Rapper Lil Yachty released his newest album, ‘Let’s Start Here,’ on Jan. 27 to several music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. The album showcased a different side of Lil Yachty’s regular music by incorporating new features from R&B singer Daniel Caesar and mixed genres like alternative rap.

Lil Yachty became popular around 2016 and soon dominated both the rap and trap genre. His influence has grown significantly over the past years. One of his well known features in 2016 is in the song ‘Broccoli’ with DRAM, a known rapper during the 2016 era of music. After he became popular from the song, Lil Yachty began doing more than writing and started to produce his own music.

Lil Yachty has released 16 albums over the course of his rap career, including his newest album. This is his first solo album in two years, exciting many people waiting for the release. Last time he performed was at 2022 Rolling Loud where he released his single, ‘Poland.’

Lil Yachty has produced and written music for many influential celebrities throughout the past few years including Drake, Quavo and Migos. Some examples of Lil Yachty’s work are trendy songs such as ‘Act Up’ from City Girls and also written songs from Drake’s recent release of ‘Her Loss’ such as ‘Circo Loco’ and ‘Major Distribution.’

The cover art for the album shocked many listeners as it was quite different from any of his previous trap album covers. The cover art for ‘Let’s Start Here’ displayed numerous distorted faces of businessmen and women on the album. In the past, Lil Yachty would typically release albums or singles in the trap music category and alternative rap that would be cover art of himself. Before the release, many were already curious on how he would portray his versatility in this new experimental album.

Lil Yachty features very known artists such as Daniel Caesar, Foushee, Teezo Touchdown and Justine Skye. He utilizes these artists’ talent in diverse ways such as Daniel Caesar’s vocals and melodies which impacted the overall vibe the album gave. Seeing this trap artist experiment with his production skills shocked many loyal fans.

Lil Yachty goes by two alter egos, which are Lil Boat and Lil Yachty. Lil Boat is considered to be the more authentic and alternative version, while Lil Yachty is the underground trap version. These two alter egos contributed to the album as he switched back and forth with different music styles.

A fan favorite song on the album is ‘The Black Seminole,’ which also happens to be the introductory song to his album. This song also sets the tone of the album through its lyrics and melody. There are 14 songs on the album that display many authentic melodies.

Lil Yachty shocked many listeners as he surprised them with this alternative album. Since he is known for his trap albums, this stood out from this discography. Despite him being considered underrated in the rap game according to his streams and status compared to other rappers, he proved his talent by production, fluidity and lyricism.

This album was well structured and displayed vividly throughout the whole listening session. This also has personally surprised me and made me view other genres in music that related to this album. Yachty has once again exceeded the expectations of alternative rap by mixing several genres.