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The Guys Behind Chillin’ Island tell Lil Yachty to Eat His Vegetables

By chillin' island, december 27, 2021.

HBO’s Chillin’ Island , is hard to describe. Produced by the Safdie Brothers, the series is part reality TV, part magic realism—a beautifully shot foray into America’s great outdoors punctuated by meaningless conversations and endearing appearances from stars like Young Thug and Lil Yachty. Born from a radio show of the same, the series is hosted by a trio of underground New York-based rappers and comedians known for coaxing celebrities into revealing unseen sides of themselves through mundane conversations. Now that they’re in front of the camera,  Alec “Despot” Reinstein, Ashok “Dap” Kondabolu, and Aleksey “Lakutis” Weintraub  have become stunt-men, adapting their dead-pan humor for the screen by flipping dune buggies and munching on exotic creatures. To celebrate, the boys caught up with Lil’ Yachty over Zoom to talk about the importance of eating vegetables, and how to be fearless in the face of death.—TAYLORE SCARABELLI

LIL YACHTY: Hello? 

ALEKSEY “LAKUTIS” WEINTRAUB: Hi. What’s up?

YACHTY:  Just chilling on my way to pick up this chain.

ALEC “DESPOT” REINSTEIN: What kind of chain is it?

YACHTY: It’s like a construction man. A big construction man.

WEINTRAUB: Is it Bob the Builder?

REINSTEIN: I feel like we should talk about the show a little.  I think that’s what they want us to talk about, but we’ll talk about other stuff, too. I’m gonna start with the one thing that I wanted to delve deeper into when we were in the swamp, which is your diet. 

WEINTRAUB: Glad you brought that up.

REINSTEIN: You like chicken nuggets, but you don’t really fuck with, like, a whole chicken, only some of the parts.

YACHTY: What parts am I supposed to be eating that I don’t eat? 

REINSTEIN: You say you don’t eat vegetables, right?

WEINTRAUB: You gotta eat them because of the vitamins. You’re a young man, but eventually it’s gonna catch up to you.

REINSTEIN: I’m not trying to yell at you. I wanna know what you eat. Do you like chicken sandwiches? 

YACHTY: Chicken wings.

WEINTRAUB: See, that’s a whole part of the chicken.

YACHTY: Yeah. I didn’t eat wings when I went on the show. I just had wings this year.

REINSTEIN: What’d you think?

YACHTY: Crazy.

WEINTRAUB: Would you eat vegetables if we were there with you and we coached you through it?

YACHTY: Absolutely not. 

REINSTEIN: Not even a fun vegetable? Broccoli is fun.

WEINTRAUB: That’s the one that people are the most scared of. 

YACHTY: Broccoli stinks.

WEINTRAUB: If you were going to eat one vegetable, what would it be? Gun to your head.

YACHTY: Maybe like a small leaf. 

WEINTRAUB: Which one of us do you think will be the first to die? 

YACHTY: Probably Despot. Unfortunately.

REINSTEIN: Why me?

YACHTY: I feel like you live the most exciting life. Those two don’t do anything.

REINSTEIN: That might be true. I’m more of a risk taker. 

YACHTY: I mean you out here thuggin’.

REINSTEIN: I’m also not very scared of dying. 

YACHTY: I don’t think you should be. I’m not. I don’t think about it at all. I live in the moment.

REINSTEIN: Did you think we were gonna die when we were filming? 

YACHTY: Absolutely not. I wish. Imagine how much money my family would’ve made if I died in HBO’s hands.

REINSTEIN: Do you think you ever experienced anything like death? 

YACHTY: No. I also don’t wanna have a near-death experience. I either want to die or not die. I don’t wanna almost die. 

REINSTEIN: What about DMT? Certain drugs are supposed to take you there. You can experience death and then just come back.

YACHTY: Yeah. But see DMT is DMT. It don’t fuckin’ hurt. 

WEINTRAUB: If you had to kill one of us who would it be? 

REINSTEIN: Who would be the easiest to kill? 

WEINTRAUB: It’s up to him to factor all those things in which would be the easiest, which would be the most fun. Who would taste the best.

YACHTY: I would have to eat y’all? 

WEINTRAUB: Yeah. One of us. 

YACHTY: If I had to like to eat one of y’all Dap would probably taste the best. 

ASHOK “DAP” KONDABOLU : Because I’m a seasoned Indian man.

REINSTEIN: He’s spicy. Another thing you said in the episode is that you don’t believe in modern medicine, and that you think that everyone’s living too long and overcrowding the world. 

KONDABOLU : Has COVID changed your mind about modern medicine?

YACHTY: Medicine can’t treat COVID. It has to run its course through your blood cells. You’re gonna lose or you gonna win. Strong ones survive.

KONDABOLU : What does winning look like?

YACHTY:  Winning looks like me. 

REINSTEIN: Do you have any experience with Eastern medicine? Like with herbs and stuff like that?

YACHTY: Nah, that’s too close to vegetables. Yo guys, I’m calling it. I’m gonna have the biggest episode on the show. 

REINSTEIN: I think you might be right, but you haven’t seen the other ones. 

YACHTY: I haven’t, but I know I’m the funniest one out of everyone who was on there. 

KONDABOLU : Do you pride yourself on your sense of humor? 

YACHTY: Yeah. I’m hilarious.

WEINTRAUB: What if you don’t get the biggest show? You eat a leaf of my choosing?

YACHTY: Nah.

KONDABOLU : How long have you known that you were an entertaining boy?

YACHTY: I found out I was really entertaining when I started doing music, and when I started doing interviews. I’m the same person I’ve always been. But then I started seeing how un-entertaining other artists are… 

REINSTEIN: A lot of famous people don’t have a personality. It has become our job to extract personality from famous people. And sometimes it’s very challenging, but with you it’s easy.

WEINTRAUB: Yeah, you’re not a challenge in that regard.

REINSTEIN: It’s just hard to get you to eat vegetables.

YACHTY: Yeah. Or fruit. 

REINSTEIN: Do you have a lot of prior experience in the great outdoors? Or was that all new for you? 

YACHTY: I went camping one time with my dad when I was like 8 years old. I said I would never go back again.

REINSTEIN: Did you feel comfortable being in the wilderness with us? 

YACHTY: Absolutely not, but we didn’t have to stay overnight.

WEINTRAUB: Are you still upset about us clowning you for liking Pink Floyd?

YACHTY: Pink Floyd is the best band of all time. I know y’all know. 

KONDABOLU : They’re an acceptable band. There are worse bands than Pink Floyd. 

WEINTRAUB: I  don’t like them at all. 

REINSTEIN: Do you think you think people from New York are as good at being in the great outdoors as people from Atlanta? Or better?

YACHTY: I wouldn’t say Atlanta but people in Georgia are better. People in New York don’t fuck with people in Georgia when it comes to survival skills. 

WEINTRAUB: You guys are more hick-y. You guys are hick-y-dickies. You know what it is to survive. 

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Lil Yachty On His Big Rock Pivot: ‘F-ck Any of the Albums I Dropped Before This One’

With his adventurous, psychedelic new album, 'Let's Start Here,' he's left mumble rap behind — and finally created a project he's proud of.

By Lyndsey Havens

Lyndsey Havens

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Lil Yachty, presented by Doritos, will perform at Billboard Presents The Stage at SXSW on March 16 .

Lil Yachty: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

Someone has sparked a blunt in the planetarium.

It may be a school night, but no one has come to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J., to learn. Instead, the hundreds of fans packed into the domed theater on Jan. 26 have come to hear Lil Yachty’s latest album as he intended: straight through — and with an open mind. Or, as Yachty says with a mischievous smile: “I hope y’all took some sh-t.”

For the next 57 minutes and 16 seconds, graphics of exploding spaceships, green giraffes and a quiet road through Joshua Tree National Park accompany Yachty’s sonically divergent — and at this point, unreleased — fifth album, Let’s Start Here . For a psychedelic rock project that plays like one long song, the visual aids not only help attendees embrace the bizarre, but also function as a road map for Yachty’s far-out trip, signaling that there is, in fact, a tracklist.

It’s a night the artist has arguably been waiting for his whole career — to finally release an album he feels proud of. An album that was, he says, made “from scratch” with all live instrumentation. An album that opens with a nearly seven-minute opus, “the BLACK seminole.,” that he claims he had to fight most of his collaborative team to keep as one, not two songs. An album that, unlike his others, has few features and is instead rich with co-writers like Mac DeMarco, Nick Hakim, Alex G and members of MGMT, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Chairlift. An album he believes will finally earn him the respect and recognition he has always sought.

Sitting in a Brooklyn studio in East Williamsburg not far from where he made most of Let’s Start Here in neighboring Greenpoint, it’s clear he has been waiting to talk about this project in depth for some time. Yachty is an open book, willing to answer anything — and share any opinion. (Especially on the slice of pizza he has been brought, which he declares “tastes like ass.”) Perhaps his most controversial take at the moment? “F-ck any of the albums I dropped before this one.”

His desire to move on from his past is understandable. When Yachty entered the industry in his mid-teens with his 2016 major-label debut, the Lil Boat mixtape, featuring the breakout hit “One Night,” he found that along with fame came sailing the internet’s choppy waters. Skeptics often took him to task for not knowing — or caring, maybe — about rap’s roots, and he never shied away from sharing hot takes on Twitter. With his willingness and ability to straddle pop and hip-hop, Yachty produced music he once called “bubble-gum trap” (he has since denounced that phrase) that polarized audiences and critics. Meanwhile, his nonchalant delivery got him labeled as a mumble rapper — another identifier he was never fond of because it felt dismissive of his talent.

“There’s a lot of kids who haven’t heard any of my references,” he continues. “They don’t know anything about Bon Iver or Pink Floyd or Black Sabbath or James Brown. I wanted to show people a different side of me — and that I can do anything, most importantly.”

Let’s Start Here is proof. Growing up in Atlanta, the artist born Miles McCollum was heavily influenced by his father, a photographer who introduced him to all kinds of sounds. Yachty, once easily identifiable by his bright red braids, found early success by posting songs like “One Night” to SoundCloud, catching the attention of Kevin “Coach K” Lee, co-founder/COO of Quality Control Music, now home to Migos, Lil Baby and City Girls. In 2015, Coach K began managing Yachty, who in summer 2016 signed a joint-venture deal with Motown, Capitol Records and Quality Control.

“Yachty was me when I was 18 years old, when I signed him. He was actually me,” says Coach K today. (In 2021, Adam Kluger, whose clients include Bhad Bhabie, began co-managing Yachty.) “All the eclectic, different things, we shared that with each other. He had been wanting to make this album from the first day we signed him. But you know — coming as a hip-hop artist, you have to play the game.”

Yachty played it well. To date, he has charted 17 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 , including two top 10 hits for his features on DRAM’s melodic 2016 smash “Broccoli” and Kyle’s 2017 pop-rap track “iSpy.” His third-highest-charting entry arrived unexpectedly last year: the 93-second “Poland,” a track Yachty recorded in about 10 minutes where his warbly vocals more closely resemble singing than rapping. ( Let’s Start Here collaborator SADPONY saw “Poland” as a temperature check that proved “people are going to like this Yachty.”)

Beginning with 2016’s Lil Boat mixtape, all eight of Yachty’s major-label-released albums and mixtapes have charted on the Billboard 200 . Three have entered the top 10, including Let’s Start Here , which debuted and peaked at No. 9. And while Yachty has only scored one No. 1 album before ( Teenage Emotions topped Rap Album Sales), Let’s Start Here debuted atop three genre charts: Top Rock & Alternative Albums , Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums .

“It feels good to know that people in that world received this so well,” says Motown Records vp of A&R Gelareh Rouzbehani. “I think it’s a testament to Yachty going in and saying, ‘F-ck what everyone thinks. I’m going to create something that I’ve always wanted to make — and let us hope the world f-cking loves it.’ ”

Yet despite Let’s Start Here ’s many high-profile supporters, some longtime detractors and fans alike were quick to criticize certain aspects of it, from its art — Yachty quote-tweeted one remark , succinctly replying, “shut up” — to the music itself. Once again, he found himself facing another tidal wave of discourse. But this time, he was ready to ride it. “This release,” Kluger says, “gave him a lot of confidence.”

“I was always kind of nervous to put out music, but now I’m on some other sh-t,” Yachty says. “It was a lot of self-assessing and being very real about not being happy with where I was musically, knowing I’m better than where I am. Because the sh-t I was making did not add up to the sh-t I listened to.

“I just wanted more,” he continues. “I want to be remembered. I want to be respected.”

Last spring, Lil Yachty gathered his family, collaborators and team at famed Texas studio complex Sonic Ranch.

“I remember I got there at night and drove down because this place is like 30 miles outside El Paso,” Coach K says. “I walked in the room and just saw all these instruments and sh-t, and the vibe was just so ill. And I just started smiling. All the producers were in the room, his assistant, his dad. Yachty comes in, puts the album on. We got to the second song, and I told everybody, ‘Stop the music.’ I walked over to him and just said, ‘Man, give me a hug.’ I was like, ‘Yachty, I am so proud of you.’ He came into the game bold, but [to make] this album, you have to be very bold. And to know that he finally did it, it was overwhelming.”

SADPONY (aka Jeremiah Raisen) — who executive-produced Let’s Start Here and, in doing so, spent nearly eight straight months with Yachty — says the time at Sonic Ranch was the perfect way to cap off the months of tunnel vision required while making the album in Brooklyn. “That was new alone,” says Yachty. “I’ve recorded every album in Atlanta at [Quality Control]. That was the first time I recorded away from home. First time I recorded with a new engineer,” Miles B.A. Robinson, a Saddle Creek artist.

