Hey, everyone. Yeathony Yeattano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new Yeat album, Lifestyle.

Here we have the second full-length album this year from California rapper Yeat, who is no stranger to dropping projects in quick succession, though in the past, in my opinion, that has not always yielded the best results from him. However, you still can't take away from the fact that he is one of the biggest and most in-demand voices in modern rap and is most definitely at the creative forefront when it comes to psychedelic trap and hip hop these days, especially rage type stuff. Though I feel like in a certain respect, the mainstream and the underground with this stuff is collapsing together in on itself.

But I'm digressing. The reason I'm so complementary toward Yeat when it comes to these styles of music is because recently, I think he happened to drop one of the best projects in a while in this vein. That would be 2093, a futuristic, otherworldly, and in some respects, conceptual record that dealt in themes of egoism as well as aliens. In my opinion, the album really marked an interesting step forward for Yeat.

Even though Lyfestyle here is coming out not that much long after, I still went into this project with high hopes. But I guess I should have known better because if you are at all familiar with Yeat's catalog and trajectory, the title here most definitely signifies something: regression, as I think the writing and aesthetics on this project are very reminiscent of many an album and tape to drop prior to 2093, which... it's funny because as successful as that album was, there was a very loud and vocal contingent of people in the Yeat's fan base who wanted him to go back to a sound and a writing style that was more reminiscent of his record, such as to Alive – an album that you could argue is wilder in comparison, at least on a few levels, sure, but also, by comparison, in my opinion, is a more tedious experience, less dynamic and sonically less grandiose, too.

Yeah, again, Lyfestyle really truly does feel like hitting a rewind in a way. This record has 21 tracks on it, plus a bonus track, about an hour of material overall. It feels like Yeat is once again just his old self, I suppose, which is made painfully clear from the opening track, "Geek Time", where you get some very basic production elements, some super simple repetitive trap drums, some quirky synth arpeggios that sound like they're coming out of a GameBoy, big fat rumbling bass, Yeat's trademark vocal delivery. It has a strong, bold start to it, but over time, it loses its steam because it doesn't really progress or switch up or do much of anything other than just hang there.

This continues to be the case throughout much of the project. I would actually say in terms of flows, songwriting, production ideas, the album begins to paint itself into a corner by the fourth track where you're getting ultra-distorted, aggressive, in your face trap beats, repetitive flows, lyrical dribble. Sure, you could say it is, again, aggressive and in your face and hyped in the same way that a lot of on 2 Alive were, as well as Lyfe, for that matter. But by comparison, I don't think a lot of the material on this record is quite as trippy or as psychedelic or really as out there. I think you could also draw some comparisons to Yeat's Afterlyfe record that dropped in 2023, I believe, which led up to 2093 and was similarly rough around the edges. But at least that record, to some degree, in terms of Yeat's progression, was out there and experimental. It definitely saw him breaking some new and trying some new things.

By comparison, Lyfestyle shows no sense of adventure for Yeat whatsoever. It's really Yeat turning the heat down sonically and conceptually, as any attempt at being more conceptual and layered and meta as he was on 2093 are pretty much gone here. We are not really getting a commentary on egoism as much as we're just getting the egoism unfiltered, unadulterated. There also seems to be a personal switch of sorts in the bars on this record because Yeat did make it a point on numerous tracks from 2093 to communicate to fans that he was sober and clear-headed when making that album.

Now with Lyfestyle, we're pretty much getting a 180, and he's constantly bragging about getting high, drunk, and doing drugs with the song "So What" He comes across as even indignant about it, which – you're an adult, you can do what you want. You don't need to seek validation from any of us.

Look, if I'm to put the material on this record in a nutshell, it's more distorted, more straightforward, more meat and potatoes, more blunt than anything Yeat has put out on his past two records, which in concept is not necessarily a bad thing, but there's a couple of issues with that limitation of creativity, that limitation of ideas.

First, we have so many damn tracks on this record that very quickly, very early in the album, start to all sound very, very, very samey. When Yeat does manage to build in a few more layers or vocal switchups or some more interesting production, it often comes across like a subpar Travis Scott demo or like a less interesting version of something from 2093. But what's really even worse is how unlistenable sonically a lot of the tracks on this record are.

Unfortunately, the distortion and the mastering on a lot of songs in this tracklist, it just sucks. Like Kodak Black's vocal layers on "Be Quiet" sound like they were fed through a garbage compactor. The saturation and the harshness to a lot of these tracks is really just unflattering and unreal a lot of the time. I just wish that people such as Yeat knew that there are ways to make your track sound rough around the edges and heavy and bassy and distorted without making them sound like crap.

I mean, maybe at the end of the day, this project is a larger creative arc for Yeat, and he is merely just showing us a different version of himself. A lot of the lyrics and perspectives displayed throughout the tracks on this record certainly do seem like a very bold switch up from what we got on 2093.

If what Yeat is ultimately trying to do is show us that this version of himself is vastly different in terms of creativity and a host of other things from 2093, Yeat, I would say, this project is a success due to a lack of variety, a lack of good production and mixes, a lack of decent writing, and a lack of overall depth, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong 3 on this project.

Anthony Fantano. Yeat. Forever.