A stunningly bright purple light practically flashbanged me as I stared at the stage in anticipation. A synth hummed the same singular note as the screen towards the back of the stage flashed colors that looked like an infrared scanner. The stage goes black. An all-women band silently walks onto the stage. The synth grows louder. The black stage starts flashing a white light over and over. The synth slides up and down pitches while the lead vocalist, Lea Grace Swinson, riffs over the sound. It’s almost celestial, and it captures Lil Yachty’s new sound so well.
The band then launches into the first song of the set, and my personal favorite of Lil Yachty’s, “drive ME crazy!”. In fact, all of the first five songs were off of his latest album, Let’s Start Here. Those songs included: “the ride-”, “pRETTy”, “The Alchemist.”, “sHouLd i B?” and “sAy sOMETHINg”.
To call Let’s Start Here. an experimental album for Lil Yachty is an understatement. While primarily known for making iconic trap bangers, Let’s Start Here. is better described as a psychedelic rock album. He uses motifs similar to artists like Pink Floyd, with a mellow guitar and calmer drums. “drive ME crazy” is one of the most upbeat songs on the album, which makes it a worthy opener.
After playing a couple of songs from the album, the band performed a rendition of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” while Yachty went off stage for a bit. Although unexpected, the cover was a great take on one of Collins’ most popular songs.
The entire middle section of the concert included a ton of Yachty’s best hits. Following “In The Air Tonight” was “SOLO STEPPIN CRETE BOY”, “Slide”, “Split / Whole Time” and “Get Dripped”. The first two songs were singles released earlier this year, while “Split / Whole Time” dropped in 2020 and “Get Dripped” came out in 2018.
Then, Yachty silenced the crowd in remembrance of Juice WRLD, a close friend and collaborator of his who died back in 2019. He made sure to wait a while before the venue went completely quiet. After such a touching moment, he immediately launched into “Yacht Club”, which is his song with Juice WRLD. It’s considered one of his most popular hits, so the crowd understandably went nuts.
His next run of songs are among his most hype. With hits like “NBAYOUNGBOAT”, “Flex Up”, “Coffin” and “From the D to the A”, mosh pits were opening left and right. Some of the artists featured on these songs include NBA Youngboy, Future, Playboi Carti and Tee Grizzley. If you know anything about rap music in general, these names should stick out to you as trap legends, and for good reason. Armed with some talented feature artists on these songs, Yachty stepped up his performance a lot by bouncing around the stage like a madman to match the crowd’s energy.
This strategy worked well until he got back to some of his more mellow hits in songs like “Minnesota”, “Broccoli”, and “iSpy”. All three of these probably make the top five of Lil Yachty’s most popular songs, and some of my favorites too. The crowd was really feeling it by this point, and Yachty rode the momentum. He ended his string of rap songs with two more singles from this year: “Tesla” and “Strike (Holster)”, and lastly, “One Night”.
For the last portion of the set, Lil Yachty went back to songs off of the new album. “IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!”, “THE zone~”, and “WE SAW THE SUN” are all some of the most intense songs on Let’s Start Here. The band gave it their all in this final stretch, and Yachty’s vocals were some of the best in the entire show. The best performance of the entire night in my opinion was “the BLACK seminole.”
The seven-minute masterpiece started out with a quick drum fill before settling into a mellow guitar strum. The drums were relatively calm, and the vocals in the chorus had an echo that can only be described as ethereal. After another chorus and two verses, the band had a break as the guitarist, Quenequia Graves, launched into a solo. The guitar came down slowly after the solo, and eventually just the synth is left over. It builds back up just as slowly, and Yachty says, “Now.” The drums exploded as the vocals and synths came back alive all at once. The vocals in this second part of the song were banshee-esque, but still beautiful nonetheless. The song finishes on an epic crescendo with a momentous drum fill with the vocals at their strongest peak. You could definitely say the same about the concert itself.
After the grand finale and the lights came up on Oakdale Theater, I was frankly, shellshocked. Lil Yachty’s showmanship is unparalleled when it comes to pretty much every other live show I’ve ever seen. His versatility in his music is unmatched. How many artists can you name that have spent a career in hip hop only to dip their toes into psychedelic rock? Especially exploring a genre that’s been considered nearly dead for 40 years? Lil Yachty may be written off by many, and understandably so, if the only songs you’ve heard are “Poland” or “Minnesota”. But take some time to get to know him, and you’ll find a true artist hidden under the rough.
