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Michigan Boy Boat

Quality Control / Motown

April 28, 2021

There has never been a bag Lil Yachty won’t shamelessly chase. Since the Atlanta rapper arrived in 2016 with his melodic mixtape Lil Boat , he has been equally known for brand shilling as his music. He hit a two-step with Carly Rae Jepsen in a Target ad . He reworked the lyrics for his grating breakout single “Minnesota” for a Sprite commercial . He devised a cursed Chef Boyardee jingle with Donny Osmond. He might have recorded the worst television theme song of all time. Currently he’s working on a movie based around the card game Uno. It’s a reflection of the current climate, where almost any rapper eligible to appear on the top three lines of a Rolling Loud bill is a brand.

It’s because of all this that I was initially skeptical of his longtime intermingling with the shit-talking characters of Michigan’s thriving street rap scene . Was he using them to make his music cool again? Or was this a genuine connection with a fast-growing movement that has long been underappreciated? Likely it was a bit of both. Songs like last year’s “Flintana” (with the animated Flint rappers RMC Mike , YN Jay , and Louie Ray ) and “Not Regular” (with Detroit’s robot-dancing Sada Baby ) not only revived Yachty as a rapper but also raised the profile of Michigan rap.

Yachty’s new mixtape, Michigan Boy Boat , is an earned celebration of this fruitful relationship. Though it’s important not to position Yachty as Michigan’s rap savior—the music in both Detroit and Flint is so singular that it would have ended up in Atlanta anyway—Yachty has undeniably helped speed up the process. The chemistry Yachty has built with many of the scene’s rappers is real. Yachty sounds comfortable on the posse cut “This That One,” among the patented darkly funny punchlines, grim piano melody, booming drums, and ominous church bells, but he is not the center of attention. He’s more like a host that paves the way for his compelling guests: KrispyLife Kidd beat a dude so bad he thought he got jumped, and YN Jay is selling dope to a customer who has a bald head like Bobby Lashley . Similarly on “Plastic,” Yachty takes a backseat to Eastside Detroit’s Icewear Vezzo and Flint’s Rio Da Yung OG : “My shooter got ADHD, he’ll kill you for a script of Addys/I was finna fuck my bitch mom, but I can hit the granny,” raps Rio, maybe the most unnecesarily batshit consecutive lines on a mixtape full of them.

But the mixtape struggles when the focus shifts to Yachty. He doesn’t have Mike’s commanding voice or Rio’s recklessness, the laid-back swag of Babyface Ray or the out-of-pocket insanity of YN Jay. It’s less noticeable when he’s bouncing off of them, but glaring on solo songs like “Final Form” and “Concrete Goonies,” which are tolerable only because of dynamic beats from mainstays of the scene Helluva and Enrgy. When Yachty invites Swae Lee into this world on “Never Did Coke,” it goes about as badly as when a melodic teenage rapper shows up on a radio freestyle show and they play a DJ Premier beat.

Sprinkled across the 14 tracks are moments where Yachty sounds at home: “How the hell is niggas gangsters graduatin’ from St. John’s?” he asks on “Hybrid,” and on “Dynamic Duo,” he raps “My old bitch was really old, born in ’86,” sending all the ’80s babies into an early mid-life crisis. His best performance of all is on “G.I. Joe,” which coincidentally is the only track on the tape not rooted in the Michigan style.

If you’re already familiar with the state’s street rap movement, Michigan Boy Boat doesn’t add anything new. It’ll be a real success if it leads new fans toward superior modern mixtapes like Babyface Ray’s MIA Season 2 , Rio Da Yung OG’s City on My Back , Drego and Beno ’s Sorry For the Get Off , Los ’ G Shit Vol. 1 , BandGang Lonnie Bands ’ KOD , and more. But for anyone searching for an entry point, it’s a fun introduction to the fast-paced instrumentals, unpredictable flows, and demented punchlines synyonmous with Detroit and Flint.