Yachty couldn’t wait to put it out, and says he turned it in “a long time ago. I think it was just label sh-t and trying to figure out the right time to release it.” For Coach K, it was imperative to have the physical product ready on release date, given that Yachty had made “an experience” of an album. And lately, most pressing plants have an average turnaround time of six to eight months.

Fans, however, were impatient. On Christmas, one month before Let’s Start Here would arrive, the album leaked online. It was dubbed Sonic Ranch . “Everyone was home with their families, so no one could pull it off the internet,” recalls Yachty. “That was really depressing and frustrating.”

Then, weeks later, the album art, tracklist and release date also leaked. “My label made a mistake and sent preorders to Amazon too early, and [the site] posted it,” Yachty says. “So I wasn’t able to do the actual rollout for my album that I wanted to. Nothing was a secret anymore. It was all out. I had a whole plan that I had to cancel.” He says the biggest loss was various videos he made to introduce and contextualize the project, all of which “were really weird … [But] I wasn’t introducing it anymore. People already knew.” Only one, called “Department of Mental Tranquility,” made it out, just days before the album.

Yachty says he wasn’t necessarily seeking a mental escape before making Let’s Start Here , but confesses that acid gave him one anyway. “I guess maybe the music went along with it,” he says. The album title changed four or five times, he says, from Momentary Bliss (“It was meant to take you away from reality … where you’re truly listening”) to 180 Degrees (“Because it’s the complete opposite of anything I’ve ever done, but people were like, ‘It’s too on the nose’ ”) to, ultimately, Let’s Start Here — the best way, he decided, to succinctly summarize where he was as an artist: a seven-year veteran, but at 25 years old, still eager to begin a new chapter.

Taking inspiration from Dark Side , Yachty relied on three women’s voices throughout the album, enlisting Fousheé, Justine Skye and Diana Gordon. Otherwise, guest vocals are spare. Daniel Caesar features on album closer “Reach the Sunshine.,” while the late Bob Ross (of The Joy of Painting fame) has a historic posthumous feature on “We Saw the Sun!”

Rouzbehani tells Billboard that Ross’ estate declined Yachty’s request at first: “I think a big concern of theirs was that Yachty is known as a rapper, and Bob Ross and his brand are very clean. They didn’t want to associate with anything explicit.” But Yachty was adamant, and Rouzbehani played the track for Ross’ team and also sent the entire album’s lyrics to set the group at ease. “With a lot of back-and-forth, we got the call,” she says. “Yachty is the first artist that has gotten a Bob Ross clearance in history.”

From the start, Coach K believed Let’s Start Here would open lots of doors for Yachty — and ultimately, other artists, too. Questlove may have said it best, posting the album art on Instagram with a lengthy caption that read in part: “this lp might be the most surprising transition of any music career I’ve witnessed in a min, especially under the umbrella of hip hop … Sh-t like this (envelope pushing) got me hyped about music’s future.”

Recently, Lil Yachty held auditions for an all-women touring band. “It was an experience for like Simon Cowell or Randy [Jackson],” he says, offering a simple explanation for the choice: “In my life, women are superheroes.”

And according to Yachty, pulling off his show will take superhuman strength: “Because the show has to match the album. It has to be big.” As eager as he was to release Let’s Start Here , he’s even more antsy to perform it live — but planning a tour, he says, required gauging the reaction to it. “This is so new for me, and to be quite honest with you, the label [didn’t] know how [the album] would do,” he says. “Also, I haven’t dropped an album in like three years. So we don’t even know how to plan a tour right now because it has been so long and my music is so different.”

While Yachty’s last full-length studio album, Lil Boat 3 , arrived in 2020, he released the Michigan Boy Boat mixtape in 2021, a project as reverential of the state’s flourishing hip-hop scenes in Detroit and Flint as Let’s Start Here is of its psych-rock touchstones. And though he claims he doesn’t do much with his days, his recent accomplishments, both musical and beyond, suggest otherwise. He launched his own cryptocurrency, YachtyCoin, at the end of 2020; signed his first artist, Draft Day, to his Concrete Boyz label at the start of 2021; invested in the Jewish dating app Lox Club; and launched his own line of frozen pizza, Yachty’s Pizzeria, last September. (He has famously declared he has never eaten a vegetable; at his Jersey City listening event, there was an abundance of candy, doughnut holes and Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts.)

But there are only two things that seem to remotely excite him, first and foremost of which is being a father. As proud as he is of Let’s Start Here , he says it comes in second to having his now 1-year-old daughter — though he says with a laugh that she “doesn’t really give a f-ck” about his music yet. “I haven’t played [this album] for her, but her mom plays her my old stuff,” he continues. “The mother of my child is Dominican and Puerto Rican, so she loves Selena — she plays her a lot . [We watch] the Selena movie with Jennifer Lopez a sh-t ton and a lot of Disney movie sh-t, like Frozen , Lion King and that type of vibe.”

Aside from being a dad, he most cares about working with other artists. Recently, he flew eight of his biggest fans — most of whom he has kept in touch with for years — to Atlanta. He had them over, played Let’s Start Here , took them to dinner and bowling, introduced them to his mom and dad, and then showed them a documentary he made for the album. (He’s not sure if he’ll release it.) One of the fans is an aspiring rapper; naturally, the two made a song together.

Yachty wants to keep working with artists and producers outside of hip-hop, mentioning the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and even sharing his dream of writing a ballad for Elton John. (“I know I could write him a beautiful song.”) With South Korean music company HYBE’s recent purchase of Quality Control — a $300 million deal — Yachty’s realm of possibility is bigger than ever.

But he’s not ruling out his genre roots. Arguably, Let’s Start Here was made for the peers and heroes he played it for first — and was inspired by hip-hop’s chameleons. “I would love to do a project with Tyler [The Creator],” says Yachty. “He’s the reason I made this album. He’s the one who told me to do it, just go for it. He’s so confident and I have so much respect for him because he takes me seriously, and he always has.”

Penske Media Corp. is the largest shareholder of SXSW ; its brands are official media partners of SXSW.

This story originally appeared in the March 11, 2023, issue of Billboard.

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“I hate being alone. That’s why I like being with my friends: we’ve got energy, we’re social as hell. I’m not 30 or anything — I’m 19.”

It was early June when Lil Yachty said this to my face, the two of us finally finding solitude in his Midtown Manhattan hotel room, moments after he took a FaceTime about an $80,000 watch and just two months since I turned 30. I alerted him to my age, and we both laughed at this mildly awkward moment.

When he said he hated being alone, he wasn’t lying. I had trailed him for the past four days in Los Angeles — in cars, hotels, radio stations, restaurants, recording studios, television studios, and retail stores — always in the company of others. Though I was never able to get him alone during this West Coast stretch, I did leave L.A. understanding his likes and dislikes. If I were ever charged with outfitting his green room, I’d know not to get weed and liquor but Domino’s, soda, and Fruit by the Foot.

I’d seen him be exceedingly polite to his elders, laugh at offensive jokes, talk about girls with the moxy of a kid that just made Varsity, handle business in a manner well beyond his years, and yell at his father over the phone, repeating the phrases “I’m not a child” and “You’re treating me like I’m 12,” the argument lasting for so long that the Beats 1 staff was in a literal standstill, wondering if he’d ever hang up the phone and talk to Zane Lowe.

That uninhibited earnestness, blissful ignorance, and ever-connectedness to the grid makes sense for someone who named his debut album Teenage Emotion , then just a few days from being released. It’s an exhausting, almost campaign-like undertaking — to be the teen. But he’s also almost done. In August, his tour of duty concludes. Lil Yachty turns 20.

Buy the Lil Yachty issue of The FADER , and order a poster of the cover here .

Achieving fame for your movement as much as for your music is, to many, suspicious. Red flags are often raised when the public can’t figure out what they’re being sold, if this new, different thing is real or a joke, if an artist cares about their craft or is trolling for stardom simply because they can. Years ago, when Donald Glover — then just a successful comedian — introduced the world to Childish Gambino , a die-hard fanbase emerged, as did an equally large contingent of haters and skeptics. Some people just didn’t like the music, from his voice to his subject matter, but most of the distrust was due to the assumption that this was nothing more than a vanity project. And when that happens in hip-hop, a notoriously proud universe, it’s often frowned upon.

In the past year, Lil Yachty has been an easy target for those who simply can’t figure him out. While speaking to Zane Lowe, he went on about the music he likes and his inspirations, a list that, seen through a cynical lens, may be random for the sake of being random and, through another, completely understandable. In a matter of minutes, he brought up Nelly and Tim McGraw’s “Over and Over Again,” Baby Bash, “Can You Stand the Rain” by New Edition, Slipknot, Gambino, and Fall Out Boy. When he got to Kid Cudi, he slowed down. Phrases he used to describe his love for Cudi included “relatable for emotional people,” “pioneer,” “dream journeys,” “dope sense of style,” “guardian angel,” and “tour guide.” These are the influences of a rapper who infamously said he couldn’t name five songs by Biggie or Tupac, then doubled down by calling Biggie “overrated.”

Both Funkmaster Flex and Joe Budden — hip hop’s current Statler and Waldorf — have taken issue with Yachty’s way of approaching life, Flex referring to him as a “mumble rapper” and Budden calling shenanigans on Yachty’s incessant positivity. For Budden, a man currently having a career resurgence purely off the strength of being a curmudgeon, Yachty was the perfect target. Unfortunately, it’s hard to win a shouting match against someone who won’t shout back. When Budden brought Yachty on his Everyday Struggle web show and said, “You can’t tell me you wake up every day happy 24/7, because to say that you are lying,” Yachty responded with a soft seriousness: “When you come from living in a dorm room with no clothes, no girls, no cars, and then you go to having three cars, girls, and money, you can’t help but be genuinely happy that things are moving in a positive direction.” As for his response to Funk Flex, a man almost 30 years his senior, Yachty said on Instagram: “I’m just enjoying life countin’ up my change. None of this is that serious to me. Take a chill pill my guy.”

It’s a masterful, near-political dismantling of the old heads, just another thing that makes Yachty a heroic figure to many of his teenage peers and a thorn in the side of many of his rap elders. He is his own spin room, polling phenomenally in his district, even while outside detractors continue to get louder.

Still, inquiries into whether or not it’s all a schtick aren’t without warrant. And the more you keep digging, with the young rapper constantly providing reasons for you to question the seriousness of his professional existence, the more you’re forced to realize that the teens have changed the rules, and the easiest way to get left behind is to get hung up on reality.

Atlanta, Georgia, hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996. A year later, Lil Yachty was born Miles McCollum in Mableton, a northside suburb. He grew up mainly with his mother, but he remembers his father, a prominent hip-hop photographer, playing J Dilla in the house, and fondly calls back the first tape he ever owned: Kris Kross. Yachty’s upbringing was polar, some moments highly relatable, others not even close. While at Pebblebrook High School, his mother made him cut his hair — then long black braids — so he could get a job at McDonald’s. After his tenure of mopping floors began, however, everyone around him started to colorfully style their hair. The result: the Yachty that visually stands out from the pack, his signature mop of red braids now famously adorned with beads that chandelier on his face. At the start of the summer of 2015, he moved himself to New York City, doing what so many others do — trying to get noticed. By August, he was back down South, arrested for credit card fraud.

The arrest proved to be a hurdle, but in no way a roadblock. His ability to make connections proved to be his truest early skill. By February of 2016, his public existence of a few songs, a look, and an Instagram account made it to Kanye West, who put him in his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show. In March, he put out his debut mixtape, Lil Boat, which included the breakthrough hit “Minnesota.” In April, he contributed the catchy opening verse to the D.R.A.M. song “Broccoli,” a radio mainstay. In May, he released the video for “1 NIGHT,” which is like rolling Tumblr, MGMT, Lisa Frank, and Montauk into four minutes of film. That same month, he appeared on Chance The Rapper’s critically adored Coloring Book . Like that, Yachty had arrived — a snowball effect of success.

In June, he did his first interview on New York City’s famed Hot 97, in which many of his ongoing conversation tropes appear: explaining the youth, discussing fans online, debating old vs. new rap, and talking about how much money he’s made in a relatively short amount of time. “Yachty’s always gotten it,” Hot 97 personality Peter Rosenberg told me. “We had to have the old heads conversation, but we liked him personally. He’s wise beyond his years for sure.”

As 2016 trucked along, he made the XXL Freshman list and signed with Quality Control Records, the home of then-rapidly rising trio Migos . By October, Yachty was in a Sprite commercial with LeBron James. Once caught scamming, he was now in a very real position to not only pay for things, but to provide. Yachty, truly a mama’s boy, routinely acknowledges how he “over-spoils” his mother. But it’s clear how much he loves her, and the feeling is mutual. When I was sitting with one of Yachty’s publicists during a photoshoot in New York, she showed me a text from “Mama Boat.” It was a lengthy Flipagram slideshow she made of photos of her son as a child: class pictures, mother-and-son shots, the requisite naked baby photos. It went on for so long I thought I’d blinked and it was actually on a loop. But no. It was still going. Because moms.

Talking about the cuteness of little Lil Yachty was a far cry from how we began. I’d met him for the first time a week earlier, on a Tuesday morning at Los Angeles’s Power 106 radio station, before he was slated to be a guest on The Cruz Show . Within seconds, I was already confused. I extended my hand for a shake and Yachty, his assistant, Nick, and his security, Twan, all opted for the pound. As I followed them into the green room, the three passed around hand sanitizer. None of them had even looked me in the eyes. The first thing I wrote down: “brats.”

The exception was Yachty’s manager, Kevin “Coach K” Lee. Seeing Coach, I lost interest in Yachty. Atlanta is a big city, but damn near microscopic when you have two black people of a certain age both intertwined with the city’s music landscape. Within minutes, our name game had gotten lengthy, and in the green room both Coach and I FaceTimed a mutual friend, DJ Speakerfoxxx. As Coach ended the call, I looked up — Yachty had a different expression for me. Knowing Coach had garnered me a brief smile.

