lil yachty new album release date

With ‘Let’s Start Here,’ Lil Yachty Emerges as Music’s Boldest Creative Director

By Jeff Ihaza

Lil Yachty is rich. The 25-year-old musician posts TikToks featuring exotic Italian furniture, and goes vintage shopping with Drake. By the time he graduated high school, he’d already bought his mom a house. He caused a mild international incident with his viral hit “Poland,” a loosie released late last year in which he croons, with impossible sincerity, about bringing illegal pharmaceuticals into Poland. One couldn’t imagine a more charmed Gen Z existence. And yet, on “:(failure(:,” an early interlude from his left-turn of a new album, Let’s Start Here, he says that he’s “seen failure a few times/More recently than before, actually.”

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Maturation is a central theme of the album. You can hear the inspiration of Tame Impala ’s anxious midlife musing on “the ride-,” featuring rap experimentalist Teezo Touchdown. The song’s lush, psych-rock production makes for a fitting landscape. We’re bearing witness to a childhood’s end, as both howl into the void. There is, indeed, a lot of howling on the album. 

Oohs and ahhs stretch to the heavens with intention — like on standout “pRETTY,” which is already proving to be a hit on TikTok, and sounds like a slowed bedroom cut from the cult label Naked Music. Percussion rumbles gently over the staggering two-step, while a sensual, otherworldly warble breaks through the clouds like a ray of sunshine in spring. 

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You could call Let’s Start Here a rebuke of the notion that listeners have abandoned the full-length album. The record’s tight 57 minutes feel as cohesive a project as any artist has released in the streaming era. Yachty’s genuine adoration of his musical inspirations is like the Gen Z alchemy of Pinkpantheress, able to turn familiar source material into something entirely new. 

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Let’s Start Here.

The first song on Lil Yachty’s Let’s Start Here. is nearly seven minutes long and features breathy singing from Yachty, a freewheeling guitar solo, and a mostly instrumental second half that calls to mind TV depictions of astral projecting. “the BLACK seminole.” is an extremely fulfilling listen, but is this the same guy who just a few months earlier delivered the beautifully off-kilter and instantly viral “Poland”? Better yet, is this the guy who not long before that embedded himself with Detroit hip-hop culture to the point of a soft rebrand as Michigan Boy Boat? Sure is. It’s just that, as he puts it on “the BLACK seminole.,” he’s got “No time to joke around/The kid is now a man/And the silence is filled with remarkable sounds.” We could call the silence he’s referring to the years since his last studio album, 2020’s Lil Boat 3, but he’s only been slightly less visible than we’re used to, having released the aforementioned Michigan Boy Boat mixtape while also lending his discerning production ear to Drake and 21 Savage’s ground-shaking album Her Loss. Collaboration, though, is the name of the game across Let’s Start Here., an album deeply indebted to some as yet undisclosed psych-rock influences, with repeated production contributions from onetime blog-rock darlings Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson and Patrick Wimberly, as well as multiple appearances from Diana Gordon, a Queens, New York-hailing singer who made a noise during the earliest parts of her career as Wynter Gordon. Also present are R&B singer Fousheé and Beaumont, Texas, rap weirdo Teezo Touchdown, though rapping is infrequent. In fact, none of what Yachty presents here—which includes dalliances with Parliament-indebted acid funk (“running out of time”), ’80s synthwave (“sAy sOMETHINg,” “paint THE sky”), disco (“drive ME crazy!”), symphonic prog rock (“REACH THE SUNSHINE.”), and a heady monologue called “:(failure(:”—is in any way reflective of any of Yachty’s previous output. Which begs the question, where did all of this come from? You needn’t worry about that, says Yachty on the “the ride-,” singing sternly: “Don’t ask no questions on the ride.”

January 27, 2023 14 Songs, 57 minutes Quality Control Music/Motown Records; ℗ 2023 Quality Control Music, LLC, under exclusive license to UMG Recordings, Inc.

