the  looks of it, leaders in the scene like Babyface Ray, Rio Da Yung OG, and YN Jay embraced Yachty with open arms, and  Michigan Boat Boy  thrives off that communion. 

 Then “ Poland ” happened. When Yachty uploaded the minute-and-a-half long track to Soundcloud a few months back, he received an unlikely and much needed jolt. Building off the rage rap production he played with on the  Birthday Mix 6  EP, “Poland” finds Yachty’s warbling about carrying pharmaceutical-grade cough syrup across international borders, a conceit that captured the imagination of TikTok and beyond. Recorded as a joke and released only after a leaked version went viral, the song has since amassed over a hundred-millions streams across all platforms. With his co-production flourishes (and adlibs) splattered across Drake and 21 Savage’s  Her Loss,  fans had reason to believe that Yachty’s creative potential had finally clicked into focus.

 But  Let’s Start Here  sounds nothing like “Poland”—in fact, the song doesn’t even appear on the project. Instead, amid a tapestry of scabrous guitars, searing bass, and vibrant drums, Yachty sounds right at home on this psych-rock spectacle of an album. He rarely raps, but his singing often relies on the virtues of his rapping: those greased-vowel deliveries and unrushed cadences, the autotune-sheathed vibrato. “Pretty,” for instance, is decidedly  not  a rap song—but what is it, then? It’s indebted to trap as much as it is ’90s R&B and MGMT, its drugged-out drums and warm keys able to house an indeterminate amount of ideas.

Yachty didn’t need to abandon hip-hop to find himself as an artist, but his experimental impulses helped him craft his first great album. Perhaps this is his lone dalliance in psych rock—maybe a return to trap is imminent. Or, maybe, he’ll make another 180, or venture deeper into the dystopia of corporate sponsorships. Who’s to say? For now, it’s invigorating to see Yachty shake loose the baggage of his teenage virality and emerge more fully into his adult artistic identity. His guise as a boundary-pushing rockstar isn’t a new archetype, but it’s an archetype he’s infused with his glittery idiosyncrasies. And look what he’s done: he’s once again morphed into a star the world didn’t see coming.

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Let’s Start Here.

By Alphonse Pierre

Quality Control / Motown

February 1, 2023

At a surprise listening event last Thursday,  Lil Yachty   introduced his new album  Let’s Start Here. , an unexpected pivot, with a few words every rap fan will find familiar: “I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper or some mumble rapper.” This is the speech rappers are obligated to give when it comes time for the drum loop to take a backseat to guitars, for the rapping to be muted in favor of singing, for the ad-libs to give it up to the background singers, and for a brigade of white producers with plaque-lined walls to be invited into the fold. 

Rap fans, including myself, don’t want to hear it, but the reality is that in large slices of music and pop culture, “rapper” is thrown around with salt on the tongue. Pop culture is powerfully influenced by hip-hop, that is until the rappers get too close and the hands reach for the pearls. If anything, the 25-year-old Yachty—as one of the few rappers of his generation able to walk through the front door anyway because of his typically Gushers-sweet sound and innocently youthful beaded braid look—might be the wrong messenger. 

What’s sour about Yachty’s statement isn’t the idea that he wants to be taken seriously as an artist, but the question of  who  he wants to be taken seriously by. When Yachty first got on, a certain corner of rap fandom saw his marble-mouthed enunciation and unwillingness to drool over hip-hop history as symbols of what was ruining the genre they claimed to love. A few artists more beholden to tradition did some finger-wagging— Pete Rock and  Joe Budden ,  Vic Mensa and  Anderson .Paak , subliminals from  Kendrick and  Cole —but that was years ago, and by now they’ve found new targets. These days, Yachty is respected just fine within rap. If he weren’t, his year-long rebirth in the Michigan rap scene, which resulted in the good-not-great  Michigan Boy Boat , would have been viewed solely as a cynical attempt to boost his rap bona fides. His immersion there felt earnest, though, like he was proving to himself that he could hang. 

The respect Yachty is chasing on  Let’s Start Here. feels institutional. It’s for the voting committees, for the suits; for  Questlove to shout him out as  the future , for Ebro to invite him  back on his radio show and say  My bad, you’re dope.  Never mind if you thought Lil Yachty was dope to start with: The goal of this album is to go beyond all expectations and rules for rappers.

And the big pivot is… a highly manicured and expensive blend of  Tame Impala -style psych-rock, A24 synth-pop, loungey R&B, and  Silk Sonic -esque funk, a sound so immediately appealing that it doesn’t feel experimental at all. In 2020, Yachty’s generational peers,  Lil Uzi Vert and  Playboi Carti , released  Eternal Atake and  Whole Lotta Red : albums that pushed forward pre-existing sounds to the point of inimitability, showcases not only for the artists’ raps but their conceptual visions. Yachty, meanwhile, is working within a template that is already well-defined and commercially successful. This is what the monologue was for? 

To Yachty’s credit, he gives the standout performance on a crowded project. It’s the same gift for versatility that’s made him a singular rapper: He bounces from style to style without losing his individuality. A less interesting artist would have been made anonymous by the polished sounds of producers like  Chairlift ’s Patrick Wimberly,  Unknown Mortal Orchestra ’s Jacob Portrait, and pop songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, or had their voice warped by writing credits that bring together  Mac DeMarco ,  Alex G , and, uh,  Tory Lanez . The production always leans more indulgent than thrilling, more scattershot than conceptual. But Yachty himself hangs onto the ideas he’s been struggling to articulate since 2017’s  Teenage Emotions : loneliness, heartbreak, overcoming failure. He’s still not a strong enough writer to nail them, and none of the professionals collecting checks in the credits seem to have been much help, but his immensely expressive vocals make up for it. 

Actually, for all the commotion about the genre jump on this project, the real draw is the ways in which Yachty uses Auto-Tune and other vocal effects as tools to unlock not just sounds but emotion. Building off the vocal wrinkle introduced on last year’s viral moment “ Poland ,” where he sounds like he’s cooing through a ceiling fan, the highlights on  Let’s Start Here. stretch his voice in unusual directions. The vocals in the background of his wistful hook on “pRETTy” sound like he’s trying to harmonize while getting a deep-tissue massage. His shrill melodies on “paint THE sky” could have grooved with  the Weeknd on  Dawn FM . The opening warble of “running out of time” is like Yachty’s imitation of  Bruno Mars imitating  James Brown , and the way he can’t quite restrain his screechiness enough to flawlessly copy it is what makes it original.