Wiping it quickly away, he found a marker and began writing on a nearby dry-erase board. As a guy from the station came to alert him that it was time to begin, Yachty left a message, seemingly to no one in the room.

“Shout out 2 the vegans.”

I hung back for a second and stared at the board. Yes, this was weird. It felt like I was being baited by a manufactured faux-savant. But it also felt oddly familiar.

Finally entering the studio, Yachty sat in a chair, surrounded by a bounty of candy. Questioned about his food choices, he responded, “I don’t eat fruit.” Who was this kid?

The interview was a buildup for the show’s now-viral, entertaining gimmick: having rappers read the children’s book Llama Llama Red Pajama over a popular beat while throwing in their own ad-libs. Before this happened, however, the hosts told Yachty that there was someone on the phone that wanted to congratulate him on his album. It was Lil B .

“He’s my inspiration,” Yachty said, stunned. “If it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t be here.” I thought back to the note he left on the dry erase board.

In 2011, the height of the cult of Lil B, I saw his first show in New York at Hammerstein Ballroom. At one point, after the room full of teens were done throwing their shirts, chef hats, jewelry, shoes, and even a cell phone onstage as offerings to Lil B, he knighted a kid, said “I knighted him,” and declared, “Shout out to all my dudes that got hair on they chest. Shout out to all my dudes that got hair on they butts.”

At the time, the rap world was wildly divided on Lil B: was he a shame or a shaman? Six years ago, I was firmly convinced of the latter, often laughed out of conversations with rap purists for expressing a genuine appreciation for the liberating music and movement of Lil B. And now here I was, an older skeptic of a rapper who came up on Lil B, has a framed picture of Lil B in his Atlanta home, and, while more commercially popular, is essentially Charmeleon to Lil B’s Charmander.

Yachty acknowledged the connection on the show, saying that he admired the way Lil B connected to his fans, made his fans feel as if they knew him and that he cared. But even musically, there’s some connective tissue — lyrical moments of brilliance surrounded by stretches of “What is he talking about?” and “Is he a good rapper?”

Yachty’s process of making music, however, has been lauded by those who have worked with him. Atlanta producer Su$h! Ceej spent time toward the end of 2016 with him, and described studio sessions as “no pressure, all fun, all natural”: “He knows what beats he wants and is very specific with the sound he’s trying to create, freestyling everything at first and fine-tuning as he goes, making a lot of songs in a short amount of time depending on how many pizza breaks or what video games are in the other room.” As for Cleveland’s TrapMoneyBenny , who produced Teenage Emotions ’s final track, “Momma (Outro)” : “He’s one of my favorite people to work with.”

The combination of lyrical question marks, cosigns, and an intense connection to fans are the hereditary traits between The Based God and Lil Boat, resulting in rappers who are both atypical and vulnerable. And for anyone who has a rigid idea of how a rapper should act, it’s uncomfortable.

This connection to his fans trumping all was on full display back at the Beats 1 offices. Yachty sat in a chair, smiling from ear to ear, surrounded by producers and cameras, preparing to FaceTime fans for a segment. He’d just launched into yet another Fruit Roll Up as they waited for a guy named Lars from Norway to answer the phone. Lars never answered. “I get it, my family would murder me if I was talking on the phone at that hour,” Yachty said. “But no lie, if I was Lars, I would have taken that beating.”

The second person picked up. “It is I,” Yachty said. A guy wanted advice about how to find a girl he met in a moshpit at his concert. Instead of giving him a short answer, Yachty earnestly went through the most logical ways to track her down. “Go through the hashtags,” he said. “Or maybe she’ll hear this? You never know.” It was clear this was his happy place: talking to fans. The next caller was a woman. As soon as Yachty popped up, she began to cry. “Ohhhh, don’t cry,” he said, his face playfully scrunching up.

A third caller mentioned that she wished her boyfriend were there, because he’s a huge fan. Yachty suggested that they get his number. The girl was shocked, as was everyone in the room. They got the boyfriend’s number and called him. He freaked out. “Weird, I’ve never called another girl’s boyfriend,” Yachty said in a deadpan.

The entire room, once doing a great job holding back laughter, could no longer contain silence. It was like watching a 19-year-old black, male Delilah, from the calming voice, mild demeanor, extreme comfort as he talked to strangers, and genuine care about people that like him. “That definitely wasn’t the first time I’ve FaceTimed with fans,” Yachty said afterward. “It was just the first time it was recorded. I used to do that shit just for the fun of it.”

He’s not always so positive, though. Just 30 minutes earlier, he was forced to experience the full onslaught of the content machine. Two men talked to him about Musical.ly, a video social network app, while he wore a crown and giant star shades. He wore an unchecked pout on his face. In this moment, I was watching the self-proclaimed champion of youth age out of something.

“Some of that shit is so lame,” he later told me. “I push this ‘king of the teens’ shit, but they be thinking teens like 13. On some super corny, under-underage shit. It happens all the time.”

With each passing day, I became more interested in sitting down privately with him, finding out what he was like once all the distractions disappeared. Yet as we spent more time together, that sit-down also started to feel less essential. Not only was I getting the real him, all the time, but the distractions were never going to disappear.

At first, it was slightly off-putting to watch him seem uninterested in the beginning of interviews and side conversations. Yachty doesn’t necessarily love being on all the time, and his days in a press cycle often involve a great deal of stasis followed by the immediate ask to be Lil Yachty The Rap Star. But the more I saw, his changing moods yet constant effort became increasingly relatable and human — he’d set himself up to be a machine, within the machine.

Maybe Yachty will become a marionette like so many other celebrities, a rapper that promotes more brands than has songs. So far, he’s done a Target ad with the pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen and has a partnership with Nautica , in addition to Sprite. Or perhaps he’ll gravitate in another direction and just be subversive for the sake of drama, another thing he has experience in, from tweeting “fuck J. Cole” to a past beef with Soulja Boy over a fashion model.

Listening to his album Teenage Emotions , it’s an identity crisis. It’s what you expect from someone being pulled in 10 directions at once, caught between youth and adulthood. On “X Men,” arguably the album’s gulliest moment, he still finds a way to do it with a slight wink, ending a verse with, “All of you niggas is marks/ You stinky and dirty like farts.” It’s as if he’s trying to find the right way to rebel, this album showing the various lanes that he might pick: hard and tough, sweet and romantic, young and goofy.

Right now, though, he’s opting out of a singular path, primarily choosing calm and collected. I pushed him on talking about Lil Uzi Vert , for example, with whom a rivalry had been suggested in an earlier radio interview, his answer prompting a clickbait-drenched blog post suggesting there was beef. That bothered Yachty. “Me and Uzi aren’t friends,” Yachty calmly offered. “We used to be cool. It’s not beef, it’s just competition. That’s all it is. We’re not friends.” He says what’s on his mind, and he’s quite personable, eventually. Just sometimes it takes a bit for him to recharge the battery.

The morning after Yachty’s full day of radio, he turned his attention to doing television. And on set in the CBS Studio Center lot, the room just let out a collective gasp. Did Martha Stewart realize what she just said to Lil Yachty, out loud, in front of an entire studio audience? Yachty had just come on stage as a guest on the weed-and-euphemism-filled circus that is Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party , a VH1 show that often makes SNL’s “What’s Up With That?” sketch look like Catholic mass.

It was clear the only prep Martha received about him was that he didn’t drink or smoke, so she talked to him like an innocent child. When it was time to discuss the Teenage Emotions album cover — an artistic exercise in inclusion — the image was not available. The network hadn’t gotten the image cleared. Taping stopped and the Doggfather stood up, chastising the powers that be for never getting stuff cleared. In a very loud, swear-filled finger wag, Snoop appropriately referred to Yachty’s album cover as “this nigga’s shit.” So Martha, sitting at a table with her co-host, Yachty, comedian Gary Owen, and actress Laverne Cox, leaned over — while wearing a sari for their Indian food-themed episode — and, both maternally and ignorantly, said, “Yachty, does it upset you when Snoop says ‘nigga shit?’”

The room filled with every imaginable reaction: anger, horror, embarrassment, laughter, joy, pain. Throughout the exchange, Martha Stewart did not seem to understand what the big deal was. Yachty’s reaction: a huge smile. It had been a long morning of sitting and waiting, following a day of interviews that involved a great deal of sitting and waiting. Once he finally made it on stage, he was charismatic, but seemed to be running on fumes. When Martha had her record scratch moment, though, Yachty came alive. By the end of the show’s taping, he was playfully running around the stage with Snoop, avoiding a crew of belly dancers that had just brought out a giant yellow snake, in this, a wildly appropriative episode of television.

The taping of the show lasted so long, Yachty missed his next engagement, a meeting at the Grammy offices to become a member. That meant the following stop was Urban Outfitters, to sign posters of his album cover. Pulling up to the Hollywood locale, however, we were early, a fact that puzzled Yachty almost to the point of embarrassment: “Wait, so y’all got me, the rapper, here first?”

It was true — it looked as if no one had come to see him. Twan, his security, countered with, “No, there’s a long line.” Everyone in the car thought this was just him being a supportive friend. But when the van circled the block, a long line snaked through a side alley, causing Yachty’s crew to erupt in laughter. Seconds later, a car drove by playing “Broccoli.”

“Ooh, that’s me,” he said, finishing a pack of M&Ms. Yachty was alive, yet again.

In our time together, the black Sprinter van we travelled in became something of a second home, powerless against the lull of Los Angeles traffic. The swings in his personality were on full display during these rides. Sometimes he was dead quiet, other times chatting on his phone, once or twice making fun of his boys for literally anything. It also was a time for him and Coach to catch up on news, like the moment Coach found out they were being sued over the song “Peek A Boo” by a rapper who made a song titled “Pikachu.”

Coach played “Pikachu” for the van and we all laughed. Yachty seemed a bit nervous, not knowing if this was real or not, but Coach reassured him that it was nothing. The brief back-and-forth was representative of their relationship, less of the typical manager-artist vibe and more super smart kid and wise camp counselor.

“It makes things pretty one-sided sometimes,” Yachty said of Coach. “Like, technically the manager works for the artist. What the artist says goes. But I know Coach always has the best intentions, so sometimes he just tells me what to do. And I don’t really have any say. I mean, I have a say so, but for the most part I don’t really care to say anything.”

The following day was Yachty’s final media jaunt before the release of Teenage Emotions . The excitement began at Mel’s Drive-In, a retro diner in Hollywood. The old-school feel of the restaurant echoed the attire Yachty would be wearing during his performance: a baby blue prom blazer, white tuxedo pants, and a white ruffled shirt a la Randy Watson from Coming To America . The restaurant overflowed with people having meals with their families, plus a scattering of teenagers who knew Yachty was en route. When he walked in, his red beads and camouflage jacket both matching and contrasting, the place became a zoo. Yachty stood on a table in a side patio amid screams of “Fuck Joe Budden” and kids offering him things they brought, from cash to their own shoes.

Yachty’s Lil B moment had come full circle. Attempting to give a speech, his words were drowned out by the throng of screaming fans. Finally, they got quiet and Yachty simply said, “Follow me.”

There were enough fans to fill Hollywood Boulevard, but we walked up the sidewalk. From a distance, it looked as if a young Venus Williams was leading an army with the tactical knowledge of Douglas MacArthur, and the masses were ever-growing. At one point, two teenage girls saw the Million Teen March, ditched their Uber ride, and ran across a busy intersection to join in.

Yachty brought his faithful to the entrance of the Hollywood Masonic Temple, home of the Jimmy Kimmel Show , then disappeared into the building. The mob scene was over, for now. The next few hours involved a soundcheck with the band at the outdoor stage and prep in the green room before the show. Yachty was back to more sitting and waiting, which didn’t bode well for his biggest television performance to date.

But just as his energy began to dip, the one missing piece of the puzzle exploded into his room, as if to make everything right: the Sailing Team .

Yachty’s crew from home had flown in from Atlanta, flooding the green room with bodies, dreads, and hugs just as Yachty prepared to hit the Kimmel outdoor stage. It suddenly felt like a party, and the smile on Yachty’s face was a smile I’d never seen, a smile I’d been waiting on. A pizza the size of an ottoman appeared. It wasn’t Domino’s or Papa John’s, but it was large enough to feed all his boys, so it was perfect. Yachty had all he needed: pizza, candy, and his best friends.

Hours later, after his Kimmel performance, the venue was a hotel ballroom full of pink and lavender balloons, a DJ, a photobooth, a stage, and people dressed up. His day had gotten even better. Yachty threw himself, and his friends and fans, a prom.

Of all the elements I’d watched him hop between in three days, this was Yachty at his best. He and the Sailing Team performed Yachty songs old and new. But, in a move you rarely see, they also rapped along and danced to other people’s songs. Jumping around and throwing water into the crowd, they were simultaneously attending their prom and that of the hired prom band.

And although it took him a little while, right before the buzzer went off on his teenage years, Yachty finally got what he wanted, what he deserved, what he earned. For one night, he was Prom King.

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Lil Yachty Is Out to Claim What He Rightfully Deserves Ahead of Lil Boat 3 Album

Respect My Conglomerate Four years in the school of hard knocks has taught Lil Yachty that credit isn’t always given where it’s due. Now the Atlanta rapper is out to claim what he rightfully deserves. Words: Georgette Cline Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now.

Based on the quarter-sized 10.5 carat diamond sailboat earrings dangling from Lil Yachty ’s ears on this February morning in New York City, diamonds aren’t just a girl’s best friend. The $98,000 jewelry the Atlanta rapper copped from jeweler Wafi is certainly on brand for Yachty, who is at a yoga studio around the corner from the Big Apple’s famed Diamond District. But today, instead of dropping racks on racks on racks on another iced-out chain or bracelet, Yachty is sweating his ass off down the street. He’s inside an 80-degree heated room at AtthenaYoga learning how to be a yogi.

