Lil Yachty on His Rock Album ‘Let’s Start Here,’ Rapping With J. Cole, and What’s Next
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music 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. While Yachty’s new era was teased late last year with the trippy, 83-second-long single “Poland” (which isn’t on the album), at a listening session for “Let’s Start Here” in New York last December, a number of hip-hop journalists seemed perplexed by the new sound, which most directly evokes Pink Floyd, Funkadelic and other sounds from the early ‘70s.