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Lil Yachty on His Rock Album ‘Let’s Start Here,’ Rapping With J. Cole, and What’s Next

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

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Nowhere in the rap star manual does it say that a guaranteed formula for success is to “make psychedelic rock album with almost no rapping.” Yet that is exactly what Lil Yachty did with “Let’s Start Here,” his fifth full album but first rock project, after years as a top rapper with hits like “One Night,” “Minnesota,” “Oprah’s Bank Account” and guest spots on Kyle’s smash “iSpy,” Dram’s “Broccoli,” Calvin Harris’ “Faking It” and others.

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Are these the first dates you’re playing behind this new album?

At the album listening session, people did not seem to know what to think.

No! I didn’t know what people would expect, but I knew they wouldn’t expect that. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never been more confident with a body of work, so my chest was out. I didn’t think anyone would be like, “Oh, this sucks.” I genuinely felt like even if you didn’t like it, if you’re a music head, you’d have some kind of respect for the body of work itself, and for an artist to pivot and make something in such a complete, utter, opposite direction from what came before.

You said the people you played the album for included Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator — all of whom have made moves something like that in the past.

I’ll tell you, Tyler was a big reason for this album. He’ll call me at like eight o’clock in the morning — for no reason — and we’ll talk for hours. I was such a fan of [Tyler’s Grammy-winning 2019 album] “Igor,” his character and his way of creating a world — the color palettes, the videos, the billboards, the fonts. It’s all together. And I was like “How do you do that?” Because I was trying to figure out how to make a pop-funk-psychedelic-rock album cohesive, without it sounding like someone’s playlist. Then I started working on the visuals, and what I wanted to do was extremely expensive. To be quite honest, I don’t think my label believed in it enough to give me the budget that I truly needed for the visuals to bring this album to life, so I just made two videos.

Tyler and Drake both called me before my first show — I didn’t even tell them the show was happening but they both called me. That means something to me, because those people are my idols. I remember the day Kanye tweeted [Tyler’s 2011 single] “Yonkers,” I was in eighth grade. So them checking on me means a lot.

Is it a lonely feeling, sticking your neck out creatively like that?

Yeah, at first it was, but another thing Tyler taught me was not to be afraid of that. I was so scared before those first shows, like, “What if they don’t wanna hear it?” Tyler would always say, “Fuck it, make them feel you.”

Like, on the first show of this tour, I told the [sound crew], “Play psychedelic music before I go on, don’t play hip-hop” — but right before I went on they played a Playboi Carti song and I heard the crowd turning up and I was like, “Oh no, they’re gonna hate me!” And when I came out, I have in-ears [onstage monitors] and I have them set so you can’t really hear the crowd, it’s like dead silence. But I just kept going, and then my rap set comes and they go fucking crazy and that gives me confidence, and when I did the big rock outro on “Black Seminole,” they all started clapping. And for me it was the biggest “Oh, thank God,” because I couldn’t tell if they were fucking with it.

Is it exciting being in such a risky place creatively?

You were a teenager.

Exactly, But I still wanted respect, you know? I cared! My career was never solidified, I felt like folks were writing me off, so when I was making “Let’s Start Here,” I was at a point in my career where I did not have a hit rap record — it was like, “Man, this could really go left!” But I didn’t start thinking about that till I got deep into it. When I started, I was just like, “Man, I really love this stuff. Why don’t I hear anything like this now? No one makes psychedelic songs anymore.” I do psychedelics and I knew I wanted to make a psychedelic album. I love long songs, I love to just get deep into them — that’s why I love [Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic] “Dark Side of the Moon.”

I was on psychedelics when I first heard it and I would listen and just be like maaan. Like, bro, how can music make me feel like this? How can music make my brain just go to a new dimension? And how did you do that in 1973? I was like, can I do this? And obviously my answer was no. I mean, no offense, but how many rappers successfully made a rock album?

Almost none.

That’s what I’m saying. I think one of them was Kid Cudi’s rock album — I love it but a lot of people hated it. It’s not a full rock album, but it has a strong rock element to it.

Where did the rock influences come from, your parents?