“I feel like I’m begging for mercy,” the 22-year-old artist exclaims while he’s positioned on a red (his favorite color) mat with his arms out in front of him on the floor, head down and legs tucked under his body. Atthena Breitton, his instructor for the private class, informs Yachty, dressed in black Nike Pro workout gear, that she’ll be getting him into “a lot of fun shapes that are different.”

The “One Night” rhymer’s commentary as he goes from sinking his belly (“You giving me arch lessons right now”) to engaging his core while lifting his knees (“I’m shaking, what the fuck?”) to trying a plank pose (“This some punishment shit”) is comical, yet endearing. Don’t underestimate Lil Boat’s abilities. For a guy who eats pizza daily and never consumes fruits or vegetables, hot yoga is pushing himself to the limit, but he’s holding it down. “You’re pulling me apart like pizza dough,” says Yachty, a fitting response as he likens his favorite food to Breitton maneuvering his limbs into yoga poses.

Downward-Facing Dog is up next. “Think of a dog making a little mountain pose with its body,” instructs Breitton. “Why would a dog do that?” Yachty utters, seemingly irked at the thought. The groans grow louder, the poses get more technical and the heat is stifling. “Are you stressed about your upcoming album?” the instructor inquires, to which Yachty can’t even concentrate to give a valid response. “I don’t know right now,” he replies. “It’s a lot.”

Two hours later after picking up $12,000 worth of Jean Paul Gaultier, Yohji Yamamoto and Walter Van Beirendonck clothing at Middleman Instagram boutique, Yachty is seated inside the lounge area at Capital Records Midtown Manhattan offices. Domino’s pizza, assistant Maddy, videographer Ari and manager Kevin “Coach K” Lee, cofounder of Quality Control Music to which Yachty is signed, surround him. He’s no longer sweaty from his hot yoga adventure, and confesses it did nothing to relax him.

Yachty’s about to play “Oprah’s Bank Account” featuring Drake and DaBaby , the official first single from his upcoming fourth studio album, Lil Boat 3 , due this spring. The project’s cover will feature a black-and-white photo of a 2-year-old little Yachty that his father snapped. The album is scheduled to officially culminate the LB series.

Four years ago, Yachty, born Miles McCollum, was an 18-year-old neophyte just entering the rap game with his debut mixtape, Lil Boat . He crafted colorful, convivial bops like his platinum-selling “One Night” and gold-certified “Minnesota,” became a poster child for mumble rap—though he’ll argue against the designation when applied to him—introduced the masses to the motley crew known as the Sailing Team and reigned as the “King of Teens” with his succinct, monotonous delivery and straight-edge tendencies. Whether it was online, in a Sprite commercial or a Target ad on TV, his signature red hair and beaded braids were seemingly everywhere.

And the music kept flooding in, as constant as the crimson on his head. 2016 also welcomed Yachty’s Summer Songs 2 mixtape , plus projects Big Boat and The Lost Files with Digital Nas . The following year ushered in his debut album, Teenage Emotions , Yachty’s earnest attempt at a commercial project and highest-charting effort, coming in at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. In 2018, he was busy with his sophomore LP, Lil Boat 2 , the Birthday Mix 3.0 , his stellar writing credits on City Girls’ platinum-selling, Earl on the Beat-produced banger “Act Up” and his Nuthin’ 2 Prove opus, the latter of which kicked off with the minacious ode “Gimmie My Respect”: “Niggas gon’ keep forgetting about who goddamn started this muhfuckin’ new wave shit, bruh/Come on, man, gimme my respect, bitch.”

Despite the work put in and the accolades, there are still people that think Lil Yachty can’t rap. His personal statement for the last two years has been apparent across social media: he’s been vocal about his ability to out-rap 75 percent of the new generation, feels slept-on but has nothing to prove. For his own benefit, last year, he took a step back from the spotlight and releasing music except for the SoundCloud freestyle “Go Krazy, Go Stupid” and his collaborative work on the Quality Control: Control the Streets, Vol. 2 compilation. Caliginous Boat, as he describes himself, was in full effect. “I didn’t put any music out,” recalls Yachty, who cites Lil B, Kid Cudi, Soulja Boy and Kanye West as artists who made him want to rap on the come up while Coldplay is his favorite band. “I just was real low-key. So, it’s just like being real low-key, just under the radar, you know what I mean? That’s what I meant by that.” Like a senior in high school preparing to head into his first year of college, Yachty hunkered down.

The last year was the longest stretch of time he’s gone without dropping consistent music, an occurrence he promises won’t happen again. Relevancy is key. Though time spent out of the public eye didn’t mean he was sitting idle. For roughly two years, Yachty was perfecting Lil Boat 3 , an album he recorded four times over before submitting the final effort to the label in early 2020. “I kept going through so many different phases of creativity,” Yachty admits. Black Hair Boat being one of them. Gone is the bright-red head full of hair he was once synonymous with; now bloodshot tips are all that remain.

The new ’do is reflective of taking it back to the basics. No so-called gimmicks, so the focus is strictly on the bars. His recent feature run is indicative of this: Sada Baby’s 30 Roc-produced “SB5,” Duke Deuce’s “Crunk Ain’t Dead Mob” with Lil Thad, Tadoe’s “Get It Bussin” and “Speed Me Up” with Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign and Sueco The Child, to name a few. Each track reflects Yachty’s punchy brand of lyrical wizardry, clever couplets included.

“Give me my credit,” demands Yachty, referring to both his rhymes and his ’fits. “I feel like I’m slept-on in general, just period. I’m not saying I’m the best, you know, I never can say I’m the best rapper, or even if I was best-dressed. But I do this shit. For real. It don’t break me. I’m still here… That’s ’cause I’m really a fly nigga. I don’t get enough credit for it. I feel like I’m one of the best-dressed rappers in the rap game. And no one gives me any credit. And it upsets me. Not even upsetting, but it upsets me. It’s like, yeah, y’all just playing with me right now. I don’t have no stylist for real.”

As he leans back on the couch in the Capitol Records lounge, (Capitol is QC’s parent company) dressed in a vintage hunter green and mustard Nike letterman jacket decorated with The Beverly Hillbillies logo, vintage Evisu denim jeans stitched with dice, chocolate brown Air Force 2s and a green-and-white trucker hat, it’s clear Yachty’s style is fresh, but his new music is what’s on the agenda right now. Yachty’s new single “Oprah’s Bank Account,” produced by his childhood friend Earl on the Beat, is bittersweet as it signals the beginning of the end of the Lil Boat series. Once Yachty presses play on the melodic, uptempo track, it’s apparent how the song got its title. “Diamond in the rough, you look as good as Oprah’s bank account,” he raps.

Drake hopped on the beat after Yachty previewed the song on his Finsta page (Boat's secondary private Instagram account) late last year. DaBaby linked with Lil Boat in an Atlanta studio last October to add his signature sound. “It was fire,” Earl on the Beat remembers of DaBaby’s studio session. “They got in. We were there, we was chillin’. DaBaby came in, he was cool. Had a blunt. The blunt started going, started recording.”

According to Earl, he has roughly nine songs he produced on Yachty’s new album, which will feature throwback 2016 melodies the rapper built his career on. Overall, Yachty describes Lil Boat 3 as an uptempo experience featuring further production from Pi’erre Bourne, 30 Roc and MitchGoneMad. “I just hope it provides good tunes for the youth,” Yachty says. After the album's spring release, Yachty already has another project lined up to release around his birthday, Aug. 23. “ End of the Summer ,” he reveals of the tentative title. “And just make it a summer feel.” And then there’s a string of collab projects he has hopes for with three producers he knows all too well: 30 Roc, Earl and Pi’erre, the latter of whom Yachty would like to join forces with as an artist, too. “I’m a big fan of his music,” Yachty affirms.

2020 isn’t just solely about witnessing Lil Yachty on the mic either. He’s got goals outside the booth. “I love acting,” he admits. “It’s really cool.” With six official projects ranging from mixtapes to albums currently under his belt, Yachty sees a future in which he graduates from hip-hop. “I don’t plan on being a rapper forever.” He’s already landed roles as the voice of Green Lantern in the 2018 animated film Teen Titans! Go to the Movies and the 2019 comedy How High 2 , in which he plays a teen stoner named Roger who discovers a secret strain of weed. Now he has two more movies and a spot in a television show on the way; one of the three is based on his life story. He’s hush on any further details. Yachty’s dream role? To play a killer similar to the character Rico in Paid in Full . Rappers-turned-actors like Will Smith also inspire him and prove making the jump to a successful acting career is possible.

Watching Yachty land TV and movie gigs in real time motivates Earl, who’s known the Grammy Award-nominated artist since they were 7 years old growing up in ATL. “This nigga’s a star,” Earl maintains. “When you see somebody that you actually grew up with, that you actually go to school with, that you actually be doing day to day shit with go and do this shit... you just be like, damn, that’s fire. And you get inspired. Man, my nigga is a businessman, bro. This nigga is a jack of all trades. This nigga really do this shit.”

Coach K has also seen Yachty’s progression firsthand, having signed the rapper at the age of 18, shortly after Yachty left Alabama State University, where he attended for two months. “It’s crazy, we signed Yachty in 2016,” Coach K reflects. “In school, it’s like four years of high school and then you graduate and go to college. This last year, he’s taking the time, it’s like his senior year in high school. And it’s like he’s been preparing himself to get ready for college, you know? When you get ready to go to college, it’s like you’re on your own, a lot of things start changing, you’re kinda in between from here to there. I think it’s when he took this year out, you know, in really just discovering [himself]. There’s a lot of things he did in the film industry and now I think that’s what brung everything back to completion. We worked this [ Lil Boat 3 ] album for the last year-and-a-half. I’ve seen him turn me in four albums… You never want to get in the way of the artist and their process… I think it’s in those four years, he’s had time to grow up and figure out who he is. He was the ‘King of the Teens’ when we first signed him, he’s still young as hell, you know? It’s that transition. He’s come into himself.”

And moved up in tax brackets, too. Just three years shy of hitting 25, Lil Yachty is a self-proclaimed millionaire. Buying a $400 Denim Tears Black Jesus blanket as he randomly scrolls through Instagram is as standard as eating pizza every day. In Yachty’s world, both are the norm. More money may bring more problems depending on who you ask, but when you’ve been able to keep the same circle of friends since kindergarten like Yachty has, life is good. His reality will be even better once Lil Boat 3 arrives. “It’s a heavy-hitting album,” he promises. “I’m ready to drop. My god. I want to put it out so bad.” Coach K believes this project will further solidify Lil Yachty as not only a trendsetter who breaks barriers, but an artist deserving of his credit. “I’ma get my respect before I’m done,” Yachty adds. “I’ma get it.”

See Exclusive Photos From Lil Yachty's XXL Magazine Spring Issue 

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Lil Yachty Announces a Collaborative REESE'S PUFFS Cereal Box

The artist spoke to hypebeast about why this limited-edition box is one of his favorite projects yet..

Just over a month after debuting his REESE’S PUFFS rap at a virtual concert , Lil Yachty has announced the next phase in his collaboration with the brand. A limited-edition cereal box, designed by the artist, will soon be available at grocery stores across the U.S. and Canada for $3.99 USD.

Lil Yachty spoke to HYPEBEAST ahead of the drop about his childhood memories of the cereal, the process of writing his REESE’S PUFFS rap and why this collaborative box is one of his favorite projects yet.

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How Lil Yachty Became Michigan Boy Boat

Before the release of ‘Michigan Boy Boat,’ Lil Yachty sits for an interview about how his collabs with Michigan artists energized him to grow as a rapper.

Lil Yachty has been spending a lot of time in Michigan lately.

Midway through one low-budget music video for a song called “Flintana,” he shows up in a parking lot with a crew of up-and-coming rappers from Flint: RMC Mike, YN Jay, and Louie Ray. At the beginning of the clip, there’s a disclaimer that says, “This song was made the night before, therefore nobody knew the lyrics,” and everything about it has the raw, spontaneous feeling of a collaboration that came to life on a whim at 2 a.m. In other words, it’s in a completely different universe from the glossy sheen of a song like “Oprah’s Bank Account.”

As Yachty lowers himself on the concrete and does push-ups at the end of Mike’s verse, you can’t help but wonder how the hell he ended up in a random Flint parking lot with a bunch of underground rappers in the first place. But he does such a good job matching the spirit of the song, context doesn’t really matter here. It’s all energy. After a few quick bars about pussy and a mouth full of gold, Yachty circles back with a couple Snoh Aalegra and Kevin Federline references to punctuate his second verse. And when he’s not rapping, he laughs along with punchlines from Mike, Jay, and Ray, hyping up his collaborators. “They have fun,” he says now. “They talk about all kinds of crazy shit.”

Later, there’s a Lil Yachty sighting at a Detroit studio with Rio Da Yung OG , and he materializes on two more songs with YN Jay. As the year progresses, Yachty’s Michigan collaborations keep popping up online, and each time he tries out self-described “unorthodox” flows, pushing himself to wild new lyrical territory. On all of them, he sounds more energized than we’ve heard him in years. Before long, it’s clear Yachty has become an honorary member of the Michigan rap scene, home to some of the most exciting ( and quotable ) new artists on the planet.

“They’re mad fucking lyrical in a weird way,” he points out. “The schemes and the cadences and the flows are so unorthodox.”

Yachty says these collaborations have taught him “how to have fun with it” again. He’s having so much fun, in fact, that he decided to make a whole mixtape and call it Michigan Boy Boat . The project will arrive on April 23, and judging by the tags on the announcement Instagram post , it will feature everyone from Veeze to Babyface Ray to Sada Baby to Icewear Vezzo. As Yachty puts it, the project is an opportunity to show love to the scene he’s grown to care about so much.