Too bad everything surrounding his unpredictable and adventurous vocal detours is so conventional. Instrumental moments that feel like they’re supposed to be weird and psychedelic—the hard rock guitar riff that coasts to a blissful finale in “the BLACK seminole.” or the slow build of “REACH THE SUNSHINE.”—come off like half-measures.  Diana Gordon ’s falsetto-led funk on “drive ME crazy!” reaches for a superhuman register, but other guest appearances, like  Fousheé ’s clipped lilts on “pRETTy” and  Daniel Caesar ’s faded howls on the outro, are forgettable. None of it is ever  bad : The synths on “sAy sOMETHINg” shimmer; the drawn-out intro and outro of “WE SAW THE SUN!” set the lost, trippy mood they’re supposed to; “THE zone~” blooms over and over again, underlined by  Justine Skye ’s sweet and unhurried melodies. It’s all so easy to digest, so pitch-perfect, so safe.  Let’s Start Here. clearly and badly wants to be hanging up on those dorm room walls with  Currents and  Blonde and  IGOR . It might just work, too. 

Instead, consider this album a reminder of how limitless rap can be. We’re so eager for the future of the genre to arrive that current sounds are viewed as restricting and lesser. But rap is everything you can imagine. I’m thinking about “Poland,” a song stranger than anything here: straight-up 1:23 of chaos, as inventive as it is fun. I took that track as seriously as anything I heard last year because it latches onto a simple rap melody and pushes it to the brink. Soon enough, another rapper will hear that and take it in another direction, then another will do the same. That’s how you really get to the future. 

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‘a girl called dusty’: dusty springfield makes her album debut, the 1969 lp that marked the ‘shape of things to come’ for george benson, ‘walking the floor over you’: ernest tubb creates a country perennial, ‘throwing copper’: how live fashioned a platinum-grade alt.rock classic, ‘read my mind’: how reba mcentire broke country music’s boundaries, ma rainey: the mother of the blues, karol g and feid win big at latin american music awards, ringo starr offers up ‘gonna need someone’ music video, florence + the machine announce ‘symphony of lungs’ bbc proms performance, def leppard share 40th anniversary edition of ‘pyromania’, billy idol releases 40th anniversary edition of ‘rebel yell’, the warning share music video for ‘qué más quieres’, liana flores signs with verve records, unveils ‘i wish for the rain’, lil yachty, method man, and gata star in ‘on the come up’ trailer.

The film will hit Paramount+ on September 23.

Published on

Paramount+ has unveiled the first trailer for On The Come Up , which features Lil Yachty , Method Man , and more. The film adaptation of Angie Thomas’ hip-hop-themed coming-of-age novel, On The Come Up, premieres next month.

On the Come Up is the feature directorial debut of Emmy-nominated actress Sanaa Lathan and will also hold its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

On the Come Up will premiere on the streaming service starting on Friday, September 23 in the U.S., Canada, Italy, and later in the year in additional international territories.

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According to a logline, the film tells the story of “Bri, a 16-year-old gifted rapper, who attempts to take the battle rap scene by storm in order to lift up her family and do right by the legacy of her father–a local hip hop legend whose career was cut short by gang violence. But when her first hit song goes viral for all the wrong reasons, she finds herself torn between the authenticity that got her this far and the false persona that the industry wants to impose upon her.”

Yachty has been quiet on the music front this year. Around this time in 2021, he released Birthday Mix Vol. 6 via Quality Control Music & Motown Records. The annual tradition is a fan favorite among Yachty devotees.

The rapper, entrepreneur, and mogul has released his birthday mixes since 2015 exclusively on SoundCloud, with this installation being the first available on all streaming platforms.  Birthday Mix Vol. 6 is a nine-track project featuring verses from Lil Tecca, Sofaygo, and DC2DRILL & Draft Day, who are both signed to Lil Yachty’s Concrete Boys label.

Back in June of 2021, Lil Yachty shared “Love Music.” The laid-back single was his first release following his highly praised Michigan Boy Boat mixtape .

In other news for the mogul, Yachty has been working on a new series for HBO Max based on the card game ‘UNO’, releasing his cryptocurrency “YachtyCoin,” partnering with Reese’s Puffs Cereal, and promoting his new unisex nail-paint line Crete.

Listen to the best of Lil Yachty on Apple Music and Spotify .

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Lil Yachty on His Rock Album ‘Let’s Start Here,’ Rapping With J. Cole, and What’s Next

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

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Nowhere in the rap star manual does it say that a guaranteed formula for success is to “make psychedelic rock album with almost no rapping.” Yet that is exactly what Lil Yachty did with “Let’s Start Here,” his fifth full album but first rock project, after years as a top rapper with hits like “One Night,” “Minnesota,” “Oprah’s Bank Account” and guest spots on Kyle’s smash “iSpy,” Dram’s “Broccoli,” Calvin Harris’ “Faking It” and others.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, the day after the Central Park show, Yachty, 26 — clad in an orange button-down, camo shorts and fuzzy pink slides, with elaborately painted nails — sat down with Variety to talk about the album, the tour, his new song with J. Cole, plans for the hip-hop album he’s already recorded, and what’s coming next.

Are these the first dates you’re playing behind this new album?

At the album listening session, people did not seem to know what to think.

No! I didn’t know what people would expect, but I knew they wouldn’t expect that. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never been more confident with a body of work, so my chest was out. I didn’t think anyone would be like, “Oh, this sucks.” I genuinely felt like even if you didn’t like it, if you’re a music head, you’d have some kind of respect for the body of work itself, and for an artist to pivot and make something in such a complete, utter, opposite direction from what came before.

You said the people you played the album for included Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator — all of whom have made moves something like that in the past.

I’ll tell you, Tyler was a big reason for this album. He’ll call me at like eight o’clock in the morning — for no reason — and we’ll talk for hours. I was such a fan of [Tyler’s Grammy-winning 2019 album] “Igor,” his character and his way of creating a world — the color palettes, the videos, the billboards, the fonts. It’s all together. And I was like “How do you do that?” Because I was trying to figure out how to make a pop-funk-psychedelic-rock album cohesive, without it sounding like someone’s playlist. Then I started working on the visuals, and what I wanted to do was extremely expensive. To be quite honest, I don’t think my label believed in it enough to give me the budget that I truly needed for the visuals to bring this album to life, so I just made two videos.

Tyler and Drake both called me before my first show — I didn’t even tell them the show was happening but they both called me. That means something to me, because those people are my idols. I remember the day Kanye tweeted [Tyler’s 2011 single] “Yonkers,” I was in eighth grade. So them checking on me means a lot.

Is it a lonely feeling, sticking your neck out creatively like that?

Yeah, at first it was, but another thing Tyler taught me was not to be afraid of that. I was so scared before those first shows, like, “What if they don’t wanna hear it?” Tyler would always say, “Fuck it, make them feel you.”

