Does Yeat Finally Have Competition?

Unless you have been living under a rock you probably have heard of the up-and-coming rapper, Yeat. The name Yeat should be instantly recognizable but if it is not then you have probably at least heard one of his songs on the app TikTok. Today I will be sharing with you all why Yeat is the next up on the charts and why he is also very unique despite is potential mainstream appeal. Yeat has recently released a new album called AfterLyfe which received a 7 out of 10 from the most popular music critic on the internet,

Anthony Fantano. Despite this music review being very positive, some previous reviews that Anthony Fantano has given Yeat are not as positive as the reviews for Lyfe or 2 Alive which both received a 4 out of 10. I do not agree with Anthony Fantano’s thoughts on Yeats older projects since he had not seen the potential and the ability that Yeat has which is not so obvious on first listen. It is very easy to be blinded by the fact that Yeats Lyrics don’t make any sense but if you focus and pay less attention to the lyrics which is not the focus of the genre you will notice how different and catchy Yeats music is. Yeat is super unique in the rage genre, a sub-genre of hip hop that has so many artists that sound the same as they have a common influence being Playboi Carty. Even though Yeat has clear influence from Playboi Carty he has found his sound and remained an instantly recognizable artist in a genre of clones. I will be sharing some songs to explain why Yeat is so good at what he does and will be a big influence on an already high demand genre.

Yeats Latest album shows a lot of artistic growth from Yeat expanding the limits within his own comfort zone. He continues making the same music he always did but is sounding better and better with every release. Stand out songs on Yeats latest album Afterlyfe are Split, Slamm, Now, and Bettr Off. Split is the Most Playboi Carty influence noticeable on the album but is still a banger as Yeat puts his own spin on it making it an obviously influential but unique song. The Song Slam is another banger of a song and screams out Yeat as it is one of the few songs on Yeats new album that features the hard-hitting Bells in the background of the song.  The song Now is one of Yeats most experimental songs as it uses the chipmunk sounding voice singing along with his own voice making a weird effect on the chorus of the song and sounding super trippy. Bettr Off is one of my favorite songs off of the new album which plays the same role the song Out the way off of the album Lyfe as both of these songs are very hypnotic melodic and chill songs.

One of my favorite Yeat albums if not my favorite is 2 Alive which has Yeat finally finding his sound and making back-to-back bangers some of which are Poppin, Nvr again, Jus better, and Rollin. Poppin was a hit on the social media platform Tik Tok and for good reason the song is the into to the album and is a perfect example of how Yeat can make any strange sounds sound fire as the song features al these robotic and alien type sounds that with Yeats autotune drenched adlib vocals that can reach unspeakable limits. The song Nvr again is really grimy and sounds like a beat that Playboi Carty would use but as always Yeat can pretty much use any sound and make it sound like his own because although this song has a lot of aspects that sound like Playboi Carty Yeat makes it sound like completely new and fresh ideas and I have no doubt that they are. Jus better is probably Yeats best song out of his discography in my opinion. Jus better is the perfect example of why Yeat is so good at what he does, the beat selection is good the adlibs are good the bells in the background bring so much energy to the song and Yeat reaches vocal ranges so much higher than so many other rappers. Rollin is a song that shows the humor that Yeat adds to his songs every once in a while, because throughout the middle of the song you may not catch it first listen, but he just stops saying actual lyrics and just starts making random sounds fooling all of his listeners and certainly getting a laugh out if it. Overall Yeat is a very amazing rapper and is changing the genre in a positive way with his music.

“Yeat is this generation’s Kanye West and will be puttin up numbers like Drake with ease.” Says Lafayette Junior Blake Harding who is an avid music enjoyer with strong connections to Yeats music and a longtime fan.

Yeats albums have been receiving positive reviews other than just for his hits, “lyfe” and “2 alive” both have good things said about them by Pitchfork. Now about his songs, “Monëy so big” one of his most played songs off his debut album described by AllMusic as “bending melodic hooks into distorted bleats on the fast-switching flows” the song’s lyrics are silly in nature but super catchy making him super popular another popular song “Out thë way” an electric beat that Yeat raps over making it to almost one hundred million plays. Kieran Press-Reynolds of Pitchfork described that in the song, “Yeat wrenches out dino burps and evil Peppa pig honks over a beat so squiggly it’s like he’s in front of you doing a goofy little dance.” For the song “Talk” Kieran Press-Reynolds of Pitchfork wrote “Police sirens set a frantic scene, and then a shrieking synth catapults Yeat’s flexes into the sky: “Head #1 up on these charts, we stuck or what?” Mangled background vocals creep like demonic backup singers shadowing Yeat’s steady voice. Barely any other major label rap production in 2022 sounds as unhinged and off-kilter as this.”

Noah Olivier Smith also known as “Yeat” is a rapper who started making music in 2015

under the name “Lil Yeat”. He started out as a very underground rapper who was trying his shot in the underground music scene. He gained popularity in mid-2021 on TikTok and other online platforms with the many off his album “Up 2 Me” and growing online at a rapid pace rarely seen before. Releasing a song for the movie Minions: Rise of Gru, a music video for it and spawning a trend to go see the movie in formal attire. Yeat has a varied unique sound and strong beats in his songs. I would not call him a lyrical genius, but his music is for listing to loudly and creating hype with no particular musical genre other than rap and trap. For the three years he has been making music, he has released a lot of music and most of his projects have long run times for rap albums. Leading me to believe his music making drive is his love for music, and the passion behind his music. For an underground rapper he has very approachable discography a lot of people will hear him on TikTok and search out more of his music leading to him growing in popularity, having more than 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify as of March 2023.