Kan Week #1—The Cost of Being Famous—Or, How Yeat Lost his Identity

When I first saw the theme of this quarter’s blog posts—Language and Identity—I knew I was going to somehow talk about some of my favorite artists. In this case, I am talking about Noah Olivier Smith, better known by his artist alias Yeat.

While in recent memory, Yeat may be known for his collaboration with LA-based singer-songwriter Joji on “Back Home,” in the early 2020s he was best known for his unique, almost meme-like identity and presence within the rap space. Often considered to be one of the proteges of the rage rap blueprint pioneered by Playboi Carti at the time, Yeat quickly developed his own distinctive style, built not just around his appearance, but also his unique lingo and lyricism.

For example, look at Yeat’s breakout track “Get Busy,” from his debut album Up 2 Me. In the span of around two and a half minutes, the Portland-based rapper utilizes his own invented slang such as “tizzy” or “twizzy” to add to his unconventional rhyme scheme. Furthermore, Yeat’s ability to write effective one-liners is on full display in this song—right as soon as he declares “this song already was turnt but here’s a bell,” bells begin ringing throughout the instrumental and for the rest of the song, adding to the line’s buzzing impact (1:28).



This pattern of clever one-liners and cheeky humor was one of the key factors in his ascension into the mainstream rap space. So, color me surprised when I listened to Yeat’s newest album, A Dangerous Lyfe, and found most of those elements absent from the vast majority of tracks. What remained were only cheap imitations of his older work: on the track “Taller,” he says towards an imaginary opponent “the sh*t you makin’ so *ss, we call it turd” (around 0:44). Like most of the track, this line feels lethargic. Numerous rappers have made this comparison in the past; there is nothing fresh, nothing unconventional, nothing unique about this bar clearly meant to recapture some facets of his old self. This issue is persistent throughout the album, so much so that it rid my enjoyment of the record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkU8vWPjArw

This begs the question: what could have changed in five years that seemingly stripped Yeat of the very things that made him popular in the first place? I believe this has to do with his desire to become the next culture-defining, world-unifying rapper. In order to generate a sound that has that effect, it needs to be able to cross boundaries and, put simply, be dumbed down enough for almost all to enjoy it. That is what I believe Yeat attempted to achieve with his new sound, which evidently failed miserably commercially and critically: it sold only 57,000 units, far less than his previous album Lyfestyle (with 89,000 units), and was panned by many critics (plus fans) to be a regression of his sound.

Seeing his recent “moderate success,” Yeat has started incorporating elements of his older sound into his recent music; however, whether he is able to regain his own identity will depend on the test of time. I guess we will be able to tell when his one-liners become playful once again.

 

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