Rob Markman: Before we start, we did come with gifts.
A little swag, I know you take your fashion very seriously.
I didn’t know if you had one of these, man.
Courtesy of Genius.
Lil Yachty: I appreciate this, this crazy.
Big Boat, Big Rob.
We in the kitchen, man.
Cooking pizzas man.
Rob: Chef Yachty, what’s good.
Lil Yachty: What's up, boss?
Rob Markman: I just wanted to do something out of the norm.
I feel like your music and the way you came into this game was out of the norm.
Let's do something fly.
Let's go to Stella Barra over here on Sunset and Vine.
Make some pizza, break bread, and talk.
Man, have you ever made a pizza before?
Lil Yachty: One time my uncle took me to work with him at Papa John’s.
I don’t even remember how to do it.
Hang on, Cap.
I need to wash my hands with some hand sanitizer.
Wash your hands, people.
That’s the number one step to making a pizza.
Jeff: Flour.
This is gonna be the key right here.
Watch me on this one, put your hand right in the center, and make a well.
Pick it up, and just like you’re pinching a rope start moving it around, then cross
your hands like this and spin it.
Rob: You got that?
Lil Yachty: I don’t know, that was crazy.
This feels crazy!
Can I just pick it up?
Rob: You gotta eat that one, man.
Lil Yachty: That’s what I’m saying!
Jeff: Go like this with your hands, I’m gonna put it on top.
Like so.
Lil Yachty: Like this?
Jeff: You got this.
Lil Yachty: Ohhh sh--!
Yo this is crazy, my shit is ugly!
And see I got the ice on too, you see me?
Jeff: We got tomato sauce.
It’s organic tomatoes.
Take a spoonful of this, take it right here, put it right in the center and you’re gonna
smear it around.
Lil Yachty: Yeah, I already know how it goes.
You just take a little sauce, like that.
Is that too much?
Jeff: No you can go a little bit more.
Lil Yachty: I don’t want too much sauce.
Rob: That’s too much sauce.
Lil Yachty: That’s too much sauce.
Really sauce it up.
Like Mello.
Rob: I feel like this might come out in a song.
Jeff: Now you’re a real chef!
Lil Yachty: Damn!
Jeff: You’ve got cheese.
Rip it apart, about that size.
Lil Yachty: Okay.
And you see chunks!
There is definitely chunks in the sauce.
Rob: Nah, no more chunks.
Lil Yachty: Wrong.
Rob: You washed your hands, it’s all good.
Lil Yachty: This pizza’s made with love.
This shit is fucking cold!
My fingers are frozen.
Jeff: So take the cheese and start ripping it apart and spread it all around.
Lil Yachty: I gotta spread that shit out.
I gotta spread the love on this guy.
Jeff: You wanna add more stuff to it?
Lil Yachty: I want way more cheese, bro.
Jeff: You want pepperoni?
Lil Yachty: Oh hell yeah!
Jeff: Hell yeah we got pepperoni.
Rob: He was holding out, bro.
Go ahead.
Stunt.
Lil Yachty: I’m putting the pepperonis on the crust so when it bakes you bite that crust,
gonna have that crunch.
You heard it here first, man.
Chef Boat, man.
Chef Boyardee they used to call me back in the day.
Jeff: Put it in.
Put it in over there.
Tip it off.
Right so there it is, pull it out!
Done!
Lil Yachty: That’s artistry!
I’m making pizza!
I think I need a job.
Rob: What were your earliest memories of music, as a kid?
Like, what was the stuff that you were listening to around the house and stuff like that when
you was just a little little boat.
Lil Yachty: My dad used to play a lot of Outkast.
He play J Dilla.
He played a lot of DJ Drama mixtapes.
He played Young Jeezy.
He used to play a lot of mixes, too.
Like, hour long mixes with different shit.
He used to play a lot of samples too.
He had mixes that played, like at the time, everything that was sampled, the original
versions.
Rob Markman: And he was in the music business, right?
He was a photographer…
Lil Yachty: Yeah, he shot for a lot of artists.
Things are here.
Rob: Wowwww.
Lil Yachty: This one’s mine?
Jeff: That ones yours, yeah.
Lil Yachty: How does it look this beautiful?!
It was so ugly.
Jeff: I told you, you got it!
Lil Yachty: Oh, this looks amazing, bro.
With the pepperonis on the crust?
Rob: I think you got a new recipe, too, bro.
Lil Yachty: Yeah, my dad was HEAVILY into music.
And art, period.
Movies, television, culture.
Subculture.
My dad was heavily into black Atlanta culture.
Rob Markman: What's interesting is that I read an interview with your dad and he said
that he named you after Miles Davis.
Lil Yachty: Yeah.
We have pictures of Miles Davis, John Coltrane Nina Simone, all around his house.