As the release date nears, the 23-year-old rapper hopped on the phone with Complex to talk about Michigan Boy Boat, three other projects he’s working on, a night in the studio with Freddie Gibbs, and more. The interview, lightly edited for clarity, is below.

Photo by Gunner Stahl  

How did you first get plugged in with the Michigan rap scene? I’ve always loved Detroit rap. I used to work with Pablo Skywalkin back in 2016. And I always loved Tee Grizzley. “First Day Out” was such an insane song, and I thought he was so lyrical. So I was working with him, and then my best friend Mitch started putting me on to other rappers locally who were on the rise, and I just loved their beats and their rapping schemes. I thought they were so dope. So that’s how I got into it originally.

A lot of people were surprised to see you show up in so many music videos with underground rappers in Flint and Detroit last year. How did the collaborations start happening? I was reaching out to them, bro. I was just coming to them. I wasn’t afraid to show love, and I wanted to work with all of them. So I would just hit them up.

What is it about their music that made you want to work with them? They don’t care. They want to have fun. And it’s funny . They’re mad fucking lyrical in a weird way. The schemes and the cadences and the flows are so unorthodox. And the style of Michigan beats just forced me into this really weird scheme. You’ll see when this mixtape comes out. I just rap really unorthodox on it. A lot of people won’t like it. A lot of people think it’s offbeat.

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Do you think these beats have pushed you to grow as a rapper? Yeah, I learned new schemes and cadences. And I learned to have fun with it. They have fun. They talk about all kinds of crazy shit.

Michigan Boy Boat is on the way. What made you want to do a full tape with songs like this? I just wanted to show love. That’s it. I just wanted to show love to all of those guys and their talent. And I feel like I rap my best on those types of beats.

You sound really energized lately. I remember a few months ago, you jumped in Cardo’s room on Clubhouse and told everyone how excited you were about a verse you had just written. Yeah. That verse was so fucking crazy. I was sitting on the toilet.

Overall, it seems like you’re having a lot of fun making music right now. Oh, yeah. And I’m about to drop so much shit, it doesn’t make any sense. I’m definitely having fun.

A couple months ago, you dropped “Hit Bout It” with Kodak Black, which was a crazy moment. What was that experience like? We didn’t record it in person, but I did take a trip out there to shoot the video. When I recorded the song, I was on my Detroit shit. What happened was, I posted a snippet on my Instagram. And he was originally supposed to do a verse for “Pardon Me.” You know, because he was just pardoned by Donald Trump. Then he was like, “Man, I ain’t going to lie. I really want to get on this.” I was super excited, and we made it happen.

In the behind-the-scenes video, it looked like you guys have a tight bond together. What’s your relationship like, and how did that all go down? I don’t know how or why. It just kinda happened. I hit him when he was in jail, and I wanted to show support and that I was fucking with him. And he would call me every now and then. We’d chop it up and just talk. I think he really supported that and respected that. And when he got out, it was just love.

Speaking of collaborations, you were just tweeting about Freddie Gibbs assembling the Avengers for his next album. Yeah, I was with him last night. I put him on some Detroit shit. [Laughs.]

How did you guys link up? After I tweeted that, he DM’d me, like, “Let’s link.” And I was out here and I pulled right the fuck up.

What was that session like? I was super excited. He’s really fire. He’s like a legend. He was super cool. He’s like a gangster. He was super dope, and he’s older. The session was really chill. I didn’t stay long, unfortunately, because I had to go to a session with Mac DeMarco, so I did the song and left. But it was dope as fuck. He’s funny as shit.

You recently tweeted , “I be sittin back watching y’all assumptions on situations and y’all be so off. The internet just be making up shit.” Do you think people have misconceptions about you at this point? What do people get wrong? Yeah, [some people] think I’m gay as fuck. But I have a beautiful girlfriend. And before her, I had plenty of bitches. You know? So that’s a misconception. But I don’t give a fuck.

You’ve been writing songs for other artists a little lately, like “Act Up” for City Girls, which I think opened some people’s minds to how talented you really are. Is that part of the appeal? I love gaining my respect.

As a songwriter for other artists, you have to put yourself in someone else’s point of view, and you’ve pulled it off really well so far. Why do you think it’s come naturally for you? Honestly, I was just bored, bro. One day I was in the studio, bored as fuck. And I was like, “Let me see if I can do this.” I did it.

Is that something you want to do more? I’ve done it a few times. I’ve done it. I stopped speaking on it.

I see. I was going to ask if you’d explore that more and ever write songs for pop artists or anything. Yeah, I’ve done some shit. I don’t want to get into it, but I’ve done some shit.

“Just listen to the f*cking bars because I promise I’m rapping my f*cking a** off.”

I know you’ve been in the studio with Taz Taylor and the Internet Money guys. Can you talk about that? We’re doing an album. I’m about to go see Taz right now. He’s a fucking king. He’s a fucking GOAT. I have respect for him, 100%.

What have the sessions been like so far? I’ve been in LA three days, and we’ve already made 24 songs. We’re working hard, bro. It’s fun. It’s melodic. It’s fully melodic.

Oh, shit. So a totally different sound from this next Michigan Boy Boat project… Yeah, I got projects, man. I’ve got my project with Internet Money. I’m doing my project with Lil Tecca. I got my project with Working On Dying. And then I’ll start my album fourth quarter of the year.

So there’s lots of shit going on. I’m dropping a shit ton this year.

What made you want to make a bunch of different projects that show all your different styles, instead of just holding off and doing one big album? It didn’t start off that way. It honestly started off with me just fucking with all these guys that I fuck with. And they all love me for different things. Taz, he wanted to bring out my melodic side. You know, with Working On Dying, it’s just all types of heat.

Before you go, I wanted to ask about cryptocurrency. You created your YachtyCoin and then made an NFT. And I know you were an early investor in Dogecoin and SafeMoon and all this shit. How did you get into all of this? Well, my manager put me onto the whole YachtyCoin thing. This year and last year, I just took it and ran with it.

There are stories of people who invested early making ridiculous amounts of money. I know you were early, too. Have you seen crazy profits already? Oh, yeah. Ohhhh yeah . Mm-hmm.

What should people know before they press play on Michigan Boy Boat when it drops? Just listen to the fucking bars because I promise I’m rapping my fucking ass off.

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Lil Yachty Crashes Out On Karrahbooo & Mitch In Explosive IG Live Rant: Unpacking The Beef

Lil Yachty ’s Concrete Boys crew might not be as solid as he thought. That's especially the case after the rapper hopped on Instagram Live on Thursday night to air out his associates and signees. Despite pledging to stay off the internet for the remainder of the year, Yachty is still keeping tabs on social media narratives, whether or not they are true.

In the late hours of Thursday night, Lil Yachty went on a full-blown rant on Instagram Live where he aired out Karrahbooo for alleged comments she made about her split from Concrete Boys to a Red Lobster employee. Sounds crazy, right? Unfortunately, it didn’t end there as Yachty shifted his fury toward his best friend and A Safe Space co-host Mitch for not defending him against a random Twitter user claiming that the Atlanta rapper is a bad friend. A lot unravelled over a few hours so here’s everything you need to know about the beef so far.

Karrahbooo’s Departure From Concrete Boys 

Before we delve into last night’s shenanigans, it’s important to highlight the beginning of this issue. In late July, fans speculated that Karrahbooo left the crew after fans found that she unfollowed her labelmates. Though it was initially rumors, the “Poland” star confirmed that she was, in fact, not a part of the collective anymore. “I'ma say this sh*t one time," Yachty said on Instagram Live. "We have split ways with Karrah as far as this Concrete sh*t. I have nothing to say. Nothing bad to say, nothing negative to say about Karrah. I wish her the best in her career. That's that. ... I don't have anything really bad to say or anything good to say. We just split, you know?”

Read More: Lil Yachty Releases 14 New Songs On His "The Concrete Leak System" Soundcloud Account With Features From 21 Savage & Vory

Friction On The Timeline

It turns out that Yachty had plenty of negative things to say that were weighing on his chest. He just needed something minor to trigger the emotions that had been bottled up. The issues with Karrahbooo seemingly took a turn for the worse after an alleged Red Lobster employee claimed that Karrah pulled up to the restaurant when she was asked about leaving Concrete. 

“Bro she walked in my job (red lobster) to order biscuits and I asked her why she left and she immediately corrected me and said I didn’t leave they kicked me out,” user @C_Staxxz wrote . “Saying they were really mean to her and bullying her a lot.” The user then added her own speculation to the mix, writing, “She seemed really hurt behind ts tbh like they really did her dirty and i believe its because her name was the biggest behind yachty if we being real I only started listening to him again because of her. They’re haters and i told her she’ll do just fine without them. F*ck em.” She also added a photo with Karrahbooo to corroborate that the rapper did pull up to Red Lobster.

Mind you, Karrahbooo herself didn’t mention anything on the Internet, and much of the tweet was primarily speculation. Plus, no one can really verify whether Karrah said these things. Ultimately, there’s clearly tension between the two, and neither particularly wanted to spill into the public eye.

The Mitch Situation Unfolds

Just a day before this tweet regarding Karrah emerged, A Safe Space released a new episode alongside Key Glock who witnessed Yachty violating his co-host , Mitch. In a clip that circulated across X/Twitter, Yachty took credit for Mitch’s success, going as far as claiming his co-host wouldn’t have anything going in life it weren’t for him. Glock kept mum throughout the segment. However, a fan clipped that part of the episode and wrote, “Lil Yachty disrespecting his friend in front of Key Glock.” At the time of writing, the clip gained 9.7M views while a repost of the clip siding with Mitch garnered 901K.

“Mitch. Lil Yachty is not your homie. There’s a time and place to have these conversations. Not on a podcast in front of millions of people to dissect and observe. This is lame as f*ck,” the tweet read. “Don’t do favors for people and then hold it over their head. That’s foul as f*ck.”

Read More: Lil Yachty Faces The Wrath Of New York For His Hot Take On The City's Fashion Scene

Lil Yachty Pulls Receipts On Karrahbooo

Yachty laid it all out during his Instagram Live last night, beginning with Karrahbooo, who he claimed was verbally abusive, entitled, and lacked any rap skills His explosive rant initially denied claims that she was bullied before pivoting over to her catalog of music, which he said he wrote entirely and even provided receipts. “I slowed the beat down, I put 808s specifically on your verse so when it got to your part and the beat dropped, everyone would be like, ‘this girl is the craziest one,” he said in reference to her debut freestyle on On The Radar . He later shared the reference track to back his claim.

“I wrote every f*cking verse you've done… I dressed you. I dressed all five of y'all n***as bro. I dressed five n***as every time we stepped out the house. I put an outfit on everybody. I put eight carats of earrings on everybody ear. I put three chains on all y'all neck,” he continued. “I changed your mother f*cking life and you are here lying, talking about some: 'We bully you'... That shit got me f*cked up, bro. You got me f*cked up, bro. You disrespectful, bro. You talk to people crazy. You tell people that they are nothing. You tell people you're going to spit on them. You tell people they poor and you talk to my f*cking label crazy. You claim I was stealing money.” He also alleged that she put Concrete $900K in the hole and he never recouped on his investment.

Mitch Catches Strays

Quite frankly, this aspect of the entire rant didn’t paint Yachty in the best light. Once again, the powers of social media broke Yachty completely as he bashed Mitch for failing to address random social media users criticizing him. In fact, Yachty’s emotions completely took control of him to the point where he decided to cancel their podcast abruptly. First, he explained that Mitch approached him to do a podcast, which Yachty obliged, in order to help his co-host and friend build a platform. 

“I ain't want to do no motherf*cking podcast n***a, I'm a f*cking rapper... I put $400,000 in Mitch pocket,” he said. “I ain’t f*ckin’ with Mitch, bro. I been sleep all day, I wake up to this crazy sh*t. I say, ‘Mitch, how the f*ck you ain’t go on the internet and tell these folks that we playin’, bruh?’” According to Boat, Mitch downplayed the situation, allegedly claiming, “It’s Twitter, bruh. You know how they is.” Yachty then cussed out Mitch for not defending him on the Internet against strangers and subsequently decided to cancel the podcast. “All I do is help people, bruh. I don’t get nothing from none of this sh*t,” Yachty added.

Mitch Clears The Air

In a series of tweets, Mitch finally addressed the narrative surrounding his relationship with Boat. “please don’t let that clip misguide you it doesn’t represent me and yachty’s friendship at all we joke around pretty harsh sometimes too much fr sometimes but irl it’s nothing but respect and love i can’t even get on here and act like it’s not,” he said. 

Later, he made it clear that he has always had his own thing going on, even before meeting Lil Yachty. “i ain’t nobody lil bro never been check my history i had stats before i met bro and got even more now, all i ever wanted to do was just focus on the music and being involved in the culture in a positive way i hope none of this hinders that,” he wrote. 

Lil Yachty Clashes With Mitch’s Ex/Cousin?

Though it seemed like the dust had settled, a new party entered the chat: Mitch’s supposed ex, Camille. Sharing a voice note to social media, she slammed Yachty for his alleged treatment of Mitch over the years. “Like, I been telllin’ Mitch you’re a bogus ass n***a. I been sayin’ that sh*t ‘cause you are. You are a bogus ass n***a,” she said. Then, she threatened to pull out receipts backing up everything she said. 

In response, Yachty quickly tweeted and deleted a voice note refuting her claims . While Camille claimed that Mitch took on a managerial role for Yachty and often had to be in meetings, Yachty said that his co-host had been lying to her the whole time. He went on to say that Mitch only used Camille for a place to stay before revealing that she was, in fact, the cousin that Mitch claimed to have slept with during an episode of A Safe Space podcast. She later fired back on Twitter Spaces. 

