Lil Yachty Talks Soulja Boy Beef, Criticism and Nautica Campaign

Lil Yachty has been in the news for more reasons than one. Yachty, who has been championed for ushering in a new style of music, as well as criticized for his seeming lack of Hip Hop knowledge, hasn’t let either stop his flow.

In a recent interview with 106KMEL’s Shay Diddy, Yachty revealed that he’s steering clear of the negativity because his goal is to bring positivity to music.

“I want to stay relevant, but in a good way,” Yachty said. “I’m just saying you have to remain relevant in a good way. So many people say that there’s no such thing as bad press and that’s not true. Nobody wants bad press, I don’t want bad press-I’m a good guy. I think that people are just trying to figure me out.”

Lil’ Boat also revealed that he has been in the studio working on a new album, that he hopes to release in December.

“I am working on a new album”, Yachty continued. “I plan for it to drop in December, but I haven’t been in the studio yet, but it’s coming.”

iiiiiii woke up like dis #albumontheway

A video posted by KING BOAT (@lilyachty) on Oct 31, 2016 at 11:21am PDT

In regards to the Soulja Boy beef, Yachty said that there is no ill will, but there is no longer a friendship there.

“I’m so new to this rap game and I’m not used to all these egos”, Yachty said, “So when you go to someone you think is your friend and tell them about your problem you don’t think nothing because I’m new and I’m not used to fake personas. So the way he reacted shocked me. It blew up so fast because he made it something that it wasn’t. The only thing that made me mad is that it looked like a joke and he looked like a joke and the bad part is my name was associated with the joke and I never wanted to be out there like that.”

Lil Yachty also expressed his frustration with the apparent disconnect between old school and new school Hip Hop and states that although he didn’t grow up the same way a lot of the vets did, he’s still in it for the love of the culture.

“It hurts me that so many old school rappers come down on us new school artists because we choose to be different”, Yachty continued. “They have to look at things like we are younger than they were and we didn’t grow up the same way they did. There’s a lot of Hip Hop movies I haven’t seen but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t respect what I do. That’s what makes a lot of us feel like we don’t care.”

In da club like

A photo posted by KING BOAT (@lilyachty) on Sep 29, 2016 at 10:27pm PDT

In regards to being targeted as the killer of Hip Hop, Yachty feels that his music being fun may have given people the wrong idea.

“People look at songs like ‘One Night’ and think that I don’t take things seriously, but I do”, Yachty said. “Even though I just turned old enough to vote, I was out there using my voice to express the importance of voting because it seems like people take things for a joke because of social media. Like writing in my name for president or Kanye [West] and Harambe, like this is a serious matter and ya’ll playing. People saying that I’m killing Hip Hop because of my music, but I am rallying people to vote and I am at anti-gun rallies because that’s stuff that matters, not a song that won’t be on the charts next year.”

In other news, Lil Yachty has been named as the face for Nautica for a limited edition capsule collection this holiday season.

The collection, which is a Nautica and Urban Outfitters partnership, contains seven pieces whose colors are reminiscent of the ’90s, with all-over teal items and pops of neon orange mixed with blue and black color blocking.

A video posted by KING BOAT (@lilyachty) on Nov 7, 2016 at 1:50pm PST

Lil Yachty, who is a huge Nautica fan, is featured in the new campaign and will be hosting an in-store event this Thursday, November 17 to celebrate the collection at Urban Outfitters’ Space Ninety 8 in Brooklyn, NY.

Check out the interview below: