Lil Yachty Is an American rapper who is part of the new artists of this musical genre that became popular in the 60s. Yachty began to gain recognition in August 2015 with the release of the singles"1Night"and"Minnesota"and with the debut Of their EP (extended play) Summer Songs.
However, its popularity became greater since March 2016 when it released the mixtape titled"Lil Boat". For the month of June, the singer announced that he had signed a recording contract in conjunction with Quality Control Music, Capitol Records and Motown Records. So far, the artist has two mixtapes, two EPs, five music videos and eleven singles, seven of them as a guest artist.
The beginnings of his career
Miles Parks McCollum, known artistically as Lil Yachty, was born on August 23, 1997 in the suburb of Mapleton, Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The singer is the son of a photographer, who worked with great musicians in Atlanta.
As he grew older, his father shared with him his taste for all kinds of music. They listened from Coldplay to Kid Cudi, artists who continue to love even after he began to become interested in creating his own musical style.
Lil Yachty attended Pebblebrook Highschool High School. There he would meet other aspiring rappers and producers. Together they called themselves The Yacht Club and then changed their name to The Sailing Team.
This led Miles to receive the nickname for which he is known, Lil Yachty. This name brought good things to him, since at that time a manager offered the boy an opportunity to promote the Nautical clothing line.
The offer seemed to be a good start for a high school boy who did not have much luck with the girls, according to the same artist.
At the age of 15, Lil Yachty decided she must be faithful to her essence and what she wanted, so she dyed her hair red. From then on, his style would become a source of criticism but also the source of his success.
Lil Yachty decided to spend her summer after graduation by trying to make contacts in New York, with her fresh air and her ambition to become a musician. There he stayed with some friends.
The young man made a list of the influential and interesting personalities of the online world. Summer was a success, in terms of rubbing shoulders with interesting people in the industry, but I was not making money with music.
He soon ran out of money. So when he arrived in September, he enrolled at Alabama State University to make his mother happy. However, he was not.
His time in high school was not the best either. His quirky style was not well received by his peers and Lil Yachty became the object of ridicule. His companions used to laugh at him every time he left his room.
It was then that he dedicated himself to writing his music seriously. At that time he wrote"Hell O's"and"Minnesota." When she had to leave her room, she would put on a sweatshirt and cover her hair. Two months after that he got tired of everything and left the university. He decided to go home and reunite with his friends to devote himself to his music again.
In those years, Lil had problems with the law. On September 1, 2015, the artist was arrested at a shopping mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida for buying with fraudulent credit cards. He was released only after paying a $ 11,000 bail. According to Yachty, these accusations were later withdrawn.
After that, Lil Yachty met Hip Hop artist and producer Burberry Perry and K. Both became their collaborators and began working together in the room that Yachty had intended as their studio.
The rapper tasted the taste of success for the first time when OVO Sound Radio, whose owner is Drake, aired"Minnesota." Soon, producer Coach K began to handle it and began to work in the same record company of Atlanta in which the hip hop group Migos works.
But his big break came with the single"1Night"for which he filmed an incredible music video in the style of a parody. When the video was ready, Lil Yachty posted it on the Internet and sent it to all her New York contacts.
He quickly obtained a hundred retweets, then had five hundred, then a thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, a hundred thousand, and the numbers did not stop. Then he came to Facebook, where he got millions of likes.
From the Internet to the catwalk of Kanye West
After the hit single 1Night, Ian Connor, one of the artist's contacts in New York, connected him with another world: modeling.
Connor is not only a model, but also a fashion guru and one of the great influencers in social networks. Through it, Lil Yachty met rapper, producer and music video director ASAP Rocky, who decided to take the young rapper to the Kanye West Yeezy 3 collection parade at Madison Square Garden (New York) in February 2016.
From the moment she appeared on the runway, everyone started talking about Lil Yachty. And it is that everyone wondered who was that boy with a style so unique and with such an attitude that seemed to prove to be one of the most acclaimed models of the moment. But it was not a model, but an Atlanta rapper who was born to become a viral star.
Following that performance at the Kanye West Parade, Lil Yachty easily switched from viral video to becoming a rap superstar. Although not everyone may consider him the same.