Like, on the first show of this tour, I told the [sound crew], “Play psychedelic music before I go on, don’t play hip-hop” — but right before I went on they played a Playboi Carti song and I heard the crowd turning up and I was like, “Oh no, they’re gonna hate me!” And when I came out, I have in-ears [onstage monitors] and I have them set so you can’t really hear the crowd, it’s like dead silence. But I just kept going, and then my rap set comes and they go fucking crazy and that gives me confidence, and when I did the big rock outro on “Black Seminole,” they all started clapping. And for me it was the biggest “Oh, thank God,” because I couldn’t tell if they were fucking with it.

Is it exciting being in such a risky place creatively?

You were a teenager.

Exactly, But I still wanted respect, you know? I cared! My career was never solidified, I felt like folks were writing me off, so when I was making “Let’s Start Here,” I was at a point in my career where I did not have a hit rap record — it was like, “Man, this could really go left!” But I didn’t start thinking about that till I got deep into it. When I started, I was just like, “Man, I really love this stuff. Why don’t I hear anything like this now? No one makes psychedelic songs anymore.” I do psychedelics and I knew I wanted to make a psychedelic album. I love long songs, I love to just get deep into them — that’s why I love [Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic] “Dark Side of the Moon.”

I was on psychedelics when I first heard it and I would listen and just be like maaan. Like, bro, how can music make me feel like this? How can music make my brain just go to a new dimension? And how did you do that in 1973? I was like, can I do this? And obviously my answer was no. I mean, no offense, but how many rappers successfully made a rock album?

Almost none.

That’s what I’m saying. I think one of them was Kid Cudi’s rock album — I love it but a lot of people hated it. It’s not a full rock album, but it has a strong rock element to it.

Where did the rock influences come from, your parents?

My dad played a lot of Coldplay, a lot of Radiohead, John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, a lot of John Coltrane, and I’m named after Miles Davis. My family loved James Brown, my dad loved Pharrell. He actually didn’t play Pink Floyd to me, but I’m glad I heard it as an adult.

I tried to make “Let’s Start Here” five years ago — “Lil Boat 2” was supposed to be “Let’s Start Here” with teenage emotions, but I was too young. I got too nervous to experiment on my rap record, and I didn’t have much experience or knowledge in alternative music. I met [“Let’s Start Again” collaborator] Jeremiah Raisan and tried again with the next album, but I chickened out and made another rap album. But when I had that conversation with Tyler, I was like “I’ve gotta do this, let me get that guy back.”

You had a hit with “Poland” — why isn’t it on the album?

That’s what I battled with, but at some point, you have to trust yourself. In the middle of making the album, “Poland” was a huge Internet hit and people were like, “You gotta put it on the album.” But I was like, it doesn’t fit! Just because it’s a hit record doesn’t mean it makes sense anywhere on this record. I was so focused on making my Black “Dark Side of the Moon.” And there is a small rap verse on the album, at the end of “Drive Me Crazy.”

You’ve said you recorded a hip-hop album after you finished “Let’s Start Here,” what’s it like?

What do you want to do next?

I get off tour around Christmas, and in January I’m starting a new album. I don’t know what it is yet, I don’t want to say “alternative.” I have rap album, but I just decided I’m gonna keep dropping songs [from it] until my next [non-rap] album is done.

Do you know who you want to work with on the next album?

So many people, obviously I want to do it on mostly with the band I made the record with, [writers/producers] Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, Jake Portrait and Patrick Wimberly. But I want to work with Donald Glover, I really want to work with Florence from Florence and the Machine. Sampha, Frank [Ocean], Buddy Ross, who worked with Frank. Chris Martin, Bon Iver, Solange, Mike Dean.

I’ve just been exploring, doing things that people wouldn’t expect. Even if I’m not the best at something, let’s just try, let’s explore, let’s create new things.

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Let’s Start Here.

“something ether”.

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Music Features

Lil yachty's delightfully absurd path to 'let's start here'.

Matthew Ramirez

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 29: Lil Yachty performs on the Stage during day 2 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Rich Fury/Getty Images hide caption

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 29: Lil Yachty performs on the Stage during day 2 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.

Lil Yachty often worked better as an idea than a rapper. The late-decade morass of grifters like Lil Pump, amidst the self-serious reign of Future and Drake (eventual Yachty collaborators, for what it's worth), created a demand for something lighter, someone charismatic, a throwback to a time in the culture when characters like Biz Markie could score a hit or Kool Keith could sustain a career in one hyper-specific lane of rap fandom. Yachty fulfilled the role: His introduction to many was through a comedy skit soundtracked by his viral breakout "1 Night," which tapped into the song's deadpan delivery and was the perfect complement for its sleepy charm. The casual fan knows him best for a pair of collaborations in 2016: as one-half of the zeitgeist-defining single "Broccoli" with oddity D.R.A.M., or "iSpy," a top-five pop hit with backpack rapper Kyle. Yachty embodied the rapper as larger-than-life character — from his candy-colored braids to his winning smile — and while the songs themselves were interesting, you could be forgiven for wondering if there was anything substantial behind the fun, the grounds for the start of a long career.

As if to supplement his résumé, Yachty seemed to emerge as a multimedia star. Perhaps you remember him in a Target commercial; heard him during the credits for the Saved by the Bell reboot; spotted him on a cereal box; saw him co-starring in the ill-fated 2019 sequel to How High . TikTok microcelebrity followed. Then the sentences got more and more absurd: Chef Boyardee jingle with Donny Osmond; nine-minute video cosplaying as Oprah; lead actor in an UNO card game movie. Somewhere in a cross-section of pop-culture detritus and genuine hit-making talent is where Yachty resides. That he didn't fade away immediately is a testament to his charm as a cultural figure; Yachty satisfied a need, and in his refreshingly low-stakes appeal, you could imagine him as an MTV star in an alternate universe. Move the yardstick of cultural cachet from album sales to likes and he emerges as a generation-defining persona, if not musician.

Early success and exposure can threaten anyone's career, none so much as those connected to the precarious phenomenon of SoundCloud rap. Yachty's initial peak perhaps seeded his desire years later to sincerely pursue artistry with Let's Start Here , an album fit for his peculiar trajectory, because throughout the checks from Sprite and scolding Ebro interviews he never stopped releasing music, seemingly to satisfy no one other than himself and the generation of misfits that he seemed to be speaking for.

But to oversell him as a personality belittles his substantial catalog. Early mixtapes like Lil Boat and Summer Songs 2 , which prophetically brought rap tropes and pop sounds into harmony, were sustained by the teenage artist's commitment to selling the vibe of a track as he warbled its memorable hook. It was perhaps his insistence to demonstrate that he could rap, too, that most consistently pockmarked his output during this period. These misses were the necessary growing pains of a kid still finding his footing, and through time and persistence, a perceived weakness became a strength. Where his peers Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti found new ways to express themselves in music, Yachty dug in his heels and became Quality Control's oddball representative, acquitting himself on guest appearances and graduating from punchline rapper to respectable vet culminating in the dense and rewarding Lil Boat 3 from 2020, Yachty's last official album.