My dad played a lot of Coldplay, a lot of Radiohead, John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, a lot of John Coltrane, and I’m named after Miles Davis. My family loved James Brown, my dad loved Pharrell. He actually didn’t play Pink Floyd to me, but I’m glad I heard it as an adult.

I tried to make “Let’s Start Here” five years ago — “Lil Boat 2” was supposed to be “Let’s Start Here” with teenage emotions, but I was too young. I got too nervous to experiment on my rap record, and I didn’t have much experience or knowledge in alternative music. I met [“Let’s Start Again” collaborator] Jeremiah Raisan and tried again with the next album, but I chickened out and made another rap album. But when I had that conversation with Tyler, I was like “I’ve gotta do this, let me get that guy back.”

You had a hit with “Poland” — why isn’t it on the album?

That’s what I battled with, but at some point, you have to trust yourself. In the middle of making the album, “Poland” was a huge Internet hit and people were like, “You gotta put it on the album.” But I was like, it doesn’t fit! Just because it’s a hit record doesn’t mean it makes sense anywhere on this record. I was so focused on making my Black “Dark Side of the Moon.” And there is a small rap verse on the album, at the end of “Drive Me Crazy.”

You’ve said you recorded a hip-hop album after you finished “Let’s Start Here,” what’s it like?

What do you want to do next?

I get off tour around Christmas, and in January I’m starting a new album. I don’t know what it is yet, I don’t want to say “alternative.” I have rap album, but I just decided I’m gonna keep dropping songs [from it] until my next [non-rap] album is done.

Do you know who you want to work with on the next album?

So many people, obviously I want to do it on mostly with the band I made the record with, [writers/producers] Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, Jake Portrait and Patrick Wimberly. But I want to work with Donald Glover, I really want to work with Florence from Florence and the Machine. Sampha, Frank [Ocean], Buddy Ross, who worked with Frank. Chris Martin, Bon Iver, Solange, Mike Dean.

I’ve just been exploring, doing things that people wouldn’t expect. Even if I’m not the best at something, let’s just try, let’s explore, let’s create new things.

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Lil Yachty is officially back, and his highly anticipated project is making landfall very soon. The Atlanta emcee announced today (Jan. 17) that his forthcoming album is titled Let’s Start Here and will debut on Jan. 27 via Quality Control Music/Motown Records. “Chapter 2. Thank You for the patience,” he wrote on Instagram.

The anticipation for Let’s Start Here was already high thanks to Yachty’s runaway hit “Poland,” which is the project’s lead single. Since its debut back in October 2022, the track quickly rose to popularity thanks to its incredibly catchy opening hook and enticing production by F1LTHY, Lukrative, and Lucian:

I took the Wock’ to Poland, I took the Wock’ to Poland, I took the Wock’ to Poland/ Uh (Phew, phew), ha, I been fiending (Uh), like I’m Kenan, ride around with a Kel-Tec (Phew, Wock’)/ If you mean it, baby girl, do you mean it? I been leaning, baby girl, I been leaning (Yeah, Wock’)/ Phew, phew, phew (Wock’), phone still ringing, battling all my demons (Yeah), I been fiending, baby girl, I been fiending (Wock’)/ Hope you love me, baby, I hope you mean it (Wock’)

Yachty’s last full-length offering was 2021’s Michigan Boy Boat , a 14-track body of work that saw additional features from Tee Grizzley, Swae Lee, Sada Baby, YN Jay, Rio da Yung OG, Babyface Ray , and more. Months later, he dropped off the sixth installment of his Birthday Mix series, bringing in his 24th trip around the sun with SoFaygo, Lil Tecca, DC2Trill, and Draft Day. Since then, he has released a few loose singles like “Tunde” and “Yae Energy.”

Outside of his own releases, the “One Night” rapper delivered some strong assists on recent tracks, including “Humble” by Diplo, “Wocky My Lover” by Mak Sauce, “Rocc Climbing” by Remble, “Rule #1” by DDG, and “Bank Teller” by Lil Tecca.

