This #NowPlaying pick comes courtesy of Heat Check.
Here's how I imagine the making of "Poland" went:
LIL YACHTY: "You recording?"
ENGINEER: "Yep."
LIL YACHTY: "I TOOK THE WOOOOOOOOCK TO POLAND!"
F1LTHY: "What the hell was that??"
ENGINEER: "Do you wanna try that again?"
LIL YACHTY: "Nah trust me ... OK, now make me sound like I'm a robot singing into a fan."
RANDOM GUY IN STUDIO: "I'm leaking this."
Whether it's Michigan rap or sample drill, Yachty is constantly looking for new sounds to fold into his world. But the cyber-vibrato on "Poland" reminds me of the goofier Sailing Team days when he was emerging in the wake of Makonnen, KEY and other Atlanta rap mavericks — a singer that couldn't really sing but had enough charisma and auto-tune to pull it off. The song hinges on its insane hook. The verse is kind of forgettable. But that's all it has taken for fans to eat this thing up. Yachty is probably channeling Duwap Kaine, too, a 20-year-old from Savannah, Ga. who's quietly influenced a generation of internet rap crooners by pushing auto-tune to its limits. Kaine seemed to get the message; he's already released a remix.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.