Although there have been a variety of superstar athletes, celebrities, and talented musical artists to come out of the Lake Oswego area, there are few who can currently claim more fame than up-and-coming rapper Yeat. His new album “2 Alivë”, released on Feb. 18, went number one on the Apple Music charts for all music, not just rap, which is a huge success for an artist who had previously had a few hit songs, but little mainstream success. He even got appearances from other goliaths in the rap industry on the album with features from Young Thug, Gunna and Ken Car$on.

Born Noah Oliver Smith, Yeat spent his early years in Irvine, California but attended and graduated from Lakeridge High School. After he finished high school, he knew he wanted to make music, so he moved to New York City to pursue his dreams. Drawing inspiration from the rage beats of artists such as Playboi Carti, Yeat dropped his first song, “Br!nk,” on Jun. 30, 2018, and never looked back. 

He continued to consistently drop music until he eventually broke through and went viral with his mixtape titled “4L.” Headlined by the massive hit “Sorry Bout That,” Yeat was springboarded into the public spotlight, garnering most of his fame from the social media platform TikTok. “Sorry Bout That” now has upwards of 30.4 million streams and counting. This hype pushed Yeat to release his debut album titled “Up 2 Më.” This album delivered even more smash hits like “Turban” and “Monëy so big” and the spotlight on Yeat only grew brighter. 

For his second album, Yeat was no longer looking to make a name for himself. He had already built up an audience and loyal following. He instead needed to elevate himself to become more than just a social media gimmick and ascend into the upper echelon of the modern generation of rappers. He started by releasing a single titled “Still countin,” collaborating with critically acclaimed music video director Cole Bennett. The video, published on Bennett’s channel Lyrical Lemonade has already accrued more than 2.4 million views and 168,000 likes in the span of a week and this success is dwarfed by the album itself. The amount of quick success Yeat has achieved is not uncommon in the rap industry, but the question Yeat will need to answer is whether his unique style is just another novelty, or if it is here to stay.