Lil Yachty’s stark departure from hip-hop earned praise from Questlove.
Following his appearance on Her Loss and the release of “Poland,” there’s been high expectations of Lil Yachty. Though many expected him to continue creating hip-hop music, few predicted that he would leap into another genre completely.
Neither proved to be true and Yachty ultimately came out with a psychedelic rock album. On Friday, he blessed fans with Let’s Start Here, which was undoubtedly a left-turn for his fans. Some felt as though he turned his back on rap. However, a few accomplished musicians in the field had kind words for Yachty’s latest release.
Questlove hit Instagram where he expressed his utter appreciation for Yachty’s next project. In fact, he credited the album as instilling a sense of optimism surrounding the future of music. He stated that he didn’t want to jump out with any opinions too early. He said it would “the trolls ammo to hate it" or downplay the power of Quest's co-sign.
“After about 3 listens (and I thought I’d NEVER say this—-& not because “I didn’t expect this from Lil Yachty”——but just in general I didn’t expect this from MUSIC)... I really really really really love this @lilyachty record and I love when artists pull off a good departure record.”
From there, he looked back at some famous departure albums (i.e. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Radiohead’s Kid A). Then, he declared Let’s Start Here as “the most surprising transition of any music career I’ve witnessed in a min, especially under the umbrella of hip hop.”
He added, “Shit like this (envelope pushing) got me hyped about music’s future.”
Check Quest's full post below.