Music contributor Eleanor Scott shares her experience during Yeat’s Eurolyfe tour
On Sunday 6th September, trending trap artist Yeat stopped in O2 Academy Birmingham for his Eurolyfe tour. The American rapper became famous in 2021 with the release of his debut studio album, Up 2 Më. His hit songs ‘Monëy so big’ and ‘Gët Busy’ gained popularity on Tiktok. Since then, he has risen in fame, dropping an average of two albums a year. Yeat announced his first European tour for the release of his album 2093 and to promote his now most recent album, Lyfestyle. It was an unmissable tour for European fans, with Yeat previewing three unreleased songs from Lyfestyle.
The rapper has a unique style, sitting in the subgenre rage rap or trap. Made-up lingo, eclectic references and bell sound motifs connect his tracks. Yeat’s originality and catchy rage beats have gained him loyal fans.
With no supporting act, the crowd were left to entertain themselves, forming mosh pits and chanting, ‘We want Yeat!’ and ‘Yeat!’ until the rapper’s appearance at about 9 pm. Seeing Yeat was a dream come true for me as a fan, and the lack of a supporting act did not seem to change the crowd’s enthusiasm. However, my twizzy (Yeat’s coined phrase, a play on ‘twin’, meaning ‘bestie’) and I could not help feeling that a supporting artist or an appearance from Yeat for longer than fifty minutes would have been a better value for money. Nevertheless, it was an exciting showcase of Yeat’s top songs, and it was fun to see fellow fans turning up in their hardest all-black alternative streetwear fits.
Seeing Yeat was a dream come true for me as a fan
Yeat opened with the hit ‘IDGAF’ from Drake’s latest album For All The Dogs. It was a shortened version without Drake’s verse due to the criticism and ridicule the verse received online for being jarringly inserted into an otherwise great Yeat track. The unreleased version of the song is a long-standing fan-favourite. Believed to be a diss towards a former friend and collaborator, the song is about not letting those beneath you get you down, flexing wealth and success. It was the perfect first song choice, with the opening intro to the song – a sample from the artist Azimuth – sung patriotically by the audience. Yeat interrupted this by sounding off his infamous chorus and running onto the stage, instantly electrifying and hyping the crowd through the bass-heavy beat.
The rapper wore his signature black balaclava for the first part of the show, where he played longstanding top songs accompanied throughout by smoke machines and pulsing white light beams. Yeat walked back and forth on the stage throughout the show, screaming ad-libs. Seamless transitions through some choruses – most notably the transition between ‘Sorry Bout That’ and its sister song ‘Mad bout that’ – incited screams of excitement from the audience. The hit song ‘Gët Busy’ from his debut album features the lyric ‘everything I imagined in my mind, I done accomplished it.’ The rapper performed these lyrics while pointing a finger to his head, which seemed most appropriate for the accomplishment of his first European tour. Songs which also gave the best reactions from the crowd, with arguably some of Yeats’s best rage beats, were ‘Flawlëss,’ ‘Big tonka’ and ‘Turban.’
The next part of the concert featured songs from Yeat’s album 2093. After an onscreen infographic and a voice telling us ‘Welcome to 2093,’ Yeat appeared back on stage. He was without his balaclava, as 2093 is the first album he has been shown without it, and the lights thematically changed to green. The album signifies a change from Yeat’s typical rage beats, using experimental cinematic dystopian synthesised sound. He explores the emptiness of consumerism in the lyrics, with more intelligible and less mumbled vocals than is typical for Yeat.
It was an unmissable tour for European fans
The first song, ‘Psycho CEO,’ portrays Yeat’s money-hungry CEO persona referenced throughout the album. The lyrics ‘I like being number one hypebeast’ reference hypebeast fashion – buying something not because you like it, but because it is popular – and notably by the designer Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape and its label 1993 to 2093. Of course, like a number one hypebeast, I had to wear my green camo BAPE shark hoodie to the concert. The songs most enjoyed by the crowd from the album were ‘Breathe’ and ‘If We Being Rëal’ and my favourite ‘ILUV.’
The last part of the show featured three songs that were, at the time, unreleased from Yeat’s most recent album Lyfestyle. The lighting changed to orange for the new album’s theme, and an infographic flashed associated imagery such as a burning building. A masked face appeared on screen welcoming us to a ‘whole new world’ and got us all to shout ‘Lyfestyle’ on the count of three before Yeat returned to the stage. My favourite song, and the one I most anticipated the full release of was ‘STFU.’ Yeat prepared us by saying, ‘you better turn up for this one,’ and shouting, ‘Geek party!’ Its catchy chorus and upbeat, fun, let-loose, rage sound is sure to become a hit. Lyfestyle seems to be a marriage of Yeat’s signature rage rap beats and the more experimental synthesised sound of 2093: an exciting new direction and growth for the rapper.
The show’s encore was of the breakthrough hit ‘Monëy so big’ with an added introduction of an epic electric guitar version of the tune. Before he performed the last song, Yeat returned to the stage shouting, ‘Come on everyone with me! Aaa!’, making sure fans left on a high with arguably his best song.
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