On his left and right arm he has Miles Davis and Nina Simone's face tatted.
My little sister's name is Nina Simone.
Rob Markman: At what point do you decide that you want to do music?
Lil Yachty: Not early.
Rob Markman: Not early.
Lil Yachty: None of that clicked early.
It wasn't until...
Like, I was making songs for fun on his computer, just playing around, when I'm home alone with
my brother, who is now my producer, Earl.
We used to just make skits.
I used to listen to Weird Al Yankovic.
My dad loved Dave Chappelle.
You know Dave Chappelle did the R. Kelly skits.
The music skits.
So I used to make funny songs.
Parodies.
But I never took it serious, you know what I'm saying?
It wasn't until college was trash that I knew I could do it, bro.
Rob: But your skits are legendary.
Like, Lil Boat.
Just the intro.
The "Just Keep Swimming" intro.
Rob Markman: And RD was an original name...
Lil Yachty: RD.
I got it tatted on my arms, yep.
Lil Yachty: That's when I was a part of the Yacht Club.
Nobody wanted to call me Yachty.
I wanted to be Lil Yachty, but nobody wanted to call me it.
I don't know.
I guess they thought it was corny, or what not.
This pizza is amazing.
Rob: Pizza’s really delicious.
Lil Yachty: Yeah, so I just started calling myself RD.
Standing for...
First it was standing for Roger Dame.
Then Rich Dollaz.
Then I changed it to anytime somebody ask me I'ma give them a different explanation.
If anybody ever ask me about my RD name, I'm going to say something different every time.
So nobody will ever know.
I just used to think to myself.
Like, how to stay different, you know?
Rob: Because the first time we got to know you, "1 Night" just took off, but 'Summer Songs.'
I'm probably skipping some steps.
There's a lot of years in between this.
Lil Yachty: Until Yacht Club had like a fallout and deleted all the songs off of YouTube.
That was a long time ago.
Them shits had like...
1000 plays was the most we ever got, but that was like a million to us.
And there was never released music, after that.
I had a couple of songs right before "1 Night".
Like.
"I Got the Bag" and a couple of other songs.
"Up Next 1."
As opposed to "Up Next 2."
Then 3, with Lil Herb, And then 'Summer Songs' one.
My first EP with me and Big Brutha Chubba on the cover.
Rob Markman: "Minnesota" was on there too.
The original…
Lil Yachty: No, no, no.
Nope.
"Minnesota" got...
"Minnesota" originally got leaked.
And I was so pissed at the producer, Grandfero. He just leaked it.
I was so mad at him, bro, but I'm so thankful that he did that, bro.
Because he was trying to get his clout.
It started going up.
I kind of got upset because it was going up on his page and not mine.
He had one song on there.
Just that one song.
I had all my other music.
I wanted all my other music to get saw.
Rob Markman: But even now, it worked out at the end, didn't it?
A very key and instrumental part of your career is a YouTube video…
So Sensei LeFox does this video,
Lil Yachty: Caleon.
Rob Markman: When bae hits you with that “what are we?”
Talk to me about this video, this is a very important video.
Lil Yachty: His name is Caleon Fox.
I hate how the Internet feels like I owe him something.
I always see tweets, like "If it wasn't for this video, there wouldn't be no Lil Yachty.
Lil Yachty owes you his whole life."
I see it all the time.
Because I see everything.
Like, I'm 100% grateful to Caleon.
I've talked to him, personally.
I hit him right before I got on.
I hit him right before the video blew up.
Like, 'Bro this is so dope.
You helping me.
Thank you.'
I kept contacting him.
And people just try to beat me up about it, like I made him record that video.
I didn't know he was doing that.
He just did it, and it blew up.
Rob Markman: You know we seem Memes all the time come and go.
One day it's hot on the Internet, one day it's over with.
Consistency is the thing.
Lil Yachty: Whether you hate me or not, I was making music that was different. I was interactive with my fans.
That shit goes a long way.
I was FaceTime'n them.
Playing video games with them.
I gave out my iCloud.
We was messaging.
Rob: Love it or hate it, it forces you to pay attention, because it doesn't sound like
anything else out there.
Lil Yachty: That's the key.
Rob Markman: You have a sound that's called...
You call it Boat Music, right?
Lil Yachty: Bro, I'm so glad you just said that instead of bubblegum trap.
I call it Boat Music.
But, one time I called it bubblegum trap and now everyone says that.
It’s boat music, yeah.
If you can like close your eyes and see colors.
Or see an image.
See something when you listen to it whether it's a field of bubblegum, if that's what
you see, or rainbows or love or happy or just turnt.
It makes you feel good.
It's Boat Music.
