Lil Yachty

Lil Boat 2

There isn’t a ton of apparent lyrical growth or profound substance but there are a few agreeable songs for all audiences.

The issue is that an album reliant on Yachty’s ability to rap can’t hold up to scrutiny. He is a rather spiritless writer. He only has a couple of rough song ideas. He is incapable of fitting his outsized personality into his pedestrian bars.

It might all work better if Yachty could speak his lines as well as he croons them. But he can't, at least not on Lil Boat 2.

The music that made him famous was lightweight but fun. This, by contrast, feels like a trudge.

While sometimes amateurish, Yachty's older music was at least true to his lived experiences. Today, he's just another dreadlocked cipher mouthing predigested banalities.

The thing that’s difficult to grasp about Lil Boat 2 is that it seems to purposefully undo so much of the work that Yachty has done in the past few years to separate himself from the pack.

Lil Boat 2 doesn't pick up where the source of "One Night" and "Minnesota" left off, characterized instead by antagonism that comes off as defensive -- and sometimes disgruntled -- rather than mischievous.