Check out Lil Yachty’s album cover for Let’s Start Here down below.

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Lil Yachty announces 'Let's Start Here' album release date

Lil Yachty is officially back, and his highly anticipated project is making landfall very soon. The Atlanta emcee announced today (Jan. 17) that his forthcoming album is titled Let’s Start Here and will debut on Jan. 27 via Quality Control Music/Motown Records. “Chapter 2. Thank You for the patience,” he wrote on Instagram.

The anticipation for Let’s Start Here was already high thanks to Yachty’s runaway hit “Poland,” which is the project’s lead single. Since its debut back in October 2022, the track quickly rose to popularity thanks to its incredibly catchy opening hook and enticing production by F1LTHY, Lukrative, and Lucian:

I took the Wock’ to Poland, I took the Wock’ to Poland, I took the Wock’ to Poland/ Uh (Phew, phew), ha, I been fiending (Uh), like I’m Kenan, ride around with a Kel-Tec (Phew, Wock’)/  If you mean it, baby girl,  do you mean it? I been leaning, baby girl, I been leaning (Yeah, Wock’)/ Phew, phew, phew (Wock’), phone still ringing, battling all my demons (Yeah), I been fiending, baby girl, I been fiending (Wock’)/ Hope you love me, baby, I hope you mean it (Wock’)

Yachty’s last full-length offering was 2021’s Michigan Boy Boat , a 14-track body of work that saw additional features from Tee Grizzley, Swae Lee, Sada Baby, YN Jay, Rio da Yung OG, Babyface Ray , and more. Months later, he dropped off the sixth installment of his  Birthday Mix  series, bringing in his 24th trip around the sun with SoFaygo, Lil Tecca, DC2Trill, and Draft Day. Since then, he has released a few loose singles like “Tunde” and “Yae Energy.”

Outside of his own releases,  the “One Night” rapper delivered some strong assists on recent tracks, including “Humble” by Diplo, “Wocky My Lover” by Mak Sauce, “Rocc Climbing” by Remble, “Rule #1” by DDG, and “Bank Teller” by Lil Tecca.

Check out Lil Yachty’s album cover for Let’s Start Here down below.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by C.V T (@lilyachty)

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Let’s Start Here.

Quality Control / Motown

February 1, 2023

At a surprise listening event last Thursday,  Lil Yachty   introduced his new album  Let’s Start Here. , an unexpected pivot, with a few words every rap fan will find familiar: “I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper or some mumble rapper.” This is the speech rappers are obligated to give when it comes time for the drum loop to take a backseat to guitars, for the rapping to be muted in favor of singing, for the ad-libs to give it up to the background singers, and for a brigade of white producers with plaque-lined walls to be invited into the fold. 

Rap fans, including myself, don’t want to hear it, but the reality is that in large slices of music and pop culture, “rapper” is thrown around with salt on the tongue. Pop culture is powerfully influenced by hip-hop, that is until the rappers get too close and the hands reach for the pearls. If anything, the 25-year-old Yachty—as one of the few rappers of his generation able to walk through the front door anyway because of his typically Gushers-sweet sound and innocently youthful beaded braid look—might be the wrong messenger. 

What’s sour about Yachty’s statement isn’t the idea that he wants to be taken seriously as an artist, but the question of  who  he wants to be taken seriously by. When Yachty first got on, a certain corner of rap fandom saw his marble-mouthed enunciation and unwillingness to drool over hip-hop history as symbols of what was ruining the genre they claimed to love. A few artists more beholden to tradition did some finger-wagging— Pete Rock and  Joe Budden ,  Vic Mensa and  Anderson .Paak , subliminals from  Kendrick and  Cole —but that was years ago, and by now they’ve found new targets. These days, Yachty is respected just fine within rap. If he weren’t, his year-long rebirth in the Michigan rap scene, which resulted in the good-not-great  Michigan Boy Boat , would have been viewed solely as a cynical attempt to boost his rap bona fides. His immersion there felt earnest, though, like he was proving to himself that he could hang. 