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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’s ‘Michigan Boy Boat’ Pays Tribute to the Hottest Rap Scene in the Country

By Danny Schwartz

Danny Schwartz

There is no regional music scene that has flourished the past two years like Michigan rap. And there is no bigger fan of Michigan rap than Lil Yachty . During this period, Yachty has spent a disproportionate amount of time hanging out in the recording studios and gas station parking lots of Detroit and Flint, ingratiating himself amongst the state’s premier street rappers and doing as the locals do — acting playful and dead-serious at the same time, rapping loose on fast beats, forgoing hooks, and stringing together verses out of darkly funny one-liners. Yachty has become a staple of Michigan posse cuts, appearing on tracks like “Flintana” and “Run Down” ; on “Royal Rumble,” from February, Flint bruiser RMC Mike proclaimed, “Me, Yachty, [Louie] Ray, [Krispy Life] Kidd, and Rio the Fab Five,” thus consecrating Lil Boat forever in Michigan lore.

Yachty’s love affair with Michigan rap culminates with Michigan Boy Boat , a 14-track mixtape that features a dozen-odd Michigan rappers, including Sada Baby, Tee Grizzley, Rio Da Yung OG, and YN Jay. Aside from the excellent “G.I. Joe,” an upbeat riff on Lil Boat 3 standout “Split,” the mixtape fully embraces the Michigan aesthetic. (And despite dropping five days ago, it’s not even Yachty’s most recent Michigan collab.) Michigan Boy Boat primarily succeeds as a celebration of Yachty’s passion for Michigan rap and the long-distance bromance and musical chemistry that he’s developed with his Midwestern counterparts. He fits naturally in this scene in part because the imperative to incorporate a heavy dose of humor gives him the opportunity to evolve his whimsical origins as the “King of the Teens.”

Yachty is a great ambassador for Michigan rap, but as Michigan Boy Boat illustrates, he’s far from the best practitioner of the style. He is the protagonist of the mixtape, but he isn’t its anchor. Solo joints “Final Form” and “Concrete Goonies” and the Swae Lee collab “Never Did Coke” feel unmoored without the grounding presence of a Michigander. At the same time, other tracks feel like the JV team going up against the varsity in an intrasquad scrimmage. Sada Baby outraps Yachty on “SB 2021,” a battle of libidos, but then again, whomst amongst us matches up well against Sada’s swashbuckling charm and knowledge of global cuisine (“ Brazilian bitch gon’ eat the dick like feijoada”). As the song ends, Yachty sounds distracted and hurried, as though the studio manager is urging him to leave the booth and wrap up his session. Similarly, on “Ghetto Boy Shit,” Yachty pales in comparison to RMC Mike’s burly charisma. To flow outside the beat is to superimpose a pocket, and on this track, Yachty fails to develop one. 

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The most exciting moments on Michigan Boy Boat come when Yachty fades to the middle ground and becomes just another one of the boys circled up in a cypher. On “Plastic,” he begins and ends his verse with a nod to Icewear Vezzo, rapping “ the way that Vezzo drive his Wraith, could tell he ain’t rent it” before seamlessly handing Vezzo the mic. Mixtape closer “This That One” feels like an old-school jazz cutting contest — six rappers hurtling forward together at breakneck speed, each one trying to sound more depraved than his counterparts. In this high-speed, communal environment, Yachty sounds at home.

[ Stream ‘Michigan Boat Boy’ here ]

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Lil Yachty – ‘Michigan Boy Boat’ review: Atlanta rapper heads to Michigan to showcase inter-state rap unity

Yachty's latest mixtape sees him embracing his "second home" to exhibit the rising rap talents of the Wolverine State

For the past five years, we’ve known the formerly-red haired Lil Yachty as a frontrunner in the rap scene of his native Atlanta. But the 23-year-old is now shifting his focus to Michigan, specifically the cities of Detroit and Flint, to almost be like a brand new mascot for the Midwestern US state.

With his latest mixtape ‘Michigan Boy Boat’, Yachty uses his own stardom to showcase some of the best rising talents from his “second home”. All about rampant flows and outlandish metaphors, Michigan’s signature off-counter rapping style seems to dance around the beat rather than fully cooperate with it – and it’s a flow that Yachty has fully adapted to here.

