Let’s jump right into it, Lil Yachty’s album cover for his debut studio album “Teenage Emotions” provokes conversation. No way around it and Capital records will not allow you to ignore Lil Yachty or his album cover. Let’s back up one second, Lil Yachty has often been at the top of Hip-Hop conversations for over the past year for basically not being Hip-Hop enough. Not only do Yachty’s lackluster skills behind the mic really get Hip-Hop Heads heated but he says things like “I can’t name 5 Tupac or Biggie songs”. The 19 year-old “Minnesota” rapper has even recently been referred to as the poster child for wack rappers. With many of the statements Lil Yachty makes in his interviews and freestyles like his freestyle over the classic “Flava In Ya Ear” track it almost feels like Yachty is trolling us all big time and we keep falling for it. The interesting part of it all is Yachty seems to want that acceptance from an audiences that will never accept him. For that acceptance Yachty has done everything it seems besides stepping his BARS up and stepping his music up. One may ask (knowing this artist’s recent history and seeing his album cover for “Teenage Emotion”) are we being trolled by this album cover? Is this a ploy for attention? Is this symbolism of how he feels in the rap game?
The album cover is a collage of young people that look as if they can be teenagers. These young people appear to be outsiders that visually standout among their peers and Yachty is sitting in the middle of all of them with the biggest smile on his face. Yachty is rocking his trademark red twist with an open pink jacket with no shirt underneath. But the history that was made on this album cover is that this is the first time we have ever seen a major Hip-Hop artist have two males kissing one another on the lips of a Hip-Hop/Rap album. There is no doubt that there more than likely have been homosexuals participating in Hip-Hop music for years. In 2017 we still haven’t seen a male Hip-Hop artist that is in the prime of their careers openly come out as a homosexual. ILovemakonnen announced that he was retiring from music before he came out and said he was a homosexual. Young M.A. is very open about her homosexuality but for women in Hip-Hop it’s not the same as a male rapper coming out with the same news.
For years in Hip-Hop gay slurs have been used in various diss records and just used in so many lyrics in general that are aimed to insult. The world is clearly changing and it’s clear that Hip-Hop is changing right along with it. With a major record label feeling comfortable enough to put out an album cover that we all know wouldn’t have been greenlit 10 to 20 years ago. How did we get here? Who are the major contributors that helped these barriers in Hip-Hop to be broken down? I personally think that we can start with Kanye West. Kanye gave the average guy the notion that he could be a mainstream successful rapper by being himself. Wearing what he wants to wear and openly expressing his feelings without fear. That message gave us the Drakes of the world. Rap went from songs riddled with gay slurs to rappers becoming advocates for Gay Rights. A Tribe Called Quest went from making a song like “Georgie Porgie” to making a song like “We The People”.
The main question here is Yachty capitalizing on yet another gimmick for him? Is Yachty active in advocating for Gay Rights? Is Yachty gay himself? Some of these things must be explained to some degree. Because honestly if not Lil Boat appears to be using other’s real life struggle for personal gain. Hopefully the music can grab our attention as the album cover did. We’re just going to have to wait and see.
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