Lil Yachty recently delivered his new album Michigan Boy Boat, a project that features guest appearances from Sada Baby, Swae Lee, Tee Grizzley, and more. In honor of the Detroit-centric project, Yachty took a moment to chop it up with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, where he took a moment to revisit a few controversial comments he made about 2Pac and Biggie at the beginning of his rise.
In case you need a refresher, Yachty originally found himself drawing flak after calling the Notorious B.I.G overrated and revealing that he didn’t know five songs by 2Pac Shakur. Given that the comments were made during a time where tension between older and young artists was steadily rising, it didn’t take long before Boat was fielding a wave of hostility from longtime hip-hop heads.
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Years removed from the debacle, Yachty has a few thoughts on how it all played out. “I never meant to disrespect,” he explains. “I was just being honest. I didn’t have any media training, right? All I knew was to be an honest person…I’m going to tell the truth.”
“I didn’t say they were trash,” he states, maintaining that his statement was strictly his opinion. “Rap is opinionated, everything is opinionated…I was so young. I was like 19, 18, 19. I had never in my life, I had never been hated like that. People hated me after that, like death threats. I think that’s what really started that hate for me.”
“So many people were just automatically trying to dump me like he’s whack, he’s corny, or whatever the case may be,” admits Boat. “But it taught me a lot. It built my character up and made me so strong and put a shell around me. Like to a point, I got into so much shit I don’t care about anything now. I’m thankful for it because my emotions can’t hear it. Now look, say whatever they want to say. I don’t care. You know what I’m saying? And I made it through that. I made it through that and I’m still successful. And I’m still here to this day, it’s five years later, I did it.”
Check out Lil Yachty’s new project Michigan Boy Boat right here.