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Jamie xx Returns To Present With 'In Waves': How Time Off Led To An Album Of Renewal

On his first album in nine years, Jamie xx shares his renewed joy. “It's been my favorite experience making an album ever," the producer/DJ says.

It’s been nine years since Jamie xx released his massively lauded debut solo album, In Colour . The 2015 release received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album, hit No.1 on the U.S. Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and certified gold in the UK.

Beyond its measurable success, In Colour' s 11 tracks were essential in catalyzing the merger of underground dance and pop music.

Jamie (whose real last name is Smith) wasn’t just an artist after In Colour . He was a household name. As a solo artist, he took his obscure sounds to massive gigs all around the world. The momentum continued when in 2017 released I See You , his third album with his celebrated indie band, The xx.  

"I got good at touring and being an artist in my twenties, but I didn't have any room for anything else in my life. So, when I got a chance to stop in the lockdown I realized I didn't really have much else. I spent a long time trying to find what else makes me whole," Smith says.

In the midst of lockdown, Smith spent time cooking, reading, avoiding excessive screen time, and hanging out with friends. When he was ready to make music on his own again, he was completely reinvigorated. The result is In Waves , Jamie xx's first solo record in nine years.

Smith's joy for making music is palpable throughout In Waves . "Life" kicks off with dance vocalist Robyn repeating the hook "You’re giving me life." Then after coasting on a delightful 4/4 beat and energetic horn samples, she sings in her sweet yet searing tone: "No, I’ll never get enough/It’s just a matter of fact." Later, "Breather" asserts Smith’s expertise in producing dastardly unconventional club beats and simultaneously encourages listeners to appreciate the present. The album also features the Avalanches and bandmates from The xx.

"It's been my favorite experience making an album ever. Even though it's been really hard and it's taken a long time," he says. "I've even learned to enjoy all the difficult parts. I've never had a great time having to finish an album because you're really in the weeds. You can't tell what's good and what's not because you've heard it a million times, but this time I was just happy to keep going."

GRAMMY.com spoke to Jaime xx about setting intentions to stay present, his rigorous standards for releasing music, and how he continues to balance his love for the underground and his growing popularity.

Given that there was such a significant gap between your solo albums, with only four official singles in between, would you say that you have a high standard when it comes to your solo work?

I definitely do. Maybe that makes it more difficult for me, and I really envy artists who can just put loads of stuff out every year. It must feel nice to be that free with it. But that's not how I work, and I do think that less is more. All my favorite artists are that way inclined.

What does it take for a song to be worth sharing?

It's something that I can't quite put my finger on, but it's usually a feeling that I get within the first half a day of making a piece of music. I know I can make it into something I'm going to love, and that might connect with other people. But I wish I knew how to get there more often because it seems to just happen without my decision being any part of it.

The idea of being present was very important to this album process. I read that it's difficult for you to remember things between when you were 18 and 30 because you were so entrenched in music and touring. On the song "Breather" you literally invite listeners to slow down, take a breath, and enjoy the moment. What was it like to make an album in this present frame of mind?

It was really enjoyable. Even the hard bits I really enjoyed just because I was aware of what I was doing. 

I also got some great advice from some people that I work with about how to be a long-standing artist. Having gone through all those ups and downs, how to keep your head straight. Robyn really helped me out with that. She's very smart. When we were making "Life," we talked about how when it gets really hard that's the really good stuff, and you shouldn't shy away.

Now that you’ve adopted a new frame of mind, how do you intend to move with this new approach to your career?

I'm gonna try and take the time to make music in the way that is best for me, and hope that people like it. 

I'm really grateful that I'm in this position where I get to play huge shows and tiny clubs, and I can also walk around the street and nobody knows who I am. Perfect level, and I just hope that I can maintain this position as long as possible.

Your first album was essential in introducing underground dance music to a larger audience, which you’ve said you had mixed feelings about. Now underground dance music is incredibly popular . What was it like creating a new album within that ecosystem?

It was difficult, mentally. I think that's why I had to get to a good place in my life really to be able to make music again. It was sending me spinning and confusing me. Then I found myself thinking about what other people were doing, which was never how I made music. I wasn't reflecting on the good parts of what other people were doing either. So I just had to check myself and have faith in people who like good music.

You said earlier that you enjoy playing massive shows, which in spirit goes against the traditional ethos of underground music. Do you feel any conflicting emotions around that?

It's a bit of both, I guess. When I’m doing these big shows, now, I'm really trying to take elements of what I love about playing at intimate shows; what I love about just clubbing and the history of dance floors and inject it into the shows. Even if they're bigger and make it more focused on the crowd and the sound than people staring at me and looking up at the stage.

That's been really fun. We've had dancers in the crowd, and we're filming them, and it integrates the crowd more into facing each other rather than facing the stage. That's one of the things that makes it feel more intimate, more like a club.

The first thing that you need to make a good club night is good people. The majority of people who have come to my shows have been amazing. [They’re] really open to me playing some weird stuff in between my music. I feel able to go on a journey with them and play differently depending on the room and the place. It's great fun for me and it's inspiring.

How do you feel about being a central figure introducing new audiences to new types of music?

That's how I fell in love with a lot of the music that is my favorite music now: from the DJs that I loved when I first started going out. Learning what they were doing, learning about deep cuts, and them being generous enough to share some of the music with me. I hope that I can pass some of that on. 

In dance music, it's all about community and bringing people together. I think what I'm doing is really not that different from what DJs from the '70s were intending to do. At least that's what I'm going for.

You’ve revealed to the world that you are back in the studio with The xx. How have you brought your new mindset as a solo artist to your work with the band?

It's quite difficult. That was the purpose of us going out and doing this solo stuff. When we come back we'll have a bit more of a wider scope, but it will be difficult. The most difficult thing is just maintaining friendships that are 20-30 years old between us. Also, to work, and…live well, with our partners and our families. It's all hard to integrate. 

The last few times we've been in the studio we've really just spent time talking with each other for days on end and barely even picked up our instruments. That's been really great.

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Zedd's Road To 'Telos': How Creating For Himself & Disregarding Commercial Appeal Led To An Evolutionary New Album

'Telos' "isn't going to be that pop album that some people may have wanted me to make," Zedd tells GRAMMY.com of his highly anticipated album — his first in nine years.

At the time of our call, the release of Telos — Zedd 's first studio album in nearly a decade — is just seven days away. Snug in an earthy brown crewneck, the 34-year-old musician joins the Zoom from his new home in Encino, California, with a degree of poise that some might find surprising at this point in the rollout. 

Still, his relaxed body language, decisive, measured speech, and quiet confidence make it clear that any anxiety he once felt about the LP has been replaced by pure anticipation. 

"I am honestly just really excited. I think I've released music in the past that I was nervous about, but it's quite different with this album," he tells GRAMMY.com. "I feel very calm and just happy to be able to release this music that I've been working on for so long, some of which has been in the works as late as nine years ago." 

Out Aug. 30, Telos arrives about four years later than initially announced and about eight years after it was contractually due. Though Zedd confirmed that the long-awaited answer to his second studio album, True Colors (2015), would arrive in 2020, he indefinitely postponed the project at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

"I decided to push back the album to when things are more back to normal," he wrote in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) in November 2020. "I really wanted it to come out this year, but I put the album on standby because during quarantine, I just didn't feel the inspiration to make this the best album possible."

Timing is everything and Zedd, who counts a clock ticking sample among his stylistic hallmarks, knows this well. Zedd embraced the axiom while making Telos , an album that "isn't for the algorithms" in an era when creative works' cultural capital is largely decided by how well they pander to an algorithm. Telos is decidedly — and in some ways, daringly — non-commercial. "Lucky," alongside singer/songwriter Remi Wolf and "Automatic Yes" with John Mayer , are notably the only two tracks palatable for commercial radio airplay. The 10-track album largely plays like a love letter to classical music (there is an orchestra on the entire LP), with flashes of pop, dance/electronic, jazz, world music, and metal influence. A cross-generational list of collaborators — including 40-year-old musician and composer Jeremy Kittle, who recorded each string for the album one by one, and Gen Z singer-songwriter Bea Miller — further dynamize Telos .

Telos "isn't going to be that pop album that some people may have wanted me to make," Zedd acknowledges. Nor will it be the dance/electronic LP that purists from his name-making run in the early-2010’s might long for. Fans gained during the GRAMMY-winning producer's complextro, electro, and progressive house-heavy era (think "Shave It" ) have been some of his most outspoken critics in recent years, reproaching his stride into commercial pop.

This response is neither surprising nor foreign to Zedd. "I felt the same way about a lot of bands and artists that I grew up listening to when I heard their new music," he reflects. "In the moment, you might be like, I'm disappointed, 'cause I wanted X, Y, Z , and with a little bit of perspective, you realize what an artist has done, and maybe those become your favorite works when you give it time."

Zedd has already proved his ability to craft pop hits with staying power — with help from some of the genre’s most prominent voices. The 2017 single "Stay" with Alessia Cara (2017) and 2018's "The Middle" with Maren Morris and Grey were two of Zedd's biggest smashes in the dance-pop domain post- True Colors . Both singles achieved platinum certification, though "The Middle" has since struck platinum six times. Like "Clarity" — the 2012 breakthrough single that scored Zedd his sole golden gramophone (for Best Dance Recording) — "Stay" and "The Middle" imbued him with the confidence and greater depth of reference to make an album like Telos .

"If I made another album today that felt the same way Clarity felt back then, you wouldn't feel the same way about Clarity today," Zedd reasons, adding that Telos has some of the "internal motivations" and experimentation of Clarity . "It's just a more mature and experienced expression, so I think the people who loved Clarity will find plenty to love on Telos ."

The album's debut single, "Out Of Time" featuring Bea Miller, is likely to serve as one such point of connection. It retains the DNA of Zedd's established, melody-driven sonic identity while still feeling fresh and exploratory.

"It's a really good example of a new version of an old me," he attests. "The real core of what Zedd feels like isn't the sound. It's not the synths, and it's not the kicks you hear at the festival. It's actually really deeply rooted in chord progressions and melodies. Those are well alive, and more than ever, on Telos ."

At nine-and-a-half-years-old, "Out Of Time" is the oldest track on the album, penned just after Zedd delivered True Colors (OG fans will recognize the song's chord progression from the intro to his DJ sets). His motivation to repeatedly rework the track and fashion it into the album opener stems, in part, from the feeling that it was "too theatrical" to be a standalone single.

Telos provided "the perfect canvas to deliver all these meaningful songs to my life and to my career that couldn't just be one-offs," he says.

Zedd’s current musical ethos is born from his disenchantment with the direction of music in the age of algorithms and TikTok, and the resulting Telos is the product of his "decision to really be free musically."  

"There was one moment in making Telos that made me realize this is like my autobiography. This is everything I am as an artist, and everything I do musically is for me," Zedd says with conviction. "That was a really liberating moment because I am essentially guaranteeing that I'm not going to disappoint anyone because the only audience is me. I'm making this for myself." 

"It sounds so silly to even say [this album is just going to be for me] because you would think that everything you make as an artist is for you," he concedes. "But really, the truth is it's hard to block out the feeling that people might be disappointed, and the feeling that you could change a song, and you would make so many people happy." 

Telos ' exhaustive creation process was as much a matter of deconstruction as it was reconstruction. About halfway through the first version of "Z3," as the album is known colloquially among fans, Zedd scrapped 90 percent of what he'd written, salvaging only "Dream Brother." The hypnotic interpretation of Jeff Buckley 's 1994 song embodies the musicality that threads Telos — from the texture of the opening guitar chords and piano, to the swell of strings, and Zedd's signature clock ticking sample in its outro. Telos marks the first and only time the Buckley estate has given an artist the rights to the late creative's work. 

"Dream Brother," Zedd explains, was "the only song that felt lik e this is living very much in the world that I really deeply feel ," citing it as "a song that has inspired me since my early days as a musician." 

Between his successes on Billboard 's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and the coveted Hot 100, it may be easy to forget that Zedd's musicality traces back to childhood. A classically trained musician, Zedd began playing the piano at the age of four and still writes his music on the piano first . Telos is a cerebral reminder that it's reductive to think of Zedd as anything less than a natural-born composer.

Elsewhere, "Sona," featuring the olllam, harkens back to Zedd's days as a member of German metalcore band DIORAMIC in its use of the 7/4 time signature. "Sona" is the first song in this time signature that Zedd has made since his days as a band member (he was the group's drummer from ages 12 to 20). 

Still, Telos ' unequivocal pièce de resistance is "1685" with GRAMMY-winning English rock band Muse . The six-minute and 11-second album finale takes inspiration from Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Well Tempered Clavier" — the first classical piece Zedd ever learned to play on piano as a child and as he calls it, "probably the most influential piece ever written in life for me."

Named for Bach's birth year, "1685" extends the full-circle nature of Telos. Both a tribute to his favorite composer and a reference to Zedd's earliest days as a musician (he performed a cover of Muse during his very first concert with DIORAMIC), these connections imbue Telos with authenticity and soul.  

Intricate and lovingly-crafted, Telos is Zedd at his most musically honest. "It's my entire life in one album," he says. "It's truly an evolution of who I am as a musician." 

His decision to eschew trends and commercial formulae to embrace "music for the sake of art" confers a sense of timelessness to Telos . For those versed in gaming terminology (like the multi-platinum producer, a notorious gamer) Telos is Zedd in his final form — a state unlocked only after the successful completion of considerable, skill-building challenges. 

Fittingly, the multifaceted nature of Telos and its creator is reflected in the album's title. The Greek word has multiple meanings, including accomplishment, completion of human art, and the end. He chose the name "telos" 30 or so minutes before he had to submit the LP — an  ironic timeline for a production that took years to conceive.  Yet like all of the creative choices that culminate in Telos , this, too, was part of a thoughtful strategy. Zedd wanted to be sure that the album's title would faithfully capture its concept, even after the LP’s many metamorphoses. 

