An evening with Lil Yachty

Fresh from a huge performance at Splendour, young Atlanta star Lil Yachty crossed the country to bring his unique bubblegum trap to Perth fans.

Local producer DJ Aslan kicked off the proceedings with a great set, before Yachty’s DJ took over with a plethora of bass-heavy trap tunes.

With Coach K watching on, echoes of “Lil Boat” built up the anticipation, before the familiar cherry braids of the King of Teens, almost concealed under a blue hoodie, emerged on to the stage to the chants of “Fuck Joe Budden,” an old-school hip hop artist and notorious Yachty-hater. As his set began, the crowd went wild, but not wild enough for Yachty’s standards.

Perhaps he was still recovering from Splendour. Perhaps he was missing his companion, Kermit the Frog. Or perhaps the Sunday night vibes in Perth simply weren’t enough to satisfy him, but Yachty’s performance was undeniably, uncharacteristically laconic.

In a way, you can’t blame him. It would be irritating for any artist to amp the audience up as the track builds, then deliver a booming drop and watch as the crowd jumps in communal ecstasy, only to start singing or rapping and realise that most of the audience don’t even know the words. But at the same time, any professional should aspire to move pass that. After numerous attempts instructing the audience to “dial up the energy,” if it isn’t reaching a sufficient level, accept it, and give the best performance you can.

Yachty performed most of his hit songs, including ‘1 Night,’ ‘Minnesota’ and more recent releases ‘Peek A Boo’ and ‘X-Men’, as well as popular tunes he featured on, namely D.R.A.M’s ‘Broccoli’ and KYLE’s ‘iSpy’.

Although, it was surprising that he didn’t perform a couple favourites from his terrific debut studio album, Teenage Emotions. Namely his relaxed and uplifting reggae-esque love song, ‘Better,’ and the bubbly tune ‘Forever Young.’  His somewhat lethargic performance ultimately finished 15 minutes early with the aggressive XXXTentacion banger ‘Look At Me!”

Yachty is just a big, talented kid. He’s exuberant, playful and entertaining, but like any other kid, when he gets tired he gets grumpy. Unfortunately for us, he was tired of the crowd’s lack of energy, and responded with consequent moodiness.