Lil Yachty sails into town

“I miss the old Yachty, the ‘bubblegum trap’ Yachty,” said fan Jhueller, “the never, switch up-Yachty.”

“I’ve got songs that sample Mario Bros., Charlie Brown, the Rugrats theme, the music that plays when you turn on a GameCube,” Lil Yachty said in an interview with Rolling Stone after his Lil Boat mixtape dropped in 2016.

“Bubblegum trap” is the phrase coined to describe the subgenre of rap music created by the Atlanta-based rapper, because he rhymed over kiddie-sounding samples backed by hard southern-trap beats. Some of the then 18-year-old’s songs were far from the TV-Y type ratings, and more like TV-MA — as heard on his 2016 joint titled “1 NIGHT,” on which some of the lyrics go:

• I know you want this for life
• Taking pictures with all my ice But I can’t have no wife
• I just want you for the night
• I just can’t put you on front street like you want I know
• But baby you is not no ho
• And I put it on my gang I’m not no average Joe
• It’s Yachty from the block you know

There are derogatory terms in the song that was produced by his “olde” mate, TheGoodPerry, formerly known as Burberry Perry (before he was checked by the British brand-Burberry). The pair was in the accompanying rap video, that was filmed on a yacht with their mates and deckhands — “The Sailing Team” — decked in nautical themed attire and surrounded by females wearing captain hats. The video garnered over 125 million hits since its launch.

“We [are] literally always together,” TheGoodPerry said in an interview when Lil Boat set sail.

It’s unclear who, but sometime after that comment, one of the two jumped ship. hardcore Lil Yachty and TheGoodPerry fans questioned why the once “inseparable” rappers’ charted divergent courses.

“They don’t [even] follow each other on social, and Perry switched up his look,” said a fan online, “looks like they dont fw [fuck with] each other anymore.”

“Perry influenced Lil Boat’s sound so much, so with Perry no longer around him,” added another trap music-fan, “his [Lil Yachty] music has taken a darker and grittier undertone with his new collaborators.”

Yachty, then modeled with his red-dreads for Kanye and his Yeezy line, and collabed in studio with Quavo from Migos on “No Hook.” He then got a nod from Drake on his “Minnesota” jam, and Chance the Rapper featured him and Young Thug on the mixtape cut of his Coloring Book album.

Many of the fans that remained on board with the former Alabama State University student turned bubblegum rapper consoled one another online.

“The thing about Yachty now is, I think after he experimented with his sound,” said Montae Lewis, “and put out Teenage Emotions and got clowned, he’s been playing it safe with this forced generic Migos trap sound, but you can tell musically, his buzz is dwindling. Perry [and] him need each other.”

“It’s just so damn frustrating because he can just effortlessly ride his original wave and he’d be 100 percent fine,” said another fan on YouTube, “and I don’t like the excuse that, oh, it’s cuz Perry, is gone.”

Angelo M., a trap music fanatic and aspiring trap producer from North Park disagrees with the online hubbub “I don’t think Lil Yachty lost his bubblegum 'flava,'” he said. “I think he just went mainstream and still kept that 'surreal Willy Wonka' vibe.”

Lil Yachty will perform at Pechanga Arena with Chance the Rapper on January 15.