"I really relate to all of the meanings," he says. "Accomplishment of a goal is one of them. I made this album that I was dreaming of making my whole life with the artists I love so much who have inspired me, so it's a genuine dream come true to make this album." 

With introspection written on his face, Zedd pauses, then continues: "One of the meanings of 'telos' is the end, and there was a good chunk of time where I thought this might be the last music I will ever release. It's kind of like I put all my emotions and feelings into this one album…is there any reason for me to take space away in this universe if this is all I have left to say? And for a moment towards the tail end, I was like 'yeah, Telos is the name for this album because I will never make another song in my life.'" But Telos is merely another beginning, briefly disguised as an end. Zedd delivered the album, had a second to breathe, moved from Beverly Hills to Encino, put a piano in his bedroom, and "inevitably started writing new music." Timing is everything.

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The L.A. festival is famous for bringing an array of electronic sounds, from dance-pop and experimental techno, to classic house and rare back-to-backs — and this year's lineup features some of the biggest and buzziest acts in dance music.

When it comes to American dance music culture, few events carry the cool cache of a HARD party. Founded on New Year's Eve of 2008 by DJ and former label A&R Gary Richards, the name HARD has become synonymous with taste-making, offering fans an enviable mix of influential headliners and cutting-edge up-and-comers.

HARD parties have been a breakout platform for luminaries like Justice , Skrillex , deadmau5 , and more, and the HARD Summer festival is one of the brand's most celebrated flagship events. In 2017, HARD was absorbed into the Insomniac festival family — the same company that brings fan-favorites EDC Las Vegas and Electric Forest to life — which ensures the stage production, on-site activities and other ancillary fun are sure to be supersized. How many festivals do you know that offer a Ferris wheel and a swimming pool?

Coming to Los Angeles' Hollywood Park near SoFi Stadium on Aug. 3 and 4, this year's lineup continues the tradition of blending authoritative artists, legacy DJs and unique back-to-back headliners with buzzy newcomers in a variety of genres and styles. 

Whether you wanna rave out with club king Jamie xx , bang your head to bass with Zeds Dead, get tropical with Major Lazer , see what it sounds like for UK grime star Skepta to DJ, or just sing along to mid-2000s belters courtesy of dance-pop crossover queen Nelly Furtado , there's something to please every palette. Of course, in true HARD tradition, we seriously recommend exploring the undercard, because the biggest name in electronic music tomorrow is probably playing one of the HARD side stages today.

While you wrap your head around the stacked lineup, check out a quick guide to 10 must-see acts below.

A legend on the decks who can play blissful disco or teeth-shattering techno with a smile, Boys Noize is a must-see on any lineup simply because he loves doing the job. He recently teamed with Skrillex on the anthem "Fine Day," and released an entire EP with alt-rap icon Rico Nasty. He's also the producer behind Lady Gaga 's beloved Ariana Grande collab, "Rain On Me," and Playboi Carti's "Unlock It," but he's likely to unleash a massive set of hard techno bangers for the L.A. crowd — though you never can tell which direction he'll take you in next, so come with an open mind.

As the top-billed headliner for Saturday night, Disclosure should need little to no introduction to any modern dance music fan — but that doesn't mean you should sleep on their set.

Howard and Guy Lawrence emerged on the scene as seemingly an instant success. The brothers' debut album, Settle , almost single-handedly changed the landscape of popular dance in 2012, moving the taste du jour away from the big-room EDM and bass-heavy trap sound toward a UK garage revival that still carries, and helped launch Sam Smith 's career in the process.

In the 12 years that followed, Disclosure has continued to push the envelope — and themselves — working with cross-genre heavyweights including Lorde , Khalid , Miguel , Kelis , Slowthai , and The Weeknd , as well as incorporating international sounds and styles into their club-driven house grooves. Earlier this year, Disclosure returned with the dance floor-ready single "She's Gone, Dance On," announcing themselves as arbiters of disco-laced funk and good-time DJs for 2024 crowds. Surely they'll be in top form come HARD Summer.

If you like your dark techno to come with a side of hip-shaking Latin rhythms, Miami-bred duo INVT is the experimental sound machine you can't possibly pass up. Luca Medici and Delbert Perez have been best friends since they were kids, and that closeness comes through in their tight experimental sets, blending booming bass with glitched-out techno synths, cumbia rhythms, dembow beats, and acidic edge.

INVT are — as the name may imply — extremely innovative, leaning into their own productions and edits to curate an approach that feels hypnotic, exciting and unique. If you're not afraid of beats that go really hard and get a little weird, this is a set that can set your wild mind ablaze.

What happens when you put two of the most unique and hard-hitting producers in electronic music together on one stage? Deadmau5 is one of the scene's leading icons, and Rezz (who released her debut album of deadmau5's Mau5trap label in 2017) shifted bass music culture with her gritty, techno-fueled, half-time sound. The two share a love of dark, stomping, left-field noise, and after years of teasing possible collaborations, those shared interests merged on the 2021 collaboration "Hypnocurrency." Two years later, they released the booming, dystopian 2023 single "Infraliminal" — not just a brilliant rework of deadmau5's 2012 track "Superliminal," but the official introduction to Rezzmau5.

Rezzmau5 haven't released anything since, and live performances from the duo have remained few and far between. But the monolithic duo just warmed up their trippy joint live show at Tomorrowland 2024, which was set in "the mythical realm of Silvyra," a world "filled with creatures, plant life, and people living in harmony." Whether or not their HARD set follows the same storyline, it's certain to shake the skulls of every dancer at Hollywood Park. Prepare your body for something deep, dark and maniacal.

There aren't many electronic acts that bring the same level of frontman energy that Elderbrook boasts on stage. A multi-talented performer, the UK artist sings and plays instruments, creating a rock-show experience unlike most sets at heavily electronic festivals like HARD. He leads the crowd in heartfelt sing-alongs to hits including "Numb," "Something About You," "Inner Light" and, of course, his megahit CamelPhat collab "Cola."

Bouncing between his microphone, synthesizers and keyboards, samplers and drum pads, his one-man band performance is sure to draw a serious crowd. If you're ready for a break from the hard-edged rave noise and want to ascend to heavenly heights, Elderbrook is the man for the job.

Fisher + Chris Lake (Under Construction)

Nothing is more fun than watching two best mates go absolutely nuts on the decks. And when two stellar DJs go back-to-back, everyone wins, because they spend the whole set trying to impress each other.  

Chris Lake is one of the most influential producers in tech house. Fisher is one of the most unhinged and energizing DJs one can ever witness. Together, the besties deliver an over-the-top party with an arsenal of mind-numbing drops, weirdo grooves and just-plain fun vibes that make you wanna hug your friends and dance 'til you sweat. The set is called Under Construction, but make no mistake: these two have completely mastered the blueprint.

If you like your sets to be playful cross-genre explorations of sounds from around the world — tied together by booty-shaking beats and booming bass lines — JYOTY is sure to check all your boxes. She knows how to lead a great party because she spent her childhood frequenting the unmatched clubs of Amsterdam. And with an ethos built around playing whatever the heck she wants, she's comfortable dropping a bit of hip-hop into some Brazilian bops, mixing it up with hard breakbeats, blistering rave synths and more.

Kerri Chandler

If you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it, but no one brings the house down quite like Kerri Chandler. A pioneer of the original deep and garage house movements, Chandler was a foundational DJ of the '80s scene, holding down a residency at the legendary Club Zanzibar in New Jersey and founding the MadHouse Records label. If you want to feel the soulful spirit that made electronic music what it is, Chandler's dreamy mix of feel-good melodies served over kickin' club beats are a direct line to house music's roots.

Mary Droppinz

You know how Mary Poppins had a magical bag that held everything from a hat rack to an ornate mirror, a house plant and a Tiffany lamp? Well, California DJ Mary Droppinz comes equipped with a magical USB that's positively bursting with mean beats and original edts.

This woman can blend everything from grimy bouncing bass to ethereal orchestral house, Spice Girls reworks, drum'n'bass bangers, reggae upbeats, '90s R&B remixes and chart-topping hits of the moment twisted into face-melting heaters. You can try to guess where she'll go next, but it's better to just let her take control and follow the vibe through all the devious twists and turns. The one thing you can count on? You'll leave her set dripping with sweat.

Disclosure aren't the only brilliant UK brothers on the HARD Summer lineup. Overmono's Tom and Ed Russell hail from Wales and make some of the most inspired club records of our time.

With backgrounds exploring hard techno, drum'n'bass and rave, the brothers combined their talents in 2015 and have since created an enviable blend of soulful atmospheres and frenetic breakbeats that feels nostalgic and sentimental, but still very heavy. Overmono's 2023 album Good Lies is a great play from start to finish, and a good way to get prepped for their critically acclaimed live set. If you need a big-name co-sign, Overmono was recently featured on Fred again.. 's "Stayinit" with Lil Yachty on the vocal. That's the caliber they're rockin' with — and the prestige they'll bring to HARD Summer.

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"Let Yourself Be Idiosyncratic": Moby Talks New Album 'Always Centered At Night' & 25 Years Of 'Play'

"We're not writing for a pop audience, we don't need to dumb it down," Moby says of creating his new record. In an interview, the multiple-GRAMMY nominee reflects on his latest album and how it contrasts with his legendary release from 1999.

Moby ’s past and present are converging in a serendipitous way. The multiple-GRAMMY nominee is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his seminal work, Play , the best-selling electronic dance music album of all time, and the release of his latest album, always centered at night .  

Where Play was a solitary creation experience for Moby, always centered at night is wholly collaborative. Recognizable names on the album are Lady Blackbird on the blues-drenched "dark days" and serpentwithfeet on the emotive "on air." But always centered at night ’s features are mainly lesser-known artists, such as the late Benjamin Zephaniah on the liquid jungle sounds of "where is your pride?" and Choklate on the slow grooves of "sweet moon."  

Moby’s music proves to have staying power: His early ‘90s dance hits "Go" and "Next is the E" still rip up dancefloors ; the songs on Play are met with instant emotional reactions from millennials who heard them growing up. Moby is even experiencing a resurgence of sorts with Gen Z. In 2023, Australian drum ‘n’ bass DJ/producer Luude and UK vocalist Issey Cross reimagined Moby’s classic "Porcelain" into "Oh My." Earlier this year, Moby released "You and Me" with Italian DJ/producer Anfisa Letyago .  

Music is just one of Moby’s many creative ventures. He wrote and directed Punk Rock Vegan Movie as well as writing and starring in his homemade documentary, Moby Doc . The two films are produced by his production company, Little Walnut , which also makes music videos, shorts and the podcast "Moby Pod ." Moby and co-host Lindsay Hicks have an eclectic array of guests, from actor Joe Manganiello to Ed Begley, Jr., Steve-O and Hunter Biden. The podcast interviews have led to "some of the most meaningful interpersonal experiences," Moby tells GRAMMY.com.  

A upcoming episode of "Moby Pod" dedicated to Play was taped live over two evenings at Los Angeles’ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The episode focuses on Moby recounting his singular experiences around the unexpected success of that album — particularly considering the abject failure of his previous album, Animal Rights . The narrative was broken up by acoustic performances of songs from Play , as well as material from Always Centered at Night (which arrives June 14) with special guest Lady Blackbird. Prior to the taping, Moby spoke to GRAMMY.com about both albums.  

'Always centered at night' started as a label imprint then became the title of your latest album. How did that happen?  

I realized pretty quickly that I just wanted to make music and not necessarily worry about being a label boss. Why make more busy work for myself ?

The first few songs were this pandemic process of going to SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube and asking people for recommendations to find voices that I wasn’t familiar with, and then figuring out how to get in touch with them. The vast majority of the time, they would take the music I sent them and write something phenomenal.

That's the most interesting part of working with singers you've never met: You don't know what you're going to get. My only guidance was: Let yourself be creative, let yourself be idiosyncratic, let the lyrics be poetic. We're not writing for a pop audience, we don't need to dumb it down. Although, apparently Lady Blackbird is one of Taylor Swift 's favorite singers .   

Guiding the collaborators away from pop music is an unusual directive, although perhaps not for you?  

What is both sad and interesting is pop has come to dominate the musical landscape to such an extent that it seems a lot of musicians don't know they're allowed to do anything else. Some younger people have grown up with nothing but pop music. Danaé Wellington, who sings "Wild Flame," her first pass of lyrics were pop. I went back to her and said, "Please be yourself, be poetic." And she said, "Well, that’s interesting because I’m the poet laureate of Manchester." So getting her to disregard pop lyrics and write something much more personal and idiosyncratic was actually easy and really special .  

You certainly weren’t going in the pop direction when making 'Play,' but it ended up being an extremely popular album. Did you have a feeling it was going to blow up the way it did?

I have a funny story. I had a date in January 1999 in New York. We went out drinking and I had just gotten back the mastered version of   Play . We're back at my apartment, and before our date became "grown up," we listened to the record from start to finish.   She actually liked it.   And I thought,   Huh, that's interesting. I didn't think anyone was going to like this record .  

You didn’t feel anything different during the making of 'Play?'

I knew to the core of my being that   Play   was going to be a complete, abject failure. There was no doubt in my mind whatsoever. It was going to be my last record and it was going to fail. That was the time of people going into studios and spending half a million dollars. It was   Backstreet Boys   and   Limp Bizkit   and   NSYNC ; big major label records that were flawlessly produced.   Play   was made literally in my bedroom. 