Yachty first dabbled in the Michigan scene back in 2017 when he and the viral Detroit star- turned-Michigan rap staple Tee Grizzley went back-to-back on the loaded ‘From The D To The A’. The two rappers reunite here on ‘Dynamic Duo’ to bring back a gangster-y bravado that Yachty hasn’t utilised in a while ( “I took several trips with a look-a-like Kate Moss / My diamonds cost that me after, it’s okay ’cause it’s real Voss” ). While he’s often been criticised during his career for his lack of technical skills – not to mention his love of crocky autotune – tracks like ‘From The D To The A’ and the aptly named ‘Dynamic Duo’ demonstrate that, should he want to, Yachty can utilise language just like some of your favourite other rappers.

Elsewhere, the Louie Ray-assisted ‘G.I. Joe’ shows off the great candour between the two. Ray has made a name for himself in internet rap recently as one of the ‘Coochie Men’ alongside his frequent collaborator YN Jay, who has made an array of viral TikTok tracks about their self-proclaimed title. Over ‘G.I. Joe”s Buddah Bless-produced commercial trap beat, which uses droning synths to create quite an entertaining hum, a rare occurrence happens: both Yachty and Ray rap on time. Full of grand braggadocio, the song also embodies the often cheeky nature of Michigan rap: “ I got the bitch in the back of the Bentley / Outside in the back of the crib in a tent ”.

The tight-knit scene that’s emerging in the streets of the Wolverine State is clearly making headway in the rap game, and it’s largely due to the beautiful synergy that flows between many of the artists who feature on the mixtape. Although the off-counter flow can get monotonous at times – unfortunately making a number of the tracks on ‘Michigan Boy Boat’ rather skippable – Yachty’s embrace of the Michigan scene here come across as a daring way of reinventing his once-bubbly rap aesthetic.

After being scrutinised for so long, ‘Michigan Boy Boat’ should help Yachty fight back against those who say he solely relies on his melodic chops. Maybe he should prolong his stay in Michigan?

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Label: Capitol / Quality Control

Release date: April 23

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Michigan Boy Boat

If you let rap classicists tell it, Lil Yachty's slurred melodies and occasional flippancy betrayed a lack of reverence for the culture. But that was always more about traditionalism than rap bona fides. His malleability is ample evidence of hip-hop connoisseurship. Whether he was adopting the triple-time flow alongside Offset and Lil Baby, or flaunting a Drakeo the Ruler–esque cadence alongside Remble, Lil Boat frequently turned his own songs into tributes to regional styles and sounds. Michigan Boy Boat is the boldest example. Released in 2021, the album sees Yachty work alongside artists and producers from Detroit and Flint, Michigan, some of the most innovative stylists of the 2010s. Over the course of 14 songs, Yachty oscillates between production and rap styles that embody the best the state has to offer. He sounds at home whether sliding across frenetic piano or bouncy synths, and he has a knack for absorbing the stylistic tics of his collaborators. For "Final Form", he cruises a Helluva production for a flex exhibition; it's not hard to imagine Detroit luminaries 42 Dugg and Tee Grizzley lacing the track with more outward flashes of machismo. Grizzley himself joins Yachty for "Dynamic Duo", another Helluva-produced track that evokes the energy of modern D-Town. Accosting ominously rumbling keys with BabyTron on "Hybrid", Yachty adopts the Tron's descending deadpan while letting loose quippy punchlines. "SB 2021" sees Yachty jump into the more jittery side of Michigan rap, using a rambling rhythm to match both collaborator Sada Baby and the skittering percussion. On "Plastic", he joins forces with Icewear Vezzo and Rio Da Yung Og, his braggadocio capturing their plainspoken authority. It's a chameleonic act built on a level of dexterity that naysayers would say Yachty didn't possess. Pulling from aesthetics from Detroit pioneers across generations, Yachty serves up a regional tribute at the intersection of adaptability and mutual respect.

23 April 2021 14 Songs, 40 minutes Quality Control Music/Motown Records; ℗ 2021 Quality Control Music, LLC, under exclusive license to UMG Recordings, Inc.

