2 Alivë

LA-based MC Yeat might only be getting his feet wet in the rap game, but he’s already long on confidence. “Everything I’m doing is just better than you,” he sings to doubters on *2 Alivë*’s “Jus bëtter.” *2 Alivë* is the MC’s first project of 2022, after having released three in 2021 alone (*Up 2 Më*, *4L*, *Alivë*). Fans of viral selections like *4L*’s “Sorry Bout That” will recognize Yeat’s penchant for slipping in and out of vintage Young Thug flows, but if the YSL general himself takes no issue with it (Thugger appears on the album’s “Outsidë”), how could we? As a young star on the rise, Yeat chooses mostly to rap about a life full of drugs, money, and mayhem, but what he says is less important than how he says it. The rapping (and singing) here is rarely hurried and mostly delivered over what sounds like 1990s video-game-inspired production. And still, full verses can be difficult to understand, a clear reminder that even as the flagship MC of burgeoning label Field Trip Recordings and maybe the most buzzed-about MC of the post-SoundCloud generation, Yeat is but a medium for the vibes.

The 21-year-old Portland rapper isn’t doing anything all that new, but he has a refreshing album-focused approach, best listened to as one continuous stream, getting lost in the noisy madness.

On a bassy tsunami of layered vocals and raging beats, Portland MC/producer Yeat used 2021 to morph into one of the hottest rappers in the country.