The respect Yachty is chasing on  Let’s Start Here. feels institutional. It’s for the voting committees, for the suits; for  Questlove to shout him out as  the future , for Ebro to invite him  back on his radio show and say  My bad, you’re dope.  Never mind if you thought Lil Yachty was dope to start with: The goal of this album is to go beyond all expectations and rules for rappers.

And the big pivot is… a highly manicured and expensive blend of  Tame Impala -style psych-rock, A24 synth-pop, loungey R&B, and  Silk Sonic -esque funk, a sound so immediately appealing that it doesn’t feel experimental at all. In 2020, Yachty’s generational peers,  Lil Uzi Vert and  Playboi Carti , released  Eternal Atake and  Whole Lotta Red : albums that pushed forward pre-existing sounds to the point of inimitability, showcases not only for the artists’ raps but their conceptual visions. Yachty, meanwhile, is working within a template that is already well-defined and commercially successful. This is what the monologue was for? 

To Yachty’s credit, he gives the standout performance on a crowded project. It’s the same gift for versatility that’s made him a singular rapper: He bounces from style to style without losing his individuality. A less interesting artist would have been made anonymous by the polished sounds of producers like  Chairlift ’s Patrick Wimberly,  Unknown Mortal Orchestra ’s Jacob Portrait, and pop songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, or had their voice warped by writing credits that bring together  Mac DeMarco ,  Alex G , and, uh,  Tory Lanez . The production always leans more indulgent than thrilling, more scattershot than conceptual. But Yachty himself hangs onto the ideas he’s been struggling to articulate since 2017’s  Teenage Emotions : loneliness, heartbreak, overcoming failure. He’s still not a strong enough writer to nail them, and none of the professionals collecting checks in the credits seem to have been much help, but his immensely expressive vocals make up for it. 

Actually, for all the commotion about the genre jump on this project, the real draw is the ways in which Yachty uses Auto-Tune and other vocal effects as tools to unlock not just sounds but emotion. Building off the vocal wrinkle introduced on last year’s viral moment “ Poland ,” where he sounds like he’s cooing through a ceiling fan, the highlights on  Let’s Start Here. stretch his voice in unusual directions. The vocals in the background of his wistful hook on “pRETTy” sound like he’s trying to harmonize while getting a deep-tissue massage. His shrill melodies on “paint THE sky” could have grooved with  the Weeknd on  Dawn FM . The opening warble of “running out of time” is like Yachty’s imitation of  Bruno Mars imitating  James Brown , and the way he can’t quite restrain his screechiness enough to flawlessly copy it is what makes it original.

Too bad everything surrounding his unpredictable and adventurous vocal detours is so conventional. Instrumental moments that feel like they’re supposed to be weird and psychedelic—the hard rock guitar riff that coasts to a blissful finale in “the BLACK seminole.” or the slow build of “REACH THE SUNSHINE.”—come off like half-measures.  Diana Gordon ’s falsetto-led funk on “drive ME crazy!” reaches for a superhuman register, but other guest appearances, like  Fousheé ’s clipped lilts on “pRETTy” and  Daniel Caesar ’s faded howls on the outro, are forgettable. None of it is ever  bad : The synths on “sAy sOMETHINg” shimmer; the drawn-out intro and outro of “WE SAW THE SUN!” set the lost, trippy mood they’re supposed to; “THE zone~” blooms over and over again, underlined by  Justine Skye ’s sweet and unhurried melodies. It’s all so easy to digest, so pitch-perfect, so safe.  Let’s Start Here. clearly and badly wants to be hanging up on those dorm room walls with  Currents and  Blonde and  IGOR . It might just work, too. 

Instead, consider this album a reminder of how limitless rap can be. We’re so eager for the future of the genre to arrive that current sounds are viewed as restricting and lesser. But rap is everything you can imagine. I’m thinking about “Poland,” a song stranger than anything here: straight-up 1:23 of chaos, as inventive as it is fun. I took that track as seriously as anything I heard last year because it latches onto a simple rap melody and pushes it to the brink. Soon enough, another rapper will hear that and take it in another direction, then another will do the same. That’s how you really get to the future. 

