Up 2 Më – Yeat

Up 2 Më is the third full-length album from Yeat this year alone and once again, displays his uncanny skill at vocal contortions over rage beats. Over the past few years, SoundCloud rappers have taken influence from Young Thug and Future’s autotuned melodies and the production style of Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red to create a subgenre called rage. Similarly, groups like the Slayworld collective have taken on a darker, R&B-influenced sound called Pluggnb that pulls from the Plugg sounds pioneered by producer MexikoDro. Yeat’s music takes on all of these ideas but puts a unique spin on them with his unmistakable vocal inflections reminiscent of artists like Young Thug. With the viral snippet of “Gët Busy” blowing up on Tik Tok as everyone chants “This song already was turnt but here’s a bell”, Yeat’s ascent to the mainstream in 2021 seems inevitable.

Despite rage beats and Plugg being the newest wave on SoundCloud, there’s not a lot of distinct differences between many of the artists. Yeat feels like an exception with how well he can shift his voice and contort his vocals. On songs like “Turban”, Yeat screeches and wails on the bridge that goes “Ran it up, we so up, up, up” with each subsequent sound hitting higher registers. It sounds strikingly similar to the acrobatic flows of Young Thug’s “Jeffery” mixtape. The echoing ad-libs on songs like “Trëndy Way” stretch out each bar and the sinister minor synths on “Swërved It” sound like a Playboi Carti song when he pulls out the vampire aesthetic. Throughout the 22 different songs on Up 2 Më, Yeat experiments with his vocals, flows, and ad-libs in a refreshing way compared to his contemporaries.

Although Yeat’s ability to transform his voice is captivating, the production over the course of the album becomes a little stale. Up 2 Më has credits from nearly 30 different producers including big names like F1lthy, Rio Leyva, Bugz Ronin, and Based1. Despite the number of producers though, Up 2 Më lacks variety in the production department and has an over-reliance on repetitive synths or gimmicky bells. Most of the songs feel like derivative rage beats that slowly blend together and while Yeat’s vocal feats are impressive, they slowly lose their shine over the course of the album. The actual lyrics are also a little boring despite the crazy vocal effects and there are a couple of eye-rollers littered throughout. He doesn’t seem to have the charisma to really sell lines like “She show love to my crotch” and these moments fall flat comparatively. At the same time though, it’s these weird artistic directions that separate Yeat from other rappers in the genre. While the ideas don’t always work out Up 2 Më, Yeat is clearly in his element as he pushes towards his full potential.

Must Listens: Got Rich, Swërved It, Turban

71/100

About the Author

Jeff

I turned my incoherent ramblings on music, anime, and video games into an entire blog.

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