Steve 'Flash' JuonEven though it’s not in the best interest of my mental health, I keep giving Lil Yachty the benefit of the doubt. I’m not a fan of whatever he calls rapping because when I hear it the lyrics are banal, crass, repetitive, or all of the above. “Let’s Start Here” intrigued me because by his own admission this is NOT a rap album. Maybe that’s a good start — pun intended? If I have no respect for you as an emcee, maybe it’s time to stop being one and give something else a try. This is a project where Miles Parks McCollum decided to let his freak flag fly, and on songs like “Running Out of Time,” that results in him sounding like Pharrell musically AND lyrically.
It’s not like Lil Yachty suddenly became a great poet. The captain of this boat never treads the deep waters. “If I told you all of my secrets, baby girl, would you look in my eyes and feel deceived? Well, I can’t let you leave, I told you far too much – now you gotta stick with me.” He’s not become a better human being here. He’s still deeply misogynistic and manipulative, giving his partner no agency in their relationship, but it still gets a candy coating from his crooning and the production. Some combination of Wimberly, Justin Raisen and SadPony can be found on almost any track and they work hard to capture that bubblegum pop feel that Pharrell knows so well.
“Say Something” is a perfect example. Please note that throughout this album Yachty randomly capitalizes letters in song titles, or puts them in ALL CAPS or no caps whenever he feels like it. For my own sake and for yours I’m sticking to a more traditional way of typing them, but I do appreciate that Yachty eschews his own traditions here. “We should run away, just me and you/think of all the things that we could do.” That almost sounds like he’s sincere, and in the music video, even the woman that he’s with doesn’t trust those motives 100%. When an artist understands his own meta-narrative that well I’ve got to congratulate them for it.
“I’m so far gone/can you take me back home?” croons Yachty on “The Zone.” I’m a cynical fuck and I’m trying not to be won over by this Mr. Williams-esque persona, but the tracks are slicker than grease and he’s really putting himself out on a limb singing the way he does. Sometimes Justine Skye joins him on the tracks to provide a net if he falls, and with her addition here the track is a genuine bop. Damn it Yachty, you win, I like this. What he lacks in maturity or profundity is well masked by toning down the more aggressively unlikable aspects of his rapping. As an aspiring pop performer songs like “Paint the Sky” actually make sense. I wouldn’t turn up my nose at this one on a “Spider-Verse” soundtrack.
Two years ago a lot of publications picked “Let’s Start Here” for their “Best of 2023” lists. I didn’t them and I’m not going to now retrospectively. A cotton candy Lil Yachty is still Lil Yachty, even though the taste is far less acidic and unappealing. As I understand it he plans to switch back and forth between “rap” and “non-rap” albums for the rest of his career. If that’s the case then I can plan to check out at least half of his work with optimism instead of pessimism. He can’t quite win me over to thinking he’s an all time great pop music singer, because he doesn’t have the vocal range or resonance of a Sting or a Mariah Carey, but he’s far better at this than rapping. I’ll give him his flowers for it.