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Lil Yachty shares cover art and release date for new album Let’s Start Here

The record arrives january 27 via quality control and motown records..

Lil Yachty has announced the title, release date, and cover art for his next album. Let’s Start Here , a psychedelic non-rap project from the multi-talented emcee, is due out January 27 via Quality Control and Motown Records.

The forthcoming project, billed as a fresh beginning for Yachty, took a hit when it was leaked in its entirety on Christmas Day. The leak led to speculation that the record’s release might be delayed or cancelled entirely, but it seems Yachty and his team are soldiering on as scheduled. Following the viral success of his catchy 2022 single “ Poland ,” the unfortunate event proved to be only a momentary setback.

Read Next: Lil Yachty flirts with harsh noise on “Something Ether”

Check out the newly revealed cover art for Let’s Start Here below.

Let’s Start Here cover art

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Lil’ Yachty Shares Cover For ‘Let’s Start Here’ Album

• January 19, 2023
• Ryan Shepard

After contributing to 21 Savage and Drake’s  Her Loss , Lil’ Yachty is ready to return with a new body of work. On Tuesday, he shared the artwork for his forthcoming project,  Let’s Start Here . Set for release on January 27, the Georgia native’s newest LP is covered by a piece of AI-generated artwork that appears to show a set of record executive frighteningly laughing as they present a contract for someone to sign.

“Thank you for your patience,” Lil’ Yachty captioned the post in which he shared his artwork.

Lil’ Yachty released his fourth studio album,  Lil’ Boat III , at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was led by the release of “Split/Whole Time” and “Oprah’s Bank Account” featuring DaBaby and Drake. It also included outstanding contributions from Tierra Whack, A$AP Rocky and Tyler, The Creator. This time around, it appears that he may take his focus in a new direction. In an interview last year, he said his next release would be a “non-rap album.” Instead, he said it would be a “psychedelic alternative project… [with] all live instrumentation.”

“It’s alternative, it’s sick,” he said .

Until the full project arrives on January 27, 2023, check out the artwork below.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by C.V T (@lilyachty)

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Lil Yachty to Release Fifth Studio Album ‘Let’s Start Here’ Later This Month

Following the alleged leak of ‘sonic ranch.’.

Lil Yachty has announced that he’ll be dropping his latest album Let’s Start Here via Quality Control and Motown Records . The project will land as the Georgia rapper’s fifth studio album, following 2020’s Lil Boat 3 .

Yachty shared the cover art for the LP on Instagram, which shows a warped image of men and women wearing suits. “Let’s Start Here. – 1/27,” he wrote in the caption. “Chapter 2. Thank You for the patience.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by C.V T (@lilyachty)

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Stream Lil Yachty's Debut LP "Teenage Emotions"

Lil Yachty has unleashed his Teenage Emotions LP into the world. Armed with 21 tracks, the project features guests like Migos, Diplo and YG. It serves as the follow-up to the 19-year-old’s 2016 mixtape, Summer Songs 2 and also marks his first official studio album.

The Atlanta rapper teased the project last month when he posted an Instagram post featuring the controversial album art with Yachty sitting in the middle of a movie theater surrounded by “outcasts.” As indicated by the title, his personal feelings is a theme he addresses throughout Teenage Emotions .

Lil Boat appeared on Beats 1 Radio early Thursday (May 25) and host Zane Lowe covered a bevy of topics, including being arrested for credit card fraud at 18 years old and his haters.

Check out Lil Yachty’s Teenage Emotions  album stream, cover art and tracklist below.

• Like A Star
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• All Around Me f. YG & Kamaiyah
• Say My Name
• All You Had To Say
• Better f. Stefflon Don
• Forever Young f. Diplo
• Lady In Yellow
• Moments In Time
• Otha Shit (Interlude)
• XMen f. Evander Griim
• Bring It Back
• Running With The Ghost f. Grace
• FYI (I Know Now)
• Made Of Glass
• Momma (Outro) f. Sonyae Elise

(The original article was published April 20 and can be found below.)

