Lil Yachty has been as active as any artist in 2017, so it's only fitting he'd sit down with the man who gets seemingly any interview he wants, Beats 1's Zane Lowe. Yachty visited Lowe's studio for a special pop-up show to discuss a variety of topics, including his upcoming debut album, Teenage Emotions, and his meteoric rise through the rap industry.
Yachty told Lowe Teenage Emotions was a completely different experience from working on his tapes.
"It was so much pressure in the beginning," he said, "because when I made Lil Boat, my first mixtape, I didn't have a drop date, a due date, I didn't have critics rating on it, I was just making it. And then when I finished it, I dropped it at my own smoothness, at my own pace. With this, it's like you got to drop it by here, you got to do it by here, you got to have this cover by here. I had to think of this, I had to think of that."
The pressure from fans and people around him might have something to do with why fans have had to wait for Teenage Emotions to drop. Yachty said it was originally supposed to come out at the end of last year, but difficulties while he was touring held him back.
"My album was supposed to come out originally on Christmas last year," he said. "I was on tour with Rae Sremmurd, so I was supposed to record with them, but I lost my voice for like two months. If I would have dropped it on Christmas it would have been nothing like it is now. It's a completely different vibe, I didn't even know I was going to make an album like this."
Yachty quickly became a fan favorite thanks to his carefree style, and the Georgia native claimed his ascent can be credited in part to how much he cares about that connection. He said that tactic stems from his admiration of how Soulja Boy and Lil B do business, and pointed to Soulja Boy in particular for how he approaches artist-fan relationships.
"I feel like Soulja Boy was one of the smartest when it came to connecting with your fans, and taking that to another level," he said. "That's how you get the real love. Someone will love you, but if they feel like they know you or they can relate to you, it's a real genuine, solid love, even when you're down. As opposed to, 'Oh yeah, you got a hot song, man I like this song, this song's dope.'"
Soulja Boy and Yachty have not exactly been on the best terms, but in typical Yachty fashion, the 19-year-old spent most of the interview focusing on the positive side of everything.
You can watch the full interview above.