Which is why the buzzy, viral "Poland" from the end of 2022 hit different — Yachty tapped back into the same lively tenor of his early breakthroughs. The vibrato was on ten, the beat menaced and hummed like a broken heater, he rapped about taking cough syrup in Poland, it was over in under two minutes and endlessly replayable. Yachty has already lived a full career arc in seven years — from the 2016 king of the teens, to budding superstar, to pitchman, to regional ambassador. But following "Poland" with self-aware attempts at similar virality would be a mistake, and you can't pivot your way to radio stardom after a hit like that, unless you're a marketing genius like Lil Nas X. How does he follow up his improbable second chance to grab the zeitgeist?

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Lil yachty, 'poland'.

Let's Start Here is Lil Yachty's reinvention, a born-again Artist's Statement with no rapping. It's billed as psychedelic rock but has a decidedly accessible sound — the sun-kissed warmth of an agreeable Tame Impala song, with bounce-house rhythms and woozy guitars in the mode of Magdalena Bay and Mac DeMarco (both of whom guest on the album) — something that's not quite challenging but satisfying nonetheless. Contrast with 2021's Michigan Boy Boat , where Yachty performed as tour guide through Michigan rap: His presence was auxiliary by function on that tape, as he ceded the floor to Babyface Ray, Sada Baby and Rio Da Yung OG; it was tantalizing curation, if not a work of his own personal artistry. It's tempting to cast Let's Start Here as another act of roleplay, but what holds this album together is Yachty's magnetic pull. Whether or not you're someone who voluntarily listens to the Urban Outfitters-approved slate of artists he's drawing upon, his star presence is what keeps you engaged here.

Yachty has been in the studio recording this album since 2021, and the effort is tangible. He didn't chase "Poland" with more goofy novelties, but he also didn't spit this record out in a month. Opener (and highlight) "The Black Seminole" alternates between Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix-lite references. It's definitely a gauntlet thrown even if halfway through you start to wonder where Yachty is. The album's production team mostly consists of Patrick Wemberly (formerly of Chairlift), Jacob Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra), Jeremiah Raisen (who's produced for Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira and Drake) and Yachty himself, who's established himself as a talented producer since his early days. (MGMT's Ben Goldwasser also contributed.) The group does a formidable job composing music that is dense and layered enough to register as formally unconventional, if not exactly boundary-pushing. Yachty frequently reaches for his "Poland"-inspired uber-vibrato, which adds a bewitching texture to the songs, placing him in the center of the track. Other moments that work: the spoken-word interlude "Failure," thanks to contemplative strumming from Alex G, and "The Ride," a warm slow-burn that coasts on a Jam City beat, giving the album a lustrous Night Slugs moment. "I've Officially Lost Vision" thrashes like Yves Tumor.

Yet the best songs on Let's Start Here push Yachty's knack for hooks and snaking melodies to the fore and rely less on studio fireworks — the laid-back groove of "Running Out of Time," the mournful post-punk of "Should I B?" and the slow burn of "Pretty," which features a bombastic turn from vocalist Foushee. That Yachty's vaunted indie collaborators were able to work in simpatico with him proves his left-of-center bonafides. It's a reminder that he's often lined his projects with successful non-rap songs, curios like "Love Me Forever" from Lil Boat 2 and "Worth It" from Nuthin' 2 Prove . That renders Let's Start Here a less startling turn than it may appear at first glance, and also underlines his recurring talent for making off-kilter pop music, a gift no matter the perceived genre.

At a listening event for the record, Yachty stated: "I created [this] because I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. Not just some SoundCloud rapper, not some mumble rapper. Not some guy that just made one hit," seemingly aware of the culture war within his own genre and his place along the spectrum of low- to highbrow. To be sure, whether conscious of it or not, this kind of mentality is dismissive of rap music as an artform, and also undermines the good music Yachty has made in the past. Holing up in the studio to make digestibly "weird" indie-rock with a cast of talented white people isn't intrinsically more artistic or valid than viral hits or a one-off like "Poland." But this statement scans less as self-loathing and more as a renewed confidence, a tribute to the album's collective vision. And people like Joe Budden have been saying "I don't think Yachty is hip-hop " since he started. So what if he wants to break rank now?

Lil Yachty entered the cultural stage at 18, and has grown up in public. It adds up that, now 25, he would internalize all the scrutiny he's received and wish to cement his artistry after a few thankless years rewriting the rules for young, emerging rappers. Let's Start Here may not be the transcendent psychedelic rock album that he seeks, but it is reflective of an era of genreless "vibes" music. Many young listeners likely embraced Yachty and Tame Impala simultaneously; it tracks he would want to bring these sounds together in a genuine attempt to reach a wider audience. Nothing about this album is cynical, but it is opportunistic, a creation in line with both a shameless mixed-media existence and his everchanging pop alchemy. The "genre" tag in streaming metadata means less than it ever has. Credit to Yachty for putting that knowledge to use.

Lil Yachty’s Psychedelic Relaunch: ‘I Don’t Have To Be High To Make It Sound High’

By Andre Gee

I n 2016, a 19-year-old Lil Yachty emerged as a fresh-faced, red-haired maverick eagerly planting Generation Z’s flag in hip-hop . Songs like “Minnesota” intrigued many, but rap traditionalists denigrated him as a “mumble rapper” — an upstart who, they claimed, was insulting the essence of hip-hop one warbled vocal run at a time. That didn’t stop Yachty, though. In the years since, he’s kept trying new things , even as many other artists have gotten stuck retreading tired formulas. “Who cares?” he says now. “It’s going to go, or it’s not. You only have one life, bro. Just do shit.”

But he does offer a few details about the six-month recording process in Texas, New York, and elsewhere, which he says was “fun” at every juncture. At times, he played the work in progress for “heavy hitters” like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, A$AP Rocky, Drake, and Tyler, the Creator. “Everyone was ecstatic,” he says, “which made me feel good.”

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Do you think hip-hop could be more accepting of younger artists as they learn and grow? I don’t know. I don’t really care either. Who cares? I don’t need acceptance from nobody. People seek too much validation.

What was the initial catalyst for you to start this album? It was a phone call with Tyler that made me act on it. I always wanted to do it, but that was the battery.

What was the dynamic of that phone call? Were you like, “I want to explore something,” and he was like, “Go for it”? I don’t fully remember, but he was very motivating and inspiring. I didn’t tell him my ideas, but it was more so, “Whatever it is in your heart and in your mind that you want to do, do it. And do it fully, don’t shortcut it. Don’t cut any corners.”

