Artist Spotlight: Lil Yachty made a psychedelic record for Travis Scott and Tame Impala fans, and Let's Start Here. is the door

On 27 January 2023, a rapper best known for a bubblegum-trap hit and a red braids phase dropped a 14-track album that opens with a nearly seven-minute song about the dark. Nobody was ready. Lil Yachty's Let's Start Here. is still the strangest, most rewarding door into psychedelic rap that most of our readers have never opened.

Who he is, and the line into your playlist

Yachty came up on SoundCloud in the mid-2010s as a melodic, goofy, internet-native rapper from Atlanta. By 2023 he had decided he did not want to be filed there. Let's Start Here., released through Motown and Quality Control, swaps trap drums for synths, live-sounding bass, long outros and a lot of reverb.

If Travis Scott is the reason you like rap that feels like a ride, and Tame Impala is the reason you like guitars that melt, this record sits in the overlap. That is our listening, not a claim from the label, but the shared ground is easy to hear: dreamy vocals pushed through effects, big slow builds, and drops that arrive late.

Start here

• the BLACK seminole. The 6 minute 51 second opener. It builds for a long time before it lets you in, which tells you what the album is.

• WE SAW THE SUN! The glowing middle of the record, and the closest it gets to a Tame Impala headphone moment.

• sAy sOMETHINg The song with the video, released on album day. Short, hooky and a little unnerving.

• THE zone ~ Where the groove locks in. Good for a night drive.
• REACH THE SUNSHINE. The closer, just under six minutes, and a calm landing after a long trip.

How it was made

Yachty has said he wanted it to be his own take on a big, cohesive classic-rock album, the kind you play front to back, and he has said he wanted to be taken seriously beyond his early hits. The sessions ran for about six months across 2021 and 2022, mostly at a Brooklyn studio. Producer Patrick Wimberly is the main architect, joined by Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Justin Raisen, Magdalena Bay and others, with guests including Teezo Touchdown, Daniel Caesar, Fousheé, Nick Hakim and Justine Skye.

The record entered the US Billboard 200 at number 9 with 36,000 units and topped several rock and alternative charts. He performed on Saturday Night Live on 1 April 2023, and took the album on the Field Trip Tour across North America and Europe from 21 September to 17 December 2023.

Why now

The album has aged into a quiet reference point. Rap that borrows from rock and psychedelia is no longer a risk, and plenty of listeners found this record years after the first week of reviews, which were generally positive but mixed on how experimental it really is. It is also a good test: if the first ten minutes works for you, the whole hour will.

If you like him, try

• Teezo Touchdown, a Texas artist who mixes rap, rock and theatre, and who appears on the album.
• Unknown Mortal Orchestra, the lo-fi psych-funk band whose guitarist-producer Jacob Portrait worked on this record.
• Daniel Caesar, if the slow, soulful end of the album is what hooked you.

More psych-leaning picks in our If you like Tame Impala list.