Yeat is blowing up. He’s still in his early 20s, but he’s already building buzz and getting major co-signs from the likes of Drake, the Weeknd, Lil Yachty, and more.
Born Noah Oliver Smith, on Feb. 26, 2000, the Portland rapper developed an early interest in music. Though he’s been releasing music since he was a teen, Yeat reached mainstream popularity in 2021 with the release of tracks like “Sorry Bout That” and “Money Twërk.” His starpower continued to rise to new levels with the release of “Gët Busy,” which went viral on TikTok. His continued attention online helped him earn a joint venture deal with Field Trip Recordings and Geffen Records.
Yeat’s most recent project, 2 Alivë, which dropped on Feb. 18, 2022 has already garnered positive critical reception. The 20-track project features guest appearances from Young Thug, Gunna, and more, and it debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
As Yeat continues to gain more popularity, we put together a list of things you should know about the rising rapper.
He came up with his name while he was high
Everyone has a story about where they got their stage name from. For Yeat, that story starts with him smoking weed. “I’m not going to lie, it was really like some high shit,” he said during an interview with Our Generation Music. “I just wanted to do something like one word, and just make it simple and kind of relatable. People hear my name, they feel like they already heard of me.” For a while, he was known as Lil Yeat, but he eventually dropped the “Lil.”
“Gët Busy” blew up on TikTok because of a bell
In August 2021, a snippet of his single “Gët Busy” went viral online and raised fan attention. The track was officially released on his album, Up 2 Më, the following month in September. “Gët Busy” later found its way to TikTok where it went ultra viral due to the use of ringing bells. In the song, Yeat raps about the bell sound, spitting, “I know this song was already turnt, but here’s a bell.” It was later quoted by artists and influencers including Drake, Lil Yachty, and Druski. Yeat previously said that he likes to include bells in his songs. “I fuck with the bells. Bells are hard,” he said. “It’s not for certain my shit, but for right now, yeah.”
He’s been releasing music since 2016
The 21-year-old rapper has been releasing music for the past six years. Speaking with Our Generation Music, he revealed that he’s been putting music online since late 2016, early 2017. Over the span of six years, he’s dropped seven projects, including his latest album, 2 Alivë. While some of the projects weren’t originally available on DSPs, you can now stream six out of the seven projects on most platforms.