Rob Markman: You said on the intro to the 'Lil Boat' tape, "Just Keep Swimming", you
had a line, "I don't know who I am sometimes.
I might rap a verse.
I might sing a song."
Lil Yachty: That was Boat.
Rob: Right.
Because you played two characters.
That's what I want to get into.
Your process of knowing when to rap.
Knowing when to sing.
Knowing when it's Boat.
Knowing when it's Yachty.
And parcing all this out together.
Lil Yachty: It’s the beat bro.
It's all in production.
If the beat is like heavy hitting, it's Boat.
When I was RD, I wasn't really doing much singing.
I was straight rapping.
I was trying to rap.
Rob: And you figured out how to expand your sound.
Lil Yachty: When I met Perry.
Rob Markman: I mean, he's one of the architects of the sound, as well right?
Lil Yachty: Yeah.
I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Perry, Bro.
He had a sound that was going unheard.
Just like how I had Yacht Club.
He was with a group of rappers and he was swept under the rug.
They wasn't paying him no attention.
So I met him and I'm like, 'Yo, man.
This is golden, what you got here, bro.’
I took him and I just 360'd it.
Rob Markman: Now, you talked about the difference between Lil Boat and Lil Yachty.
Yachty is melodic.
Boat is more of a rapper.
Lil Yachty: Aggressiveness.
Rob Markman: So I'm assuming that's Boat we heard on "Mase in 97"
Lil Yachty: Oh, for sure.
100%.
"Mase in 97", "Up Next 2", "Up Next 3".
Chance the Rapper verse.
Rob Markman: Let me ask you a question.
What does...
You know Chance just came out of the Grammys and made history.
What does that do to your outlook of music in this new generation of artists that are
really getting it?
Lil Yachty: Chance just broke a barrier, bro.
For all the independent, up-and-coming, SoundCloud, local, mumble rap.
Getting no attention from major labels or just don't want to take that route.
Rob Markman: Even your expectations and what you imagined you could do..
Lil Yachty: For all the new rappers, bro!
21, Uzi, Denzel Curry, Kodak Black.
He just made it easy for the Grammys.
He made it streaming.
He made it available.
That's what we live off of.
It's the world now, bro.
It's not sales.
It's streaming now.
And we run that.
I know I run that shit.
I ain't even speaking on nobody.
I know I run streaming, bro.
Whether you hate me or not, you can't deny that shit.
Rob Markman: Now, what's up with you?
I know you gotta be excited, man.
Your debut album is coming.
'Teenage Emotions'.
Lil Yachty: I'm jittery, man.
Rob Markman: You real jittery.
Lil yachty: It’s kind of got like an 80's, 90's vibe on some of the tracks.
It's called 'Teenage Emotions', so it caters to a teenager's every day lifestyle.
Heartbreak, happiness.
Just that vibe when you're waking up in the morning and getting dressed.
You just want to dance.
Or it's not just straight bars or it's not straight mumble rap or singing.
It goes to a different lanes, bro.
I be rapping real hard on this one.
I be pop singing.
And I be talking about being lost in love on this one.
Then it's back to "Fuck you, suck my dick."
It’s amazing, I just count my blessings, bro.
I haven’t always been in the situation that I’m in, bro.
I remember back when I used to watch...
I used to go on Rap Genius and read lyrics from my favorite artists.
Before it was Genius.
When it was only Rap Genius.
Before they even had the genres, know what I'm saying?
Going to the Grammys, my first year.
Nautica, Sprite, Target, some other stuff I got coming.
I just can't be upset.
Every dream my mom has ever had in life, I have brought to reality.
That's all I care about.
My sister got 500 pair of shoes in her closet.
Got my mom a new house.
A new Range Rover.
A Birkin bag.
That's her dream purse.
That bag is $35,000 bro.
I took 4 of my boys out of their mother's house.
Perry was homeless.
He was sleeping in his car.
Once the whole team is known and we're all celebrities, then I can kick my feet up.
Once my friends are all Gucci.
Rob: Man, again.
I just wanted to thank you for coming to sit down with us, making this delicious pizza.
think one of the most real things you can do with a person...
When you can sit down to eat with the person and literally break bread with somebody is
real.
Lil Yachty: I appreciate it, bro.
I had fun, today.
We lit.
We made a pizza and shit.
I think it’s about time they get us our own.
Rob: See I gotta follow you, man.
You know how to get it, you got the plug with Sprite, Target, Nautica man.
Lil Yachty: It’s too simple, man.
Just keep a good image.
That’s all I say.
Keep a clean image, man and doors open up.
Lil Yachty: I had to clean up all the ice, I couldn’t have dough on the ice.
Flour on the ice, it’s all good.
It’s all money baby you know what I’m saying because when it’s real it can go
in the water!
When it’s not it’s gonna rust!