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Lil Yachty - Lil Boat 2 (Quality Control/Capitol/Motown, 2018)

Lil Yachty's story is interesting, going from young hip hop upstart to guilty pleasure to also-ran at almost breakneck speed. Despite lots of love-it-or-leave-it acclaim for his mixtapes, by the time his first real LP "Teenage Emotions" rolled around last year, everybody was already jumping off the (lil) boat. Yachty seemed creatively spent too, as the tracks on "Teenage Emotions" simply didn't live up to what he'd previously released. So less than a year later Yachty has hit back with his 2nd LP "Lil Boat 2", a sequel of sorts to his monster of a mixtape with the same name. The Pitchfork review covers my thoughts well - there seems to be an effort to repackage Yachty as a Serious Rapper, and no doubt he's carrying a chip on his shoulder after "TE" was mostly ignored last year (I liked it well enough myself but agree he's done much better). In complete contrast to the first "Lil Boat", the sequel is a mostly joyless affair. Yachty isn't nearly a good enough writer to pass for a Serious Rapper, and tossing the pop hooks aside does him no favors. Midway through the album (17 tracks at 45 minutes) there are some glimmers of better ideas. "She Ready" and "Love Me Forever" hint at the fun-loving Yachty of old and while "Pop Out" is no masterpiece it makes an effort to at least be as obnoxiously catchy as "Harley" from "TE". The track with YoungBoy Never Broke Again is a good one and closing "66" is excellent but otherwise most of these cuts are all too samey, Yachty rapping flatly about being rich over chilly, nondescript beats (the ever-colorful TheGoodPerry is sorely absent here after being all over "Lil Boat"). I give Yachty more rope than most, but I feel like this was a rush-job to recoup some of Yachty's faded luster which ends up ultimately doing nothing for him.

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