Lil Yachty might have a nursery-rhyme singsong repetition to his rapping, but his tracks are still sort of hypnotic in their off-the-cuff weirdness.
“Why?,” off of Yachty’s most recent “Summer Songs 2” release, is like some skeletal gamelan groove with relentless AutoTune pitch-warping. The Atlanta rapper is 19.
“Minnesota,” off “Lil Boat,” also from this year, is like a spooky little lullaby, with its childlike melody hammered out on a piano to drive home the infantile vibe of the whole thing. But it’s only the music and the delivery that are rated G.
On “One Night” Yachty devotes some energy to explaining the short-term nature of his sexual affection to partners who are interested something with a longer shelf-life. Some of the backing tracks, like the abstract churning loop on a song with an unprintable title, would sound like contemporary avant classical music with minimalist/ambient threads if the resentful misogynistic lyrics were stripped from the recording. A tune like “DipSet,” with its ballet-recital-sounding piano and choral backing track is certifiably advanced, despite the simple-mindedness of the rapping.
Lil Yachty plays Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven, Monday, Sept. 5, at 9 p.m. $30 toadsplace.com and 203-624-8623.