I slept under the stairs like Harry Potter in my loft on Mott Street. I had one bedroom and that's where I made the record on the cheapest of cheap equipment held up literally on milk crates. Two of the songs were recorded to cassette, that's how cheap the record was. It was this weird record made by a has-been, a footnote from the early rave days. There was no world where I thought it was going to be even slightly successful. Daniel Miller from Mute said — and I remember this very clearly — "I think this record might sell over 50,000 copies." And I said, "That’s kind of you to say but let's admit that this is going to be a failure. Thank you for releasing my last record."   

Was your approach in making  'Play'  different from other albums?  

The record I had made before   Play ,   Animal Rights , was this weird, noisy metal punk industrial record that almost everybody hated. I remember this moment so vividly: I was playing Glastonbury in 1998 and it was one of those miserable Glastonbury years.   When it's good, it's paradise; it's really special.   But the first time I played, it was disgusting, truly. A foot and a half of mud everywhere, incessant rain and cold. I was telling my manager that I wanted to make another punk rock metal record. And he said the   most gentle   thing, "I know you enjoy making punk rock and metal. People really   enjoy   when you make electronic music." 

The way he said it, he wasn't saying, "You would help your career by making electronic music." He simply said, "People enjoy it." If I had been my manager, I would have said, "You're a f— ing   idiot. Everyone hated that record. What sort of mental illness and masochism is compelling you to do it again?" Like Freud said, the definition of mental illness is doing the same thing and expecting different results.   But his response was very emotional and gentle and sweet, and that got through to me.   I had this moment where I realized,   I can make music that potentially people will   enjoy   that will make them happy.   Why not pursue that?  

That was what made me not spend my time in ‘98 making an album inspired by Sepultura and   Pantera   and   instead make something more melodic and electronic.  

After years of swearing off touring, what’s making you hit stages this summer?  

I love playing live music. If you asked me to come over and play Neil Young songs in your backyard, I would say yes happily, in a second. But going on tour, the hotels and airports and everything, I really dislike it.   

My manager tricked me. He found strategically the only way to get me to go on tour was to give the money to animal rights charities. My philanthropic Achilles heel. The only thing that would get me to go on tour. It's a brief tour of Europe, pretty big venues, which is interesting for an old guy, but when the tour ends, I will have less money than when the tour begins.  

Your DJ sets are great fun. Would you consider doing DJ dates locally?  

Every now and then I’ll do something. But there’s two problems. As I've become very old and very sober, I go to sleep at 9 p.m. This young guy I was helping who was newly sober, he's a DJ. He was doing a DJ set in L.A. and he said, "You should come down. There's this cool underground scene." I said, "Great! What time are you playing?" And he said "I’m going on at 1 a.m." By that point I've been asleep for almost five hours.

I got invited to a dinner party recently that started at 8 p.m. and I was like, "What are you on? Cocaine in Ibiza? You're having dinner at 8 p.m .  What craziness is that? That’s when you're putting on your soft clothes and watching a '30 Rock' rerun before bed. That's not going out time." And the other thing is, unfortunately, like a lot of middle aged or elderly musicians, I have a little bit of tinnitus so I have to be very cautious around loud music.

Are you going to write a third memoir at any point?  

Only when I figure out something to write. It's definitely not going to be anecdotes about sobriety because my anecdotes are: woke up at 5 a.m., had a smoothie, read The New York Times , lamented the fact that people are voting for Trump, went for a hike, worked on music, played with Bagel the dog, worked on music some more went to sleep, good night. It would be so repetitive and boring. 

It has to be something about lived experience and wisdom. But I don't know if I've necessarily gotten to the point where I have good enough lived experience and wisdom to share with anyone. Maybe if I get to that point, I'll probably be wrong, but nonetheless, that would warrant maybe writing another book.

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Photo: Grace Phillips

Beatport's Sofia Ilyas On Creating A More Equitable & Connected Music Industry

"What I love about the music industry is there are so many gaps, and so many observations you can make and sort of insert yourself in and create something quite special itself," Sofia Ilyas of carving out a career as a music professional.

Given that Beatport Chief Community Officer Sofia Ilyas has dedicated the last 15 years or so of her life supporting burgeoning artists, subgenres and underrepresented groups, it's somewhat surprising that she grew up in a household without music.

As a teen, a Sony Walkman with a radio and mixtapes featuring the likes of Radiohead were a lifeline to a world Ilyas' family didn't want her to participate in. She was even kept home during school field trips to the National Gallery museum in London, where she's since hosted her Piano Day music and art event, and will soon be curating a room for their 200th anniversary celebration .

Ilyas has had to sacrifice a lot — namely, a relationship with her strict Muslim family — to carve out a career in music, and hers is a story of patience and resilience. After leaving her home in Cardiff, Wales for London to pursue higher education (against her family's wishes), she found solace and connection in live music. She'd hang out around the sound booth and introduce herself and ask questions about how things worked. Slowly but surely, she befriended people that worked at labels and venues, and even artists — Four Tet grew to know her by name after she kept coming back to his shows.

After years of being a part of the London scene as a dedicated fan, at age 30, Ilyas became co-manager of indie record label Erased Tapes, where she helped popularize neoclassical music and one of its purveyors, experimental German pianist Nils Frahm. Alongside Frahm, Ilyas launched Piano Day, where a diverse range of artists help them celebrate the past, present and future of the instrument alongside contemporary dancers and painters.

Now, as the first Chief Community Officer at major dance music platform Beatport, Ilyas is building community within and across disparate global electronic communities. She aims to bring more women and people of color into the mix.

"We're living in a time where people are feeling incredibly lonely and disconnected from community," Ilyas tells GRAMMY.com. "I [want to] facilitate people to come in to hear from each other, especially women, in a room that feels safe to hold discussion."

GRAMMY.com recently caught up with Ilyas for an insightful, engaging conversation on her work to support women and people of color in electronic music, making piano cool, her hopes for a more equitable music industry, and much more.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

You recently hosted your Piano Day annual events in Melbourne and London — tell me your vision for Piano Day.

When we launched Piano Day in London with Nils [Frahm], it gave me an excuse to try my own events. I had the artists performing in different corners of the room and a painter in the middle, watching and being inspired. I've always looked at different arts and wondered why they can't also be present in the music world and why we can't support each other across various industries. I've had a contemporary dancer at almost every event I've done in London. Piano Day was my way of having my own event that I could own and really show off my curation. Even with the first event, people were saying the space was beautiful and the curation was so good. I felt really validated.

[For Piano Day,] I always ask artists what they can do that's a little bit different, beyond performing their album or recent EP. I had one artist who had never played piano before, and he made a few mistakes and everyone was applauding him like it's okay . It's really important to me that Piano Day offers something that maybe the audience will never see again and they feel they've experienced something very special. An even bigger extension of that is the lineup that I curate for the National Gallery; coupling a piano player with a dancer who had never met before, and multiple artists only ever played piano maybe three times. I love that the artists have felt safe to trust me and that it's the type of event where they can take a risk.

I'm always looking for acts that are open to trying something a bit different and to be challenged by the fact that it's solo piano predominantly. And to also be inspired by the space, the National Gallery is such a prestigious, iconic venue. It's quite an unusual event because you've got people who've come to see the artists and regular visitors who have just come to see the paintings and they happen to stumble across what's happening. What's even more special for me is the audience is full of children. [I've been wondering] how we can do more music events that kids can come to, because I saw how inspired they were.

You'll be returning to the National Gallery in May to help curate their 200th anniversary event. How are you thinking about everything it stands for while bringing it into the future with music and women and people of color?

I've always had an attachment to the Gallery because there were school trips to it and my parents would never let me go. So for them to email me, "Hey, we've been to a couple of your events, would you like to bring Piano Day to the National Gallery?" I was just overwhelmed and hugely complimented.

I went to each room, sat down and thought about the feelings [it brought up]. I ended up landing on the blue room, it's got a lot of English paintings in it. I liked the idea of English artists against old English paintings, sort of breaking that mold of stiffness and classical looks to be like, this is now the future of London coming into the gallery. We placed the piano right in front of this really famous huge horse painting to really make that statement.

I am very mindful of having a diverse and interesting lineup. I always have one artist that starts the event that is a nod to the traditional kind of way of playing [piano]. It usually evolves to some artists playing the neoclassical sounds and then it moves into more the dance element and vocalist and then it ends on "this is the future" type of thing. I always like having that momentum.

Let's talk about your new record label RISE . What's your vision is with it and who are the artists you're currently working with?

I started Rise last year for artists that want help to get to the next level and get the attention of the label they want. I wanted to do a label that was within my bandwidth because I have a full-time job. If there're artists that I can help get from point A to B, then they go on to C, that's a great thing. I have Frank Hopkins on the label, who's an electronic artist, and Kareem Kumar , who's a Black artist who is known for playing in the streets of London. [Kumar] has built an incredibly huge audience on socials that has been a real inspiration to so many youngsters during COVID. They played together for the first time at the National Gallery, where Frank added some really nice ambient sounds and Kareem played the piano.

Too often, labels are quite a stiff experience, they want to assign that artist forever. If there are any artists that want help on press releases, overall branding and PR, that's exactly what RISE is there for. We can help them release some records, sort their online profile and offer guidance to basically uplift the artist so they can get the attention of booking agents, a label etc.

I see the future of labels where they are this sort of incubator-type of model, where they help an artist and the artists can grow into their own team or go off into another label. I envisage more labels existing like mine, where they're helping the artists onto that next level.

What do you think needs to shift for the music industry to be more supportive — financially and otherwise — of artists, particularly young people of color?

One thing that could be great is the labels that are doing well commercially — I'm sure they do this to a certain extent — choose two artists every year for an incubator program and make it more visible. Right now, most labels' A&R is a very closed thing. I think [it would help] if the labels made a very clear way of sending them demos. I know it is difficult because these days, even [people at] labels are so overworked and they don't have time to think about things like this. Maybe a music organization or a body out there could pick this idea up and take it to some of the major labels.

On the live side, [we need] more community spaces where an artist can come by and play regularly to fans and bring their friends and family around. Most venues are so hard to get on the bill, [so there's a need for] smaller 100-capacity-or-so spaces that open the doors more to local artists. We rely on the same names over and over again, whether it's festivals or local clubs, etc.

With your work as Beatport's Chief Community Officer, what are you actively doing to bring in and celebrate more women and people of color in dance music ?

I've always been aware of diversity and my color and who I am in the music industry. Especially when I was around all those white male composers who knew everything about production and I knew nothing, that was very daunting. Even things like drinking — I don't drink and the amount of times it feels uncomfortable to be in the music industry. Many people in South Asian communities, especially Pakistani, grew up in a non-drinking culture, and we should have awareness to make those people feel comfortable otherwise they're never going to join the music industry.

What's been incredible is that Robb [McDaniels, Beatport's CEO] and the team have been, "You own it, you do what you believe." In the first few months, I hired a DEI consultant named Vick Bain, who was an amazing mentor for me. I'm a real big believer in experts. I was able to really upskill myself very fast through having her around.

Putting aside diversity, we're living in a time where people are feeling incredibly lonely and disconnected from community. That's why I'm doing panel events with DJ sets with Beatport. I [want to] facilitate people to come in to hear from each other, especially women, in a room that feels safe to hold discussion.

First meeting of the year was at the National Gallery. Can’t wait to curate my piano event there this year 🥳 pic.twitter.com/RVNFNZWdTV — Sofia Ilyas (@sofiailyas) January 5, 2024

How have you taken it upon yourself to bring more women and artists of color with you along the way, and do you make space and advocate for people?

It's always something that's on the top of my mind because being a South Asian woman in music is already quite difficult at moments. You look around wondering Is there any support for me ? And with my journey of having walked away from my family, part of me is already exhausted from that experience and existing in the music industry in an environment that often feels very alien to me.

Just being a woman in a C-Suite position isn't not easy. I've never been in a role where the focus is to champion women and that's why I'm so grateful for Beatport.

Throughout my career, I've always given out a lot of free PR and guidance, and quite often that's been for women. I've always wanted to be available and I'm always happy to give my time. If anyone reads this, and they want to email me and ask me any questions, I'm always really happy to help.

What's some advice you have for young women of color that want to work in the music industry but don't know where to start?

What I love about the music industry is there are so many gaps, and so many observations you can make and sort of insert yourself in and create something quite special itself. Once you start getting to know your local community, [you can get] so much support from others. I made a lot of my friends by going to vinyl markets and going up to my favorite labels and saying hi. When I was trying to work in the music industry and sending a ton of emails, I got nothing in return. But as soon as I started being a bit more active in the live [music] side, I met so many people.

Don't think you need to do it alone. For so many years, I kept what I was experiencing to myself and I would always present this polished person on Instagram. Lately, I've started really opening up more about how I feel. When I turned 43 recently, I posted on Instagram about how I sometimes overwork to avoid [loneliness]. I was surprised by how many people, especially men, messaged me and said I feel that way too. I'm learning to be more vulnerable.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. You just have to get over ego and fear. I can't sugarcoat it; unfortunately, there are [some] people who are going to make you feel really stupid for asking. Lean on your friends and know you're on the right path. Know that we need more women and more diversity in the industry. Look at people that inspire you. When I used to look at Four Tet, I'd be like, Oh my God, an Indian man on stage, that's so cool . So, look for your inspiration points and be vulnerable with your friends, because it is going to be difficult sometimes. And you can definitely email me anytime. [ Chuckles .]

What does a more equitable music industry look like to you?

Well, that's a big question. I think [it would involve] everyone being more conscious. Whether it's a booking agent or a label looking to sign someone, if everyone is thinking around diversity and consciously looking and making their spaces more open to women. I always think about open doors. How can everyone open their doors more while considering the space people are entering into. It's one thing opening your door but it's another thing if that person enters a space and doesn't feel safe.

For me, a place where everyone's consciously thinking about this, and it isn't just on the organization or a few artists or someone like me in my role to try and figure it out. I think if everyone was conscious of it, things would just happen more seamlessly.

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