2093

To put it as plain as possible, I’m absolutely baffled at how good this is. Unless I’m somehow forgetting a pretty vital project in the past, this is the first time ever I’ve heard an album with 20+ tracks and 1 hour+ of run time that I’m actually excited to revisit in its entirety. I’ve already done so multiple times, and even given extra listens, I’m not quite sure how to state my thoughts on it. Yeat claims he’s an alien, and I’m beginning to think there’s some legitimacy to that claim. “2093” takes the Trap album formula and spins it into something entirely new and unique in a way I never expected.

When digging into the sound of this album, there are so many points of reference you can call back to, but none of them describe it quite well enough. The 2010s Trap style is clearly what eventually birthed Yeat’s style, but there are so many of other contributing factors, that it hardly resembles it at all. On this album, you can hear influences of the Psychedelic Trap style of Travis Scott, the melodic deliveries over hard-hitting beats of someone such as Future, as well as the long-standing Cloud Rap qualities and the contemporary Rage aesthetics. It’s a blending pot of sounds that are cut from the same cloth but come together in a completely unexpected way. Yeat’s extraterrestrial character and sonic approach make this something new entirely.

Consistently across “2093” I’m taken aback by how dense, full, vibrant, and creative the instrumental qualities are. With so much variety across so many tracks, it’s impossible to talk about everything vital to its success with any sort of brevity. In the second track, “Power Trip” alone, there’s at least two different beat switches, each evoking an entirely different feeling. That then gets followed up by something immediately entirely different with the ridiculously hard-hitting danceable track, “Breathe”. The way bass is used on the song alone is completely out-of-this-world and only gets crazier with Yeat’s simple but effective hook. The juxtaposition track-to-track is unparalleled and shows what’s been missing from so many bloated mainstream-rap projects of the last half-decade.

Rolling further down the tracklist, it hardly ever gets more predictable whatsoever. “Bought the Earth” is soulful, slow, and heavy on melody while still keeping a very strange distorted, electronics-heavy mood. Later on, there’s “Lyfestyle” which seems well-set to be this album’s biggest hit, and that’s not only due to Lil Wayne’s unbelievable verse. This track feels like a sci-fi movie with its strange, warped synths, and pairs it with some insanely crisp drums and an explosive chorus. It’s hard enough to rock the foundation of a 20-story building while still keeping up Yeat’s wildly psychedelic mood intact. Only one track later is “ILUV” with one of the coolest uses of a vocal sample to add to a track’s atmosphere I think I’ve ever heard. This album’s title-track is one of the craziest on here, with usage of huge, devastating bass, warped synths, and dissonant vocal flows that make no logical sense but work so well. Even the album’s closer, “1093” is something that could’ve never been predicted, and brings such a powerful feel. The flow across it is passionate and punchy as Yeat delivers some of his most important bars. That’s all accompanied by staticy vocal effects, adventurous backing melodies, and a stunning cinematic tone.

The fact that I’ve only even made mention of a mere eight tracks of the twenty-two included is crazy to me, because looking at the list of those, I still see almost no filler. It feels like a shame to not mention the absolute bangers that are “Mr. Inbetweenit”, “Riot and Set it Off”, “If We’re Being Real” and “More”, but clearly, I could end up being here all day diving into it. While an entire 70 consecutive minutes of this is predictably a bit exhausting, I don’t feel like there are songs that should’ve been trimmed to keep it shorter. That’s unbelievably rare, especially when considering there’s only two features. It almost feels like Yeat intentionally didn’t put many other voices on here to prove he can remain impressive, and damn, it sure did work. Even then, Future feels like he’s totally out-shined by Yeat. On several moments across the album, he’s better at sounding like Future than Future does on his feature.

Even as much as I’ve talked about this album, I’ve hardly spoken on Yeat’s quality as a vocalist/rapper and lyricist. With music like this, you’re likely more here for the vibe than you’re here for the rapper’s personality and bars. That holds true, as he does sometimes feel like another instrument in the mix more than an actual relatable voice. Regardless, I still find myself impressed with what he lays down on this production pretty often. While not very precise and technical by any means, Yeat’s flows are comparatively so diverse and entertaining across the project. He knows how to complete the vibe, by all means it works. The hooks on here are insane, and the project would be so much worse without that individualistic approach.

His lyrics also have a ton of absurd, wild, and unique character. Again, it’s not mind-blowing on a technical level, but find me one other person who can say they’re pissing on a beat and make it sound cool. Lines like “I heard you tryna die, so here’s a boulder”, “I feel like Stevie Wonder. I can’t see nobody, nobody can see me”, “I just poured a planet in my IV bag”, “I might’ve done some things I never did” and using simply, “You a dumb motherfucker” as a refrain show how simultaneously unique, hard, and absolutely absurd his lyrics are. The concept of him being an alien stranded on earth and looking for his planet is also a great touch. I have to wonder if it’s just an aesthetic choice, or his way of saying essentially that he doesn’t like and relate to other people at all. There’s an oddly frequent number of times his writing hits in a way that legitimately evokes emotion, which is something no one else in the Rage scene can say.

I’ve done a lot of comparing to how this album works in comparison to his contemporaries, and it’s really hard not to. “2093” is such a refreshing album because it shows what’s been missing for so long. Yeat defines his own lane entirely here, while totally devalidating the lanes of many significant names out right now. Yeat’s bringing the Rage style to interdimensional levels, and there’s gonna be a lot of catching up to do from everyone around him. Comparing it to his older works as well, it’s still unbelievable that “2093” even came to be. I’d say each of his two mainline projects have shown a significant upward trajectory in quality and creativity, but this is a huge leap. If he were to make something only slightly more refined, a bit more brief, and slightly more conceptually rich, it’d be a perfect project. Whether or not that ever comes to fruition is yet to be seen, but the way it stands, “2093” is a landmark moment in the history of modern popular hip-hop. Yeat claims “As far as I could tell, tell they wanna sound like me, they wanna be like me” on "Breathe", and I can only imagine that becoming more true with time after this album. It’s so incredibly strange and unexpected that someone at Yeat’s level is making music like this, but I’m so glad it happened.

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TOP 3 TRACKS:
1. Lüh me da Gränky
2. Breathe
3. Lyfestylë
4. Mr. Inbetweenit

BOTTOM 3 TRACKS:
3. Familia
2. Stand On It
1. Psychocaine

SCORE: 82%