Music Reviews

SoCal hip-hop envelope-pusher Yeat has already had quite a busy 2024—and he ain’t done yet. February saw him drop his fourth LP—the electro-rage dystopian chronicle, 2093—with guest turns from Lil Wayne, Future, and Donald Glover, and then his good compatriot Drake wound up joining the storyline on the 2093 (P2) deluxe edition. To keep the dark narrative going, Yeat’s fifth LP, Lyfestyle, dropped on all major digital platforms on October 18, 2024—and it all gets taken to a whole other level in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music.

Due to the 22-track album’s overall construct and M.O., I soon found that my AirPods Pro listening sessions actually seemed to set a better, rightfully hemmed-in and notably harrowing Lyfestyle playback stage than what I got out of it from my open-air system and headphones listening. I might change my mind about the latter later, but the AirPods just felt like the right fit in the here and now for Yeat’s immersive life tales.

“GO2WORK” finds Yeat teaming with Louisiana rapper Summrs, and the initial sampled percussion sizzle-taps that reside in the mid-quadrant quiver, quake, and hiss like they came off a well-played, long-warped LP—and that’s a good thing. Yeat sets the storytelling stage on the first verse as the backing synth-burbling flashes and squeals across the soundstage in response to his vocal charge to, you guessed it, “GO2WORK.” The effect on Yeat’s vocal also warps and wavers as the verse carries onward, his voice planted high in the stage with a slight echo at the end of most lines but still somewhat kept in alignment with the squiggled percussive taps behind him. The bass lays back in the mix so it doesn’t compete with the flow—a smart production choice by the troika of Robin, Synthetic, and TC. Summrs adds a different vocal flavor to the next verse, and the music drops out for a brief moment right after the phrase, “Get too close / I pop.” Listen for where the ensuing, repeated “okay” and “whoa” exclamations wind up in the wide channels—sometimes they’re upfront, sometimes they’re cascading in the back. This is how you deftly work the elements in a rap track without overloading it. (And now, it’s time to take the Lamb’ outta here. . .)

Next, “Gone 4 a Min” shifts aural gears with an opening keyboard riff Depeche Mode fans would surely appreciate as Yeat implores, “What’s the rush?” Right away, the production team (in this case, led by Sapjer) chops up “rush” a few times by extending the “shhhh” across the stage like a 40 got spilled on the floor. The synth leads the charge as a metallic slap bursts around you until the vocal “oooh” repeats and spreads on up into the clouds. The synth switches to a snarl behind the next verse—and then the extended “shhh” theme returns and recurs at the end of the words “bitch,” “switch,” and “rich.” The volume swells up a notch in the last minute of “Min,” as the manipulation of an enunciated “ohhh” mirrors notes played on a keyboard before dropping out to let the actual synth rise and fall to close out the cut.

“I’m a geekster baby / I do this all the time,” Yeat bleats near the end of “Gone 4 a Min,” and, regardless of its in-the-moment context, we can all make that boast relate to our own respective lyfestyles—er, lifestyles. Yeat keeps his winning streak going with all aspects of his Lyfestyle in Atmos—and, word is, the next chapter (duly dubbed A Dangerous Lyfe) is soon around the way. In the meantime, go to work and hit the repeat button on Yeat so you too can be enveloped by all the aural Lyfestyle riches of his you can handle.