From there, what were the first moves you made to get the ball rolling? Did you reach out to the instrumentalists who helped construct the album? They were friends. I called up a friend and then got with another friend, and then they got one of their friends and we did it. This concept was in my brain. It’s nothing new. 

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You’ve referenced psychedelics in interviews. How big a factor was that in the recording process? None. Zero. I can’t record music on drugs. I have to be fully sober. But I’ve done it enough times to know what I want. I don’t have to be high to make it sound high.

You said growing up you listened to all types of music. Did you ever hear the stigma of “That’s white-people music”? Yeah, of course. I don’t give a fuck, bro. It’s so hard to affect me or offend me. I do what I want to do. You feel me? People say this album is white-people music. Who cares, man? What is white-people music?

You’ve said you made this in part because you “wanted to be taken seriously as an artist and not just a SoundCloud rapper, not just a mumble rapper.” What would you say to people who feel like SoundCloud rappers and mumble rappers deserve to be taken as seriously as any other artists? See, that’s the thing. I can’t speak for nobody else. I’m not some spokesman for the people. I’m not vouching for anyone else’s work ethic or creativity, only mine. I want to be taken seriously. I’m not no mumble rap. I’m not just some SoundCloud rapper. I’m not speaking on all SoundCloud rappers. I’m speaking on me, you feel me? I want to make that apparent. This is for me, because everybody don’t have that work ethic. Everyone ain’t going to put the hours in to understand a new genre and how to execute something the right way. 

“See, that’s the thing. I can’t speak for nobody else. I’m not speaking on all SoundCloud rappers. I’m speaking on me, you feel me? This is for me, because everybody don’t have that work ethic.”

I feel like a lot of people projected that from your comments, maybe unfairly. People are so protective of hip-hop that anytime someone wants to do something else, it’s perceived as somebody saying that hip-hop is less-than. It’s so crazy. The main people that want to do all that be the main people downing certain people’s talent. Like, “Oh, man, you ain’t no real rapper. This ain’t real rap.” You can never please everyone.

You’ve said you had a period of trying to prove you can rap. How do you feel about those efforts now? I love it, man. They made me a man. They made me strong. They made me care more about the craft — because I do. They made me want to learn, be better, sharpen my sword.

How much does the dynamic that you’re talking about here have to do with the stigma against rappers when it comes to award shows and radio play and festivals?  For me, that’s zero. I don’t care about none of that shit. I just make all types of music. It has nothing to do with the fruits and labors that don’t come with being a rapper, none of that. I like to make all music. That’s all it is, totally. It ain’t got nothing to do with not getting the love or respect or not being invited to an award show.

Going forward with your creative process, do you feel like you’ll have that motivation with every album you make, to prove something to a certain audience? Not necessarily. I didn’t make this album to prove that I could. I also want to be taken seriously. But I didn’t make it like, “Oh, man, I need them to take me serious. Let me make this type of album.” I just wanted to make a great album, and I felt like personally, I could do it better this way than if I made a rap album. 

How are things going with your label, Concrete Boyz? That’s next for me. That’s all I care about right now. That’s where we are every day, in the studio getting established together. We got some special artists, and they’re fresh faces. I want to make sure when we drop this, it’s hot, because they’re fire and it’s fresh. You’re gonna hear some fresh sounds. That’s my next project, in the summertime. 

I was listening to your Zane Lowe interview, and I feel like I heard you reference doing a documentary. Did I mishear that, or …? I was saying I have one, but I doubt I’ll drop it. Just like me not wanting to do any of these interviews. I don’t really care to talk about it, [because] you give it all away, you pull the curtain back. “Who inspired it? What did y’all talk about? When did y’all talk about it? What made you do this? Why’d you do that?” Then it’s no longer a special project, because then they know everything. It’s no longer “Wow. How did he make this?” because we know it all. That’s why I’m like, “Damn, bro. Do I want to show every inch of this album?” It takes away from it having any factor, any special surprise, [any] cool, hidden element. And that’s what I feel like is a problem with music nowadays. Everyone is oversharing. Everything is social. The more you give, the less cool something becomes.

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Have you always been discerning about how much you put yourself out there? No. I got 1,000 interviews on the internet. I hate it. I was young. I didn’t know nothing. Back then, I was trying to be the spokesman for the new generation because no one else wanted to talk. I felt, “I’m going to stand up. I’m going to speak.” But [now] I don’t speak for nobody but me.

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Lil yachty is the latest rapper to start a podcast.

He displayed his interview skills back in February during 'A Moody Conversation' with Drake.

By Armon Sadler

Armon Sadler

Hip-Hop Reporter

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Lil Yachty has been gracing microphones for almost a decade and is now gearing up to use his voice in another medium. The 25-year-old revealed that he is launching a podcast this week.

The Atlanta rapper solicited topics and questions from his fans via Instagram on Tuesday (June 13). “Filming my first podcast,” he wrote. “Send me any questions u want me to answer / any advice u need. Haha let’s go.”

Lil Yachty follows in Joe Budden & N.O.R.E.’s footsteps, launches his own podcast https://t.co/52WCdDsvQr pic.twitter.com/JaulLXrBtv — HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) June 14, 2023

Lil Yachty, unlike Joe Budden and N.O.R.E , isn’t preceding his venture into podcasting with retirement. The eclectic artist released “ Strike (Holster) ” back in April and some fans believe it is the highly coveted “ song of the summer .”

“Strike” followed his fifth studio album Let’s Start Here . which came out in January and is regarded as his most experimental effort to date due to the psychedelic rock and funk elements. The 14-track LP featured Daniel Caesar , Teezo Touchdown, Justine Skye , Fousheé, and Diana Gordon.

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Lil Yachty's Label Concrete Boyz set to release their first collaboration project 'It's Us Volume 1' this April

A ccording to NFR Podcast, Lil Yachty's record label, Concrete Boys (also known as Concrete Boyz), is set to release their first collaboration project titled It's Us: Volume 1 on all streaming platforms this April.

NFR's official X account posted on March 25, confirming the release date of the Concrete Boyz project as April 5, 2024. The post also revealed the featured artists, including Lil Yachty, Karrahbooo, Draft Day, DC2Trill, and Camo. The tweet read:

"LIL YACHTY, KARRAHBOOO, DRAFT DAY, DC2TRILL, CAMO!"

The tracklist for the upcoming album is yet to be confirmed, but based on the artists involved in this project, it's likely to showcase a fusion of alternative rock, R&B, and rap.

Lil Yachty and Concrete Boys Discography

Yachty (Lil Boat), who is currently signed to Quality Control, incorporated his own Record Label Concrete Boyz, a few years ago in an attempt to bring upcoming artists in his genre to the spotlight.