And is that just like his eccentric hair, his arrival in the world of music has not been free of controversy. On one side there are people who adore him, who loves his different style and freshness. But on the other, there are those who do not think their style matches that of the"real"rappers.
The criticism that this artist receives points to several things. One of his crimes has been to say that The Notorious B.I.G is overrated, which is practically a sacrilege for any lover of the genre who was born before 1985.
In addition, his style of dress and his way of behaving do not seem to coincide with most known rappers.
Finally, the lyrics of their songs seem to lack substance. In fact, many have called them more like nursery rhymes than true verses.
Lil Boat and Summertime Songs 2, their first two mixtapes
In March 2016, Lil Yachty released her mixtape titled"Lil Boat"with support from Quality Control Music, Capitol Records and Motown. The collection includes young stars such as Thug, Skippa Da Flippa, Quavo, Big Brutha Chubba, Byou and Burberry Perry. In fact Perry was one of the producers of this work, along with other musicians like 1mind, Ducko McFli, Earl Bangs and Digital Nas.
Lil Yachty demonstrated with this work, her effort to bring her sound to a new level. Despite what many consider crazy vocal melodies, which even skim the parody, has been unleashed a success. "Lil Boat"has been downloaded more than 381,000 times in Spinrilla and over 111,000 times in Spotify (along with 581,000 stream views). In addition the 14 tracks of the mixtape have been heard at least 1,000,000 times in SoundCloud.
In July of 2016 the second mixtape of the artist was released known"Summer Songs 2". It was released exclusively for Apple Music and later on other streaming music services. The project of 14 songs includes cameos by several rappers such as Offset, Burberry Perry, Herb and Cook Laflare, among others.
Lil Yatchy has become a kind of soundtrack that represents a generation of rappers, called the generation Z. At the age of 19, Lil Yatchy is a product of this golden era of the Internet where stars are born online and Nothing or little have to do with the rappers of the old school. Is this then a new era for rap?
And that one of the reasons why so many criticize Lil Yatchy as rapper is that his influences on music do not really go through the great rappers. The artist can not name five songs either Notorious or Tupac. And not only that, but raps over the Rugrats, Mario Bros or Charlie Brown.
The lyrics of the rapper do not carry anything deep, but evoke a sense of youthful nostalgia that has caught many.
Keep Sailing, the documentary by Lil Yatchy
With the release of her second mixtape, Lil Yachty also premiered a documentary with FADER. In it, the artist tells his story before becoming famous. In addition, he relates particularly the story of how the bullying towards his hair and his style made him think that he wanted to become a celebrity.
The documentary begins with some guys talking about the rapper and what he has achieved at his young age. We can even see some girls saying how cute and handsome they look like the singer.
Within a few minutes we met the artist telling us that in his dream of being famous, he wanted to walk in red carpets and be in front of the cameras and under the spotlights.
Like the dream of many stars, he wanted to be known and remembered. And for the rapper the only way to succeed in life was through music. He confessed that with his hair he could not get a job and that he knew he was different from the rest. His mother described him as a very creative child and one especially good. I used to be in the back of the house doing"stuff"with friends. But that"thing"they did was music.
In this documentary Lil Yatchy told how miserable she felt in college. Many love their time as university students. They are a few years where everyone seems to have fun, but it was not so for the rapper. He failed to make friends and was criticized for where he went. He felt hurt but confessed that his hair would be the one that would lead him to where he wanted to go. So it was.
Lil Yatchy did not want a normal life. He wanted to be famous, and that was what drove him to work seriously in building his future in the world of music. Today, Lil Yachty and her music are part of what they are calling"Bubblegum Trap", a rap style with a retro touch.
This artist is basically a young boy who makes sticky music creating an emotive atmosphere. When listening to his songs, it is possible to feel flooded with all kinds of feelings, because it is a type of rap that seeks to create a mood of nostalgia and even sadness. However, the mix of sounds at the end ends up reflecting a kind of joy that infects everyone.
Lil Yatchy's music may not yet reach the level of what we hear on a Drake or Kendrick record. But what does have its music is a unique characteristic that seems to separate it from the rest. He is an artist who is based on three principles: genius, positivity and friendship. He may not be the best rapper of 2016 for many, but he has managed to create a unique world in the rap genre.