Love him or hate him, Lil Yachty is one of the leaders of Hip Hop’s current youth movement and the 19-year-old Atlanta native has big plans for 2017. This coming May, Lil Boat will release his debut album, Teenage Emotions , featuring some stars from his hometown among other guests.

Yachty, born Miles McCollum, took to Twitter to share the album cover and tracklist for Teenage Emotions . Among the features present on the 21-track release is Migos on the song “Peek A Boo” and YG alongside Kamaiyah on “All Around Me.”

Rounding out the features are Diplo on “Forever Young” and London Grime artist Stefflon Don shows up for “Better.” Evander Griiim makes an appearance on “XMEN” and continues a strong year for the El Paso, Texas rapper after making a splash with the “Right Now” remix featuring Gucci Mane.

Lil Yachty dropped two free projects last year, Lil Boat and Summer Songs 2 .

Teenage Emotions is set for a May 26 release.

View Lil Yachty’s  Teenage Emotions album cover art and tracklist below.

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Magdalena Bay – ‘Imaginal Disk’ review: a time capsule of post-internet existentialism

The duo’s second album captures the visionaries at their most expansive: kaleidoscopic and overproduced in all the right ways

“You are formless, yet you are still you,” write LA synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay on the eerie corridors of the darkly sci-fi website that accompanies their second album, ‘Imaginal Disk’. It’s the sort of metaphysical, techno-spiritual world-building fans expect: today’s alt-pop is no stranger to otherworldly e-girl pantomime and puzzling fictional websites, and Magdalena Bay’s expands upon their mysterious universe.

Over five years, Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin’s vaporwave fantasia has spanned post-internet mysticism and new-age philosophies. Their acclaimed debut, 2021’s ‘Mercurial World’ – a surreal silvery disco that landed somewhere between Grimes and Chvrches – was cacophonous and maximalist hyperspace pop, vast and unending. Satire and sincerity drove their Y2K retro-futurist vision, where the overstimulating internet became a portal to self-discovery. Their chops garnered a credit on the debut EP from TWICE ‘s Jihyo , and even Lil Yachty got Magdalena-fever on 2023’s ‘Running Out of Time’ .

Across the kitschy pilgrimage of its cerebral follow-up ‘Imaginal Disk’, Tenenbaum and Lewin further consolidate this lore, but cracks in the matrix – the real world, the negative effects of being terminally online, etc – threaten the euphoria of online escapism. It’s soundtracked by the same anachronistic, trippy synth-pop of its predecessor but grounded by the busk-y tambourine and analogue percussion of indie-pop.

There’s an artful slant thanks to Chairlift -indebted avant-pop, yet it’s never pretentious or – despite its sci-fi narrative – too concerned with the future. It’s still innovative, mind, but where ‘Mercurial World’ was informed by modern pop, ‘Imaginal Disk’ avoids the influence of new music almost entirely, according to press material.

Nostalgic instrumentation softens the synth-pop edge of ‘Imaginal Disk’, which has the added benefit of cementing its instant timelessness, imbuing the record with a campy, psychedelic, maudlin approach – one that feels all the more interesting as a counter to minimalist, bratty, party pop .

While gothic, theatrical St Vincent -ish vocals infatuate the wistful ‘Vampire in the Corner’, a Woodstock shrooms trip inspires the hypnotic delusion of the satirical ‘Love is Everywhere’ (which interpolates that sun-drenched Lil Yachty cut). Then, an 80s-inspired,  I Saw the TV Glow -coded monster stalks the accompanying video for indie-disco track ‘Image’; celestial horns and echo chambers usher soft-pop armageddon on the unravelling groove-rock of standout ‘Tunnel Vision’, and Tenenbaum is a dancefloor deity on noughties grunge banger ‘That’s My Floor’.