Over the years, Yachty and his team have been slowly recruiting rappers and artists from across the music industry, from 31 Camo to Karahbooo, all of whose music appears to have been inspired by Boat's discography.

Lil Yachty has also collaborated with his signees on some of his previous work. Below are two songs officially released alongside Artist Draft Day:

• Demon Time (Feat. Draft Day)
• POPOVICH Freestyle (Feat. Draft Day)

On May 29, 2020, Yachty released his fourth studio album, titled Lil Boat 3 , across all DSPs (Digital Streaming Platforms) via Quality Control Music and Motown Records. The 19-track project included a track titled Concrete Boys .

This track acted as the official introduction to the "Concrete Crew" he was building with his record label. The song includes a shout-out to the Concrete Boys in the chorus when Yachty implies that when his "back is against the wall," he can always rely on his crew to come through for him.

Another notable bar from Lil Yachty's song has been listed below:

"I just woke up, dreamin' 'bout the rose (Oh my God) / They had ni**as 'round me who don't stand on toes (Hell nah) / Barely ever do I think about my foes / How much longer will I live? Only God knows."

On December 16, 2023, a song titled Mo Jams was released on the official YouTube channel for Concrete Boys, alongside a music video that featured most of the CB roster, except for 31 Camo. Mo Jams was produced by Rawbone and acts as the first official collaboration between the members of Concrete Boys.

This track, although not being released on DSPs, has garnered significant attention for an upcoming collaboration project by racking up almost 4 million views on YouTube.

As fans await a Concrete Boys collaboration album, Lil Yachty continues to impress fans by following up on his widely acclaimed 2023 project Let's Start Here, which found the rapper delving into a more experimental sound with his music.

Notably, Yachty has been releasing a string of singles, which include his collaboration with Fred Again.. on stayinit. The rapper was also featured on Lyrical Lemonade's debut studio album, All Is Yellow , which dropped two months ago in January 2024.

Everybody From The Joker To Nikola Jokic Is Now Lil Yachty Thanks To A New AI-Fueled Meme

In recent days, a new meme has started to surface, and it turns out that Lil Yachty is at the root of it.

As Know Your Meme notes , Yachty performed at the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash concert in 2021, and a clip of his energetic walk out to the stage has racked up over 4.5 million views on YouTube since it was uploaded on June 2022. Here’s that video:

The unmodified video started to be used as a reaction meme here and there, but it has found new life this April, after a post from X (formerly Twitter) account @AIWarper generated some attention. The tweet includes the video, but modified, using a tool called Viggle AI , to replace Yachty with Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the Joker.

Viggle AI Experiment 💙 This is an incredible tool for style transfer. Details and link to Discord below 👇 As always, if you enjoy this content please kindly like and share! pic.twitter.com/1qW8H0MuwX — A.I.Warper (@AIWarper) April 8, 2024

From there, other examples have been shared online, including some featuring disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried , NBA star Nikola Jokic , and King Of The Hill character Hank Hill .

pic.twitter.com/BqsmP40EDH — betafuzz (@betafuzz) April 11, 2024

Nikola Jokic on his way to accept his 3rd MVP award like pic.twitter.com/4DWUb5bzVO — Per Sources (@PerSources) April 11, 2024

A version featuring New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has gone viral in the sports world, so much so that Thibodeau was asked about it in a recent press conference. He revealed that he was originally showed the clip by one of his players, Mitchell Robinson, and that he thought Robinson himself made the video.

Tom Thibodeau has seen the viral video of him 😂 pic.twitter.com/RxeCYkTRhw — Big Knick Energy (@BigKnickEnergy_) April 16, 2024

When you’re up 30 with 7 minutes left so you call Jalen Brunson’s up off the bench pic.twitter.com/ImYtczkNct — B.W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) April 12, 2024

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Lil Yachty Flexes New Nike Air Force 1 PE at Coachella

“concrete” and colorful..

Lil Yachty brought not only a lifesize boat to his Coachella performance but also a pair of new limited-edition pickups. The Concrete commander sat perched atop the boat, dangling a rock-solid set of colorful Nike Air Force 1s down below.

The AF1s take a low stature and appear in a vibrant trio of yellow, green and red hues – which marks a sharp pivot from Yachty’s last AF1.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by CONCRETE BOY BOAT^ (@lilyachty)

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Watch Mac DeMarco join Lil Yachty for a huge Coachella set

The two took to the stage at the end of the performance for two tracks

Lil Yachty surprised fans at his huge Coachella set last night (Sunday, April 14) by bringing out Mac DeMarco as a special guest. Check out footage of the moment below.

• READ MORE: Coachella 2024 liveblog: all of the action as it happens

The American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer – whose real name is Miles Parks McCollum – took to the stage at the Indio festival last night, in what was the final day of the first weekend.

Initially, the intense set by Yachty kicked off with the rapper performing five back-to-back tracks from his 2023 album, ‘Let’s Start Here’. Walking on the stage as ‘the BLACK seminole’ was played over a tape, he launched into ‘IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!’ and ‘THE zone~’, before delivering renditions of ‘pRETTy’ and ‘running out of time’ – which he performed alongside Justine Skye – and ‘drive ME crazy!’.

From there, fan favourites including ‘Flex Up’ and ‘Coffin’ were embedded in the 21 song setlist, as well as covers of BRAM’s ‘Broccoli’ and ‘ON THE RADAR CONCRETE CYPHER’ by Concrete Boys.

However, it was towards the end of the set that Yachty delivered one of the most noteworthy moments – bringing out slacker-pop king Mac DeMarco as a surprise guest.

Here, the two came together to perform two tracks from DeMarco’s discography. The first of which was ‘On The Level’ – taken from DeMarco’s 2017 album  ‘This Old Dog’ – while the second was ‘Chamber Of Reflection’, shared 10 years ago as part of the ‘Salad Days’  LP.

Check out footage of the collaboration below, as well as the full Lil Yachty setlist.

lil yachty just brought out mac demarco at coachella pic.twitter.com/r4tpOQTcH3 — isaiah✰ (@tlop444) April 15, 2024

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lil yachty bringing out Mac DeMarco to perform (‘: pic.twitter.com/m6mgygVdTo — d ✮⋆˙ (@lighterflickk) April 15, 2024

Lil Yachty’s 2024 Coachella setlist was:

‘IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!’ ‘THE zone~’ ‘pRETTy’ ‘running out of time’ (with Justine Skye) ‘drive ME crazy!’ ‘Coffin’ ‘Split / Whole Time’ ‘NBAYOUNGBOAT’ ‘Flex Up’ ‘Minnesota’ ‘Get Dripped’ ‘Broccoli’ (DRAM cover) ‘Gimme da Lite’ (Southside & Lil Yachty cover) ‘Poland’ ‘One Night’ ‘Strike (Holster)’ ‘ON THE RADAR CONCRETE CYPHER’ (Concrete Boys song) ‘On the Level’ (with Mac DeMarco) ‘Chamber of Reflection’ (with Mac DeMarco) ‘WE SAW THE SUN!’ ‘the BLACK seminole.’

