#Luger's life and not running away like he tried to earlier.

[flowerprintundies]

basically the plot right?

[thebeautifulzoo]

Teenage Emotions by Lil Yachty.

Over the past two or three years, we’ve seen presented to us, coming with a whole new and different sound, a fresh generation of these young, outlandish and truly creative set of rappers; Lil Uzi, Playboi Carti, 21 Savage and Lil Yachty, the lot. Although, this new generation has found it difficult to establish their place and importance among some veteran rap greats due to the challenge posed by the new school of how rap should truly sound like and has continued to receive negative criticisms for their works, the youths have been found to gravitate towards this new generation’s sound and message which is generally themed with just enjoying life to its fullest at the present moment, “carpe diem”, and struggling and working hard to again enjoy life.

Lil Yachty had and has been the face of the new wave. His music, lifestyle and eccentric idiosyncrasies have put him forward before others as the leader of the new school, the king of the youth as he’s well known. And he is not even doing this for the fame or money, it’s just what he does, every positive remark or negative criticism he receives for his work are just what comes with the work.

I'ma tell you like this, man

Youngest nigga in this motherfucker, man

I'm not askin' for your respect

I give a fuck if you fuck with me, nigga

I got M's, nigga

I'm talkin' 'bout the letter before N, nigga

M's, bitch boy

Lil Yachty’s debut album, Teenage Emotions was going to be the medium of justification for his popularity and fame among the youths and also, rather than a source of validation from the big guns in the rap industry, it was going to be a big “fuck you” to the old school rappers for not acknowledging the new generation of rap and rappers alike.

Lil Yachty’s new album release was announced through Twitter in January and then it was released on May 26 through his Quality Control music imprint. Before the release of the album, the album cover of the project raised a buzz and received different reviews, both good and bad, for the representation on the cover. The cover art features Lil Yachty in a movie theatre surrounded by people not normally associated with by the general public; a girl afflicted with vitiligo, an emo girl, an albino boy and the most controversial, a gay couple making out behind Yachty. As some people disdainfully criticised Yachty, suggesting he had taken advantage of the LGBTQ community for the proposed success of his album, others celebrated the young rapper for distinguishing himself from other cliché rappers who wouldn’t want to associate themselves with gay people.

The album features guest appearances from rather unexpected or new acts like YG, Kamiayah, Grace, Evander Griim, Sonyae Elise, Stefflon Don, Diplo and fellow label mates, Migos. The production features elite and expert producers like Yachty’s best friend Burberry Perry, Wondagurl, Ricky Racks, K. Swisha, Lex Luger, Pierre Bourne, etc.

The album, Teenage Emotions, as explained by Yachty himself; “captures every aspect of teenagers and what they go through: turnt, heartbreak, happiness, sadness," he added, "…it's not a one lane album, it's all over the place…” And he was correct though the project might be a bit too over the place, yet so much that an individual listening to the album might get carried away from the main theme of the project, making he/she think the album does not even comply to its objective, but it does actually, just a bit more over the place.

A most relatable phase or period of a teenage life which is the love and heartbreak phase is most expressed on the Teenage Emotions album with tracks like “Bring It Back”, “Lady In Yellow”, and “Better” featuring Stefflon Don fully conveying the intended message they are passing across. Also, all the rest of the tracks still make a little reference to falling in love, heartbreak and being unrequited.

Other tracks on the album like “Forever Young” featuring Diplo, “Harley” and “All Around Me” featuring YG and Kamaiyah explore the happiness associated with the teen age while tracks like “Made Of Glass”, “All You Had To Say” and “Running With A Ghost” featuring Grace carry a rather sad or moody vibe with them.

As earlier said, most of the tracks on the album are themed with the most observable phases of the teenage life so you will also find on the album tracks like “Priorities”, “X-Men”, featuring Evander Griim and “All Around Me” pointing to the vain, excessive and lustful frivolities of a teenager.

Over the course of the album, we can feel the pressure of the rejection of the new school by the rap veterans getting to Lil Yachty as he on a number of tracks like “DN Freestyle’ tries to actually rap although the flows seem kind of forced. He does correctly and more efficiently try to address the opposition who have refused to validate the originality of his music on the “Dirty Mouth” track.

Some tracks on the Teenage Emotions album are kind of unwarranted like the “DN Freestyle” track or the “Other Shit” interlude, he could have saved these for a mixtape or something because these tracks sort of distract the listener or negatively stretch out the album. Personally, I think a well put together album shouldn’t be more than 10-15 tracks. I would have loved to see more “family” features on the project maybe from his “Sailing team members” like Kodie Shane or K. Supreme and then maybe Playboi Carti or Lil Uzi Vert.

Surely, Lil Yachty has shown a lot of growth in his music in flows and deliveries and style since his last musical project, Summer Songs 2. He has since polished his use of auto-tune, his now more distinctive and easily recognisable, more new instruments were used in the production, new adlibs, new roles and challenges have been taken by Yachty and he’s obviously now more adept with real song making or song crafting. The Teenage Emotions album is almost well put together, well refined, most of the tracks on the album are so well created and with purpose and now other rappers in Yachty’s clique can now sort of look up to him and his art as a sort of blue print for them and their own works.

I feel now with the success of this project, Lil Yachty can now focus fully on his music and leave out the rejection of the opposition. I feel Lil Yachty has now done enough to ride his own wave, a new and fun rap sub-genre called pop rap can be deduced from his music and he and other rap acts of his generation will do well to popularise and make something out of this.