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By the time the technicolour show-stopper ‘The Ballad of Mica and Matt’ reprises the cutesy melody of its earthbound, pacifist opener ‘She Looked Like Me!’, it’s crystal that ‘Imaginal Disk’ captures the visionaries at their most expansive, yet corporeal. Stylishly gauche and expertly overproduced, kaleidoscopically experimental and expressionistic, ‘Imaginal Disk’ is a zeitgeisty time capsule of anxious post-internet existentialism and the online condition observed through a synthy flower-power lens. Here, Magdalena Bay are underrated pop messiahs at the top of their game.

• Record label: Mom + Pop
• Release date: August 23, 2024
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Lil Yachty Sends Drake Fans Into A Frenzy By Unfollowing Him On IG

It seems like fans will spend "Another Late Night" theorizing and speculating as to who Drake is beefing with next. Moreover, some eagle-eyed fans on social media recently noticed that Lil Yachty seemed to unfollow him on Instagram. This shocked a lot of admirers thanks to the duo's strong collaborative and personal relationship prior to this, as well as the fact that they engaged with each other online as much as in person. Furthermore, OVO and Concrete supporters immediately got into detective mode, speculating that the supposed upcoming release of Drizzy's " Supersoak " has something to do with it.

If you didn't already know, DJ Akademiks previewed a clip of the music video for this song, which originally featured Lil Yachty. In fact, it was Yachty who leaked the original collab version of the song to Kai Cenat for him to play it on his livestream. This was because they couldn't clear the sample, as the sampled artist Mr. Hotspot's religious views prompted him to demand a clean version of the team-up . With this new development in mind, many speculate that Mr. Hotspot is mad at Yachty for revealing all this on a podcast, and told the 6ix God that he could drop it if he removed his partner.

Read More: DJ Akademiks Argues Kendrick Lamar & J. Cole Never Had A "Stimulus Package" Like Drake

Lil Yachty Seemingly Unfollows Drake

Of course, that's just an unfounded theory, and so will any others before one of them actually speaks out about it. Still, we're not even inclined to believe that this indicates a rift between the two, as it could just as easily be a promo tactic. Nevertheless, it's not like Drake and Lil Yachty's relationship has all been peaches and cream. For example, the latter's thoughts on the former's beef with Kendrick Lamar resulted in considerable uproar from the Toronto superstar's die-hards.

Regardless, we'll see if Drake and Lil Yachty speak on this at any point. It's not like every fan loved this collab , but fans worry about this partnership fading. After all, they picked a pretty contentious and controversial moment to stir even more rumors about who is or isn't beefing. Are they bamboozling us just to troll or is there something deeper going on?

Read More: Jim Jones Hits Lil Yachty With A Challenge Following Viral Regional Fashion Comments

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Cash Cobain Drops Super-Packed Posse Track ‘Problem,’ Announces Release Date for ‘Play Cash Cobain’ Album

The nearly eight-minute single features Flo Milli, Big Sean, Fabolous, Luh Tyler, YN Jay and nine other MCs.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

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Cash Cobain has recruited a massive crew to help him on his new single, “Problem,” a nearly eight-minute posse cut featuring 14 MCs that dropped on Wednesday (August 14) in the lead-up to the release of the buzzing Bronx rapper’s upcoming album.

Chartbreaker: ‘Fisherrr’ Was No Viral Fluke, As Cash Cobain Declares, ‘I Am Here To Stay…

Trending on billboard.

Cobain also announced that this upcoming album, Play Cash Cobain , is due out on August 23. The follow-up to 2023’s Pretty Girls Love Slizzy will feature previously released singles “Fisherrr,” “Rump Punch” and “Dunk Contest.” The rapper is on tour now with “Fisherrr” remix collaborator Ice Spice on her headlining Y2K! tour.

Watch the “Problem” visualizer below.

📀 PLAY CASH COBAIN 👤 CASH COBAIN 📅 AUGUST 23RD, 2024 pic.twitter.com/MBCLuKRAQM — OnThinIce (@OnThinlce) August 14, 2024

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