The collaboration between the rapper and the singer-songwriter last night comes after the two joined forces on Yachty’s aforementioned 2023 album ‘Let’s Start Here’ . In the release, DeMarco is credited as a writer on two tracks – ‘Drive Me Crazy!’ and ‘Failure’.

The album also featured a huge number of additional guests other than DeMarco, including MGMT ’s Ben Goldwasser, Alex G , Daniel Caesar , Fousheé , Teezo Touchdown , Justine Skye and Diana Gordon.

Elsewhere in yesterday’s instalment of Coachella 2024, the night saw sets from Sublime , Blur and No Doubt , before Tyler, The Creator headlined that evening.

You can find highlights from their full set here, and for more live updates as it happens, check out NME ’s liveblog for Coachella 2024 here .

Check back here for the latest news, reviews and more from Coachella 2024.

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Bebe Rexha, Tems & Justin Bieber, The Rose, Reneé Rapp & Kesha, Plus More: Best Moments of Coachella 2024 Day 3

Day 3 of Coachella 2024 was all about the surprise guest. Find our highlights from J Balvin, DJ Snake, Doja Cat, Victoria Monet, 88Rising, Lil Yachty & more.

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Who wants a Sunday surprise?

Day 3 of Coachella 2024 was all about the surprise guest. Honestly, an entirely new, parallel Coachella lineup could be constructed out of the unannounced artists who popped up on stages across the Empire Polo Club grounds on Sunday (April 15).

5 Best Moments From Doja Cat's Proudly Strange Coachella 2024 Headlining Set

The night’s headliner alone brought out three guests, with Doja Cat enlisting A$AP Rocky, 21 Savage and Teezo Touchdown for her festival-wrapping set. Then we had Reneé Rapp inviting Kesha to duet on “Tik Tok”; Tems drawing both Wizkid and Justin Bieber out for their “Essence” remix; and J Balvin getting Will Smith back in his Men in Black suit for an otherworldly cameo (more on all three of those major moments below).

In her debut at the festival, Bebe Rexha invited Coachella vet David Guetta to join her for their dance smash “I’m Good (Blue),” DJ Snake invited out both Robin S. and Peso Pluma, and Lil Yachty called on Mac DeMarco (oh, we’ve got all those covered below too).

A few other special guests from Sunday: YG Marley brought out his mother, Lauryn Hill, to perform a series of solo and Fugees hits with her, and they teamed up on a couple of songs by his late grandfather, Bob Marley, as well. (Oh yeah, and Busta Rhymes popped up with YG too, for “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” and his feature on Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now.”) And if that isn’t enough, Katy Perry was there too! She joined her best friend Mia Moretti for her DJ set on the DoLab Stage.

So much happened beyond all those well-planned surprises though. Below, find Billboard ‘s best moments from the third and final day of Coachella 2024 weekend one.

Bebe Rexha Gets Her Coachella Moment

“I always thought I wasn’t cool enough for Coachella,” Bebe Rexha told the crowd in the middle of her debut performance at the festival. But whatever she may have thought, her evening mainstage show proved that she deserved to be there as much as anyone else, with Rexha — who wore a tight black bodsuit and boots — sounding and looking like every bit the big stage pop star.

The setlist included her 2019 Chainsmokers collab “Call You Mine” and her 2017 Florida Georgia Line hit “Meant to Be,” and the show found Rexha dancing hard and in one moment grinding on the floor in a sequence she herself referred to as an “onstage orgy.” But for all the sex appeal, there was also a level of heart-on-her sleeve authenticity, as Rexha told stories about continuing on after getting dropped from her label (“I said, ‘You know what? F— this. I’m going to write the songs, and when I sell the songs I’m going to say, “You’ve gotta keep me on it”‘”) and dealing with haters by understanding that hate “is just confused love.” (It was also endearing when, after gazing deeply into the camera, she then cracked a wide smile and stuck out her tongue.) Rexha closed the show by bringing out David Guetta to perform the pair’s massive 2023 dance hit “I’m Good (Blue),” closing the show by turning it into a full-on EDM dance party that, based on all the cheering and dancing, everyone seemed to think was indeed pretty cool. — Katie Bain

Tems Brings Out Justin Bieber & Wizkid for ‘Essence’ Surprise

Tems had a striking debut Coachella set in the Mojave tent, backed by a gorgeous outdoor setting on the stage that perfectly matched her warm, powerful voice. She live-debuted an unreleased song from her upcoming debut album, teaching the audience the “love me jeje, love me tender” chorus so they could sing along like it was already a hit. And then she treated the crowd to “Essence,” with Wizkid joining her onstage to perform the 2021 Hot 100 top 10 smash. But that was only the beginning of the surprise: Their remix collaborator Justin Bieber then popped onstage as well and completely shattered the decibel levels in the tent. Tems tried to prepare us when she tweeted earlier in the day: “Coachella! I’m too exciteddd I have a surprise tonight.” — Katie Atkinson

J Balvin Brings Out a Man in Black

J Balvin ‘s heavy use of sci-fi imagery during his performance on the main stage — including two massive flying saucers and an animatronic Grey Alien head that swiveled eerily back and forth in the center of the stage — proved the perfect setup for the night’s big special guest: Will Smith , who hit the stage for a brief rendition of “Men in Black” (in full suit-and-sunglasses regalia from the film) as Balvin bounced and slid and made his neck work in choreographed tandem with the Oscar-winning movie star. Elsewhere during his set, the Colombian superstar gamely performed such hits as “Mi Gente,” “Con Altura,” “Ginza” and his Cardi B collab “I Like It Like That” — joined throughout by collaborators Jowell & Randy and De La Ghetto . — Chris Eggertsen

Reneé Rapp Duets With Kesha on ‘Tik Tok’

Reneé Rapp drew a huge, enthusiastic crowd to the Outdoor Stage on Sunday for her debut Coachella set (or “baby’s first ‘Chella,” as she called it), and it all kicked off with an intro from The L Word stars Jennifer Beals, Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig and creator Ilene Chaiken. “You’ve gotta say what every lesbian wants to hear,” Moennig said, before yelling to wild cheers: “Who’s ready for a f—ing Reneé Rapp concert?” Rapp kicked off the 14-song set with the Snow Angel single “Talk Too Much” and wrapped with the title track from her 2023 debut album. While she went it alone for the bulk of the set, she did have two special guests: her girlfriend Towa Bird, who played guitar on “Tummy Hurts,” and a surprise appearance from Kesha to duet on her 2009 Hot 100 nine-week No. 1 “Tik Tok.” In response to a series of sexual misconduct allegations against Diddy , the pair did a little surgery on the song’s opening line, changing it to: “Wake up in the morning like ‘F— P. Diddy.’” — K.A.

