After listening to this new Lil Yacthy album Teenage Emotions, the biggest problem continues to be how a 19-year old of this stature receives a huge record deal when bringing nothing new to the table. The music is just bland, boring, and ultimately uninspiring. I was never the biggest Lil Yachty fan when he dropped his Lil Boat mixtape last year, but at least that project had some personality and colorfulness to it. Teenage Emotions ironically lacks emotion. It’s a compilation of throwaway songs that ultimately misses more than it hits.
One aspect of the rap genre that continues to anger me is the lack of focus some albums have. There are only a few hip hop artists today that can create a project that has a beginning and an ending, and that’s it. In an age where every album has a deluxe version, sometimes the most stripped down and skeletal rap albums can be the best ones.
Lil Yacthy sadly is all over the place, and most of the time with these songs he just seems to be rapping about the same topics as all of his contemporaries. Lyrically, he brings nothing new to the table, and some of the things he says are cringe-worthy.
On “Like a Star,” he talks about “fucking six different whores.” Great Lil Yachty, like we really care. I understand that lyrics don’t always have to be the most important aspect of a song but, the production wasn’t all that great either. No beat or instrumental stood out for me. On top of all of that, none of the hooks are memorable because all of them are lazily created. This is especially the case on the lead single, “Peek A Boo” featuring Migos. Not only is the hook “play with the pussy like peek-a-boo” horrendous, but it’s the epitome of the blandness that occurs on this project. At least the nocturnal beat was kind of a highlight (although “highlight” is being used loosely here).
I had to take a break from listening to this album because of the length, and nothing in the first seven or so songs made me want to listen more. When I got back to listening to the project, I realized how much I had already forgotten because the only thing unique about Lil Yacthy is, the cadence in his voice. He could have cut out at least ten songs, and this could have been at least a competent rap album. That’s even a stretch though. There are only a couple of lyrics that are memorable,but mostly because they are so bad (for example, the lyric of having a girl suck his dick with a cello was especially entertaining).
“Harley Harley Harley Harley Harley.” That’s a hook on this album if you’re wondering. I think at times the auto-tune can work for Yachty but only on the right beat and right song. Rarely does it work here. The one track that I can really say I enjoyed was “Running with a Ghost,” but that’s only because the pop artist Grace was featured on it, and she has a pretty decent voice. Yachty also has a nice ode to his mom at the end of the album, but at the end of the day, even that couldn’t save this train wreck.
My problem with Yachty stems from the fact that he’s kind of good at one thing. The only time I feel like he’s enjoyable is when he brings out his comedic personality over a fruity beat. For some reason on this album, he finds the need to stylistically and lyrically copy every other hip hop artist out there, and it just doesn’t work. The only way I think he can get back on track is if he returns to his charismatic self, because I felt like he was trying to play to the crowds at some points on Teenage Emotions. This was supposed to be considered an album but ultimately, it was just a jumbled mess of throwaway songs.
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