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Michigan Boy Boat

14 SONGS • 40 MINUTES • APR 23 2021

• TRACKS TRACKS
• DETAILS DETAILS

Rapper Lil Yachty brings feel-good positivity, druggy weirdness, and wild ATLian flair to a style he self-designated "bubblegum trap" in his early days, while becoming a figurehead of the movement sometimes known as "mumble rap." Within two years of scoring his first platinum single in 2016, he had a pair of Top Ten albums with 2017's Teenage Emotions and 2018's Lil Boat 2, and a Grammy nomination for DRAM's "Broccoli," on which he was featured. Between the release dates of those proper albums for the Quality Control label, Yachty's approach shifted from a reliance upon willfully off-key singing and lackadaisical rhyming to that of a comparatively traditional MC, albeit with his irreverent sense of humor still gamely displayed. His style continued to evolve with his successive recordings, including 2020's Lil Boat 3 and the psychedelic rock of 2023's Let's Start Here. He launched his group Concrete Boys with 2024's It's Us, Vol. 1 and teamed with electronic producer/songwriter James Blake the same year for the subdued and textural album Bad Cameo.

Born Miles McCollum in the metropolitan Atlanta city of Mableton, Yachty began to break in 2015, when Drake's OVO Sound Radio aired his bizarre and singsongy "Minnesota." He truly crossed over in 2016. During the year, he released Lil Boat and Summer Songs 2, his first two commercial mixtapes for the emergent Quality Control Music. The former featured "Minnesota" along with "One Night," a woozy party cut that reached number 30 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, cracked the Hot 100, and went platinum. Also during the year, he was featured on DRAM's "Broccoli" and Kyle's "iSpy," both of which went Top Ten pop, and was part of Chance the Rapper's Top Ten release Coloring Book. "Broccoli" was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Coloring Book took the award for Best Rap Album.

Yachty continually added to his secondary discography as a collaborator, most visibly beside Carly Rae Jepsen on a remake of Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's "It Takes Two," but during 2017 and 2018, he directed most of his energy toward his first two proper albums. Teenage Emotions, issued in May 2017, peaked in the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, highlighted with the charting single "Peek a Boo," featuring Migos. Yachty returned the following March with Lil Boat 2, on which he sounded more like a traditional rapper with greater emphasis on enunciated verses and a reduction in off-key vocalizations. With tracks featuring PnB Rock, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, and Trippie Redd among its highlights, the album went Top Ten on multiple Billboard charts. That year, Yachty also released Nuthin' 2 Prove, which included "Who Want the Smoke?" with Cardi B and Offset. The set peaked just outside the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 and reached number nine on the R&B/hip-hop chart.

Lil Yachty issued a handful of stray tracks in 2019. Early the next year, he teamed up with Lil Keed and Zaytoven for the A-Team mixtape, and soon hit the Hot 100 as a lead artist for the third time with "Oprah's Bank Account," featuring Drake and DaBaby. That May, following the release of "Split/Whole Time," Yachty issued Lil Boat 3, which contained the two preceding singles and entered the Billboard 200 at number 14. A deluxe version of the LP, Lil Boat 3.5, appeared later that November. Extending his prolific run, he issued his third mixtape in May 2021. Inspired by the Michigan underground, Yachty recruited a team of Detroit and Flint rappers for Michigan Boy Boat, a U.S. Top 40 hit. Following 2022's "Humble," a collaboration with Diplo, he scored a minor hit with the solo track "Poland." His fifth studio LP, Let's Start Here, arrived in January 2023. In interviews preceding the release of the album, Yachty stated it would be more of a psychedelic record with live instrumentation than a traditional rap album. In keeping with the rock vibe, the album reached number one on Billboard's Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums and number nine on the Billboard 200.

Yachty quickly returned to creating experimental trap songs, issuing non-album singles like "TESLA" and the J. Cole collaboration "The Secret Recipe" (from the EP of the same name) before 2023 was over. He ventured into dance music with the 2024 single "stayinit," a collaboration with Fred again.. and Overmono. He then debuted Concrete Boys, a group that included Camo!, Karrahbooo, Dc2trill, and Draft Day. Their album It's Us, Vol. 1 landed in the top half of the Billboard 200. Also in 2024, Yachty released Bad Cameo, a collaborative album with James Blake. The songs took a decidedly more gentle approach, leaning into Blake's ambient textures and Yachty's more melodic sing-rapping style. ~ Andy Kellman & David Jeffries

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