DJ Snake Shows Us Love

“Are you ready for this iconic f—ing moment?” DJ Snake asked the Sahara Tent crowd about 15 minutes into his set, then hitting play on “Show Me Love” and welcoming the song’s power-lunged vocalist, Robin S., onto the stage. As it turned out, we were all definitely ready, with the crowd dancing and singing along at full volume. The French producer then kept the show going with some very grimy bass and equally aggressive sounds before bringing out Peso Plumo to debut on the pair’s forthcoming “Teka,” a woozy, infectious dance track. — K.B

The Rose Recall Their Much Tinier Early Crowds

Another first-time Coachella performer was four-piece South Korean pop-rock group The Rose, who marveled at the size of the crowd they drew to the Outdoor Stage by recalling their early days as a band. “We have been together as The Rose for seven years now,” Woosung said. “When we first started, we started in a very small place in Seoul called Hongdae. That’s where we used to busk and street-perform and do little club gigs here and there. And our very first show as The Rose, we had about 20 people show up, and half of them were our friends. But look at all you motherf—ers now!” The size of the crowd was especially clear when they performed “Back to Me,” a top 10 hit on Billboard ’s Alternative Digital Song Sales chart last year. As the lyrics to the catchy chorus scrolled across the screen, the crowd took over, shouting every word. — K.A.

Victoria Monet Encourages Fans to Exercise Their Right to Smoke

Just before Monet busted out a performance of the JAGUAR II track “Smoke” during her solid, sex-positive set in the Mojave tent, the red-lingerie-clad rising star — who also performed renditions of songs such as “Jaguar,” “Moment,” “Coastin'” and “Ass Like That” — coaxed the crowd to “hotbox” the performance space, in her words, “’cause it’s legal.” A considerable number of Monet’s fans apparently didn’t need to be told twice, as within seconds, pot smoke emanated from various sections of the audience before coalescing into a massive single cloud that hovered above the crowd. Let’s just say that by the time Monet launched into her breakthrough hit “On My Mama” at the end of the set, the Mojave tent was vibing . But in truth, no cannabis was needed; Monet had the crowd entranced from the get-go. — Chris Eggertsen

Jhene Aiko Gets Real

Jhene Aiko put on a dreamy, self-assured show at the outdoor stage on Saturday evening — think crystals, sound baths and even a brief pseudo-guided meditation from the singer herself. Like her music, the performance felt grounded and ethereal all at once, with Aiko seemingly floating across the stage in a multi-layered, snakeskin-like dress while delivering effortless performances of songs like “While We’re Young,” “Sativa” and “The Worst.” Just like Aiko’s set on Saturday, her songs tend to spin a gossamer mood while also delivering lyrical truth bombs (“Please don’t take this personal/But you ain’t s—/And you weren’t special/’Til I made you so”).

Though she hosted such impressive special guests as Big Sean , Tyga , Saweetie (“My Type”) and Omarion during the roughly hour and 15-minute set, it was Aiko’s emotional speech near the end of the performance that proved to be the most memorable part of the show. Reflecting on her debut performance at Coachella in 2014, the singer got real (and occasionally choked up) when she related that at the time, “I had a lot going on, my brother had passed two years before, my daughter was five — and I’m not gonna lie, I was high and drunk out of my mind, I was like blackout high and drunk. I had a good time, but it was probably not my best moment.”

She continued, “I just want to thank god for giving me a second chance to come back tonight and give you guys a sober performance. I hope it’s a little better than 10 years ago. I’ve learned a lot since then. I’ve realized that you have to allow yourself to feel your emotions in order to heal. I’ve also learned that your reality is your choice. Everything that we see in our waking life is just a projection of our state of mind and what we imagine, what we think. I’ve learned that everyone is going through something and is just another version of me. We are all each other’s reflection.”

It was a moment of emotional honesty rare for a festival set, and the tears they did flow — both from Aiko and her fans, many of whom clearly felt the weight of her words. – Chris Eggertsen

All Aboard for the Lil Yachty Set

Leave it to Lil Yachty to bring a not-so-lil boat to Coachella. When the rapper hit the Mojave Tent late Sunday night, his stage had a massive red boat as its centerpiece, with his nickname “Lil Boat” written on the side. He even played the first few songs perched on the boat’s bow, which made for some very cool big-screen shots when he was filmed from behind and the sea of fans in front of him looked like a literal body of water. During the 20-song set — which toggled between the experimental sound of his most recent album, last year’s Let’s Start Here , and his more straightforward hip-hop work — Yachty brought out his Concrete Boys collective to join him aboard the Lil Boat, as well as Justine Skye and Mac DeMarco. — K.A.

Jackson Wang & BIBI’s Surprise New Song During 88Rising Set

The lineup for the 88Rising Futures showcase in the Mojave Tent was already stacked going into Day 3, including Japan’s YOASOBI and Atarashii Gakko! (both of whom also had their own solo sets this weekend) and Korea’s Tiger JK and Yoonmirae. But the music and media company found room for a few surprises too, with 88rising artists Jackson Wang and BIBI showing up unannounced to perform the romantic unreleased duet “Feeling Lucky.” The pair had palpable chemistry as they held hands and got closer and closer toward the end of the song. Wang also came out for the Coachella debut of Japanese boy band Number_i to perform their song “GOAT.” – K.A.

Carin Leon Honors a Late Legend & Spotlights a Contemporary

Near the end of his 50-minute set, the Mexican singer-songwriter, performing at Coachella for the first time, broke out a cover of Selena Quintanilla ‘s “Si Una Vez” in honor of the late singer, who helped set the template for Latin acts in the 21st century. At another point during the set, he brought out Venezuelan Latin pop brother duo (and fellow Coachella newbies) Mau y Ricky for a performance of the song “Llorar y Llorar” — effectively sharing his moment in the spotlight with both a contemporary and a predecessor who arguably helped set the groundwork for Leon’s moment to happen in the first place. – Chris Eggertsen

Doja Cat Keeps It Weird

With her main-stage performance (which made Doja Cat the second Black woman to ever headline Coachella), the rapper squashed debate about whether she was a big enough star to headline the fest — not by pandering to its audience, but just by embracing her signature strangeness. Think playful wigs, a mud pit, a fake Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, dancing yetis and other elements presented with total dedication to the bit.

Read the full Doja Cat review here.

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