Lil Yachty has spoken out about the current state of affairs in hip hop, saying the genre is “in a terrible place right now”.
At Rolling Stone’s ‘Musicians on Musicians’ event in Brooklyn, Yachty expanded on his thoughts by saying rappers were afraid to take risks.
“Hip-hop is in a terrible place,” Yachty began. “The state of hip-hop right now is a lot of imitation. It’s a lot of quick, low-quality music being put out. It’s a lot less risk-taking, it’s a lot less originality… People are too safe now. Everyone is so safe. I rather take the risk than take the L.”
Yachty went on to praise JID as a rapper who was pushing the boundaries: “I love JID. JID is such a beautiful person. He has the spirit of like a real Atlanta Negro and he’s such a good, kind person and he just always embraced me with open arms so I got nothing but respect for JID. I never heard a bad verse from JID ever.”
The rapper also spoke about his recent Grammy snub for his new album ‘Let’s Start Here‘. The record was a huge risk for Yachty, as it saw him pivot away from his usual trap sound towards psychedelic rock and soul. Despite being well-received by fans and critics, the album missed out on a Grammy nomination.
“I just worked really hard from start to finish,” Yachty said. “I just don’t know. I handled it way better than I thought I did. Like I thought I was gonna be like throwing shit around like mad as hell, but I didn’t care. When it came out I just honestly 0.5 seconds after deleted it out of my brain.”
He continued: “It’s crazy because the last eight months I’ve been thinking about it but when it came out I was like, ‘Ok’ because at the end of the day it is what you love. Creating that album built such a level of confidence for me. And I’ve loved my artistry all over again on another level and I’ve become so confident in myself and knowing that was the starting point for what I can do and what I’m going to do.”
Lil Yachty has recently shared his thoughts on Twitch streamers, saying they currently make more money than “90 per cent of rappers”: “I was the first rapper to stream. [In] 2017. Before anyone, Twitch wasn’t even popping and I was on Twitch. It was me and Post Malone on Twitch. 2017, nobody was there. I think I was there before Post Malone, but it was just us as the only rappers. Seven years ago.”
In other recent news, the rapper’s show in Vancouver was cut midway through after he encouraged the crowd to rush the mosh pit. Various eyewitnesses have alleged that security pulled the plug on the show when concertgoers refused to leave the pit. In footage of the incident, Lil Yachty could also be heard asking people to return to their seats.
Lil Yachty has not yet commented on the incident. NME has approached his representatives for comment.