The Insane Rise of YEAT

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Noah Smith (born February 26, 2000), known professionally as Yeat (/ˈjiːt/ YEET), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and music producer. He gained recognition in mid-2021 after the release of his mixtape 4L and debut studio album "Up 2 Më", with tracks from the latter, including "Gët Busy", "Turban", and "Monëy So Big", gaining popularity on TikTok. In 2022, he released his second studio album, "2 Alivë", and the EP "Lyfë".

Noah Smith was born on February 26, 2000, in Irvine, California. In an interview, he stated his mother is Romanian while his father is half Mexican, through Smith's paternal grandmother (in that same interview, Smith said that his paternal grandfather was white, but that he didn't know his specific ethnicity). His father was a member of a band and owned many instruments. Yeat moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon in his teen years and attended Lakeridge High School. After graduating, Yeat moved to New York to pursue his music career before eventually moving to Los Angeles, where he currently lives.

Yeat began making music that had Auto-Tune-infused vocals. In 2021, he adopted a more aggressive and synth-based sound, joining a growing group of rappers that used "rage beats", a sound that became a SoundCloud staple influenced and pioneered by the lively vocal deliveries and EDM-influenced beat selections of artists such as Playboi Carti; Carti's December 2020 Whole Lotta Red album has particularly been referenced. His vocal style has drawn comparisons to notable rappers like Playboi Carti, Future, and Young Thug. Yeat has stated the latter two are some of his biggest inspirations.

Yeat has also been noted to employ a unique lingo in his music, coming up with ad-libs and phrases such as "twizzy" and "luh geeky", and referencing Tonka in his lyrics often. His father was one of the inspirations for him creating these unique words, as he himself would make up his own words when Yeat was a child.

Certain aspects of Yeat's music have led him to be associated with various Internet memes and trends, especially the frequent use of bell sounds in his song's beats.

00:00 Intro
01:21 Yeat's Backstory + early music
07:04 Year's blow up
13:00 Is Yeat the future?


#volksgeist #yeat #hiphop