“This shit sounds scary, doesn’t it?”
Yeat is blasting experimental trumpet music in his spacious Los Angeles lair as he looks out over dramatic views of the city.
Rumbling out of the expensive soundsystem is a 1977 recording called “Hex” by American composer Jon Hassel. It does, in fact, sound scary as hell, and Yeat can’t get enough of it. “This is insane,” he says, transfixed by the eerie horns.
He first heard the song in a luxury Tokyo clothing store, which sent him down a rabbit hole of avant-garde ambient music from decades past. Yeat rarely listens to popular new music these days, and he’d rather discover strange sounds in unexpected places.
If you spend any amount of time with the 25-year-old artist, you’ll notice he has a favorite phrase: “pushing boundaries.” It’s a mission statement, of sorts, for a guy who has long delighted in pissing off hip-hop traditionalists by making delirious moshpit anthems that stray far from the sensibilities of your dad’s lyrical rap collection. He’s a tinkerer—a curious innovator obsessed with finding unusual flows, inventing words, and figuring out outrageous new ways to layer his ad-libs into beats.
Yeat, born Noah Olivier Smith in Irvine, California, began his career as a leader of the high-energy “rage” rap movement that exploded from the underground in 2021, but he never wanted to recycle the same sound that made him famous. “If I just made ‘Monëy So Big’ 50 times in a row, I would be going nowhere,” he points out. With time, his music has grown a bit more melodic (“I've been getting more into my singing bag,” he says) and he’s been infusing new styles—from industrial dance music to rock to country—into his futuristic brand of hip-hop. (No wonder he spends his afternoons studying spooky ambient music.)
So far, it’s working. At a time when the hip-hop world has become increasingly anxious about a lack of new stars, Yeat is the rare exception. In the last three years alone, he’s landed six projects inside the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, and his cult fanbase has grown into a mainstream following that stretches across the globe. As we speak, “Comë N Go,” the standout hit from his new EP Dangerous Summer, is climbing to the top of the rap streaming charts, and the biggest artists in the world are taking notice. He’s collaborated with everyone from Drake to Young Thug to Donald Glover, and received co-signs from the likes of Justin Bieber and The Weeknd. The underground king has grown into a legit star.
In 2025, Yeat has arrived at a turning point. After five years of incessant music-making—dropping over a dozen projects and accumulating a massive vault of unreleased songs—he’s ready for a new approach. For the first time in his career, he’s going back and taking extra time to fine-tune songs, rather than making them in one take and dropping right away. He’s slowing down and perfecting his next album, A Dangerous Lyfe.
On a Wednesday afternoon in mid-September, he pulls his phone out and starts playing unfinished demos he’s been working on, revealing his most ambitious, expansive work yet. The music is anchored by an aesthetic that will be familiar to most Yeat fans, but it’s being executed at a scale (and with a level of precision) that he hasn’t reached before.
This creative progression is running in tandem with an even more dramatic physical and mental transformation over the past year. He started working out, cut back on drugs, and got in the best shape of his life. Throughout our afternoon together, he looks me straight in the eyes as he talks, speaking with an energy and clarity that wasn’t present when I first interviewed him for a Complex cover story in 2022. “I didn’t want to be out anywhere back then,” he says.
Perched on the edge of a couch in a lavish home that’s decorated with trippy paintings and vintage audio devices, Yeat speaks with excitement about the future. For years, he was happy to lurk from the shadows as he became one of the world’s most-streamed rappers without ever needing to play the typical games of celebrity (until recently, he rarely even showed his face). But in 2025, a new Yeat stands before us. He no longer relies on the masks that used to obscure his appearance, and he’s ready to move differently. He’s been stepping out more, linking with A-list peers, walking in fashion shows, teasing Nike collabs, and plotting a future that extends far beyond music.
As he prepares for a performance at ComplexCon on October 25, which will feature several surprise guests, Yeat sits down for a rare, in-depth conversation about his recently released EP Dangerous Summer and the next era of his life and career. The interview, lightly edited for clarity, is below.
How's life?
Amazing. I feel great. I've been in a different head space. I work out every day. I swim every day. I don't do percs anymore. I’m focusing on health and getting my mind straight. Now that I'm single, I've been in a different bag.
I'm mostly just working on music right now, but I've been trying not to go too crazy. My problem has always been making so much music over the years. I've made like 40,000 songs. The newest thing that I make is always my favorite song, so I've been dialing it back, because I don't want to over flood it.
I make so many good records, and I don't want to lose track of crazy hit songs by making a bunch of others that could be better. I forget about great songs all the time because I record at such a rapid pace, so I've been trying to slow it down. I always have records, though. I could drop a 20-song album tomorrow.
What does an average day in your life look like right now?
If I'm on the road, then I just wake up, chill, do a show, and go turn up. If I'm here in LA, I'll wake up, work out, make a couple songs, or be on the phone with some producers and listen to shit. I listen to a lot of melodies and then try to see which producers will put the best drums on it. And then just a lot of business shit. And girls. That's really it. [A large painting is delivered to his door while we talk.] I've got these paintings. I love art. I'm always thinking about things outside of music—like furniture, paintings, clothing, and movies.
What inspired you to start working out and get in better shape?
I just felt like it was time to lock in. I wanted to get my mind and body straight. Working out makes me feel better.
Has that improved your performances?
Yeah, the shows have gotten better. I don't get tired at all. I have more energy. That was also just getting off percs. Ever since then, it's really changed my mindset and how I live day to day.
Do you think about how you'll keep improving your shows? Do you have stadium dreams?
Yeah, I always have concepts for shows. It's an upwards trend, and it's all very planned. I do stage design and figure out how I want the lighting to look, how I want my voice to sound with the reverb, and how much AutoTune I want. I want to dial everything in, with next-level shit in every direction. I could go crazy in stadiums. I always want it to be a crazy experience—not just me onstage singing a song.
At Coachella this year, you performed on top of a giant bell. You also threw the first ever after-party on the festival grounds, right?
Yeah, the first one in history. Me and Bieber. It was a great night. We were really turnt.
Bieber was front row at your show, too. What's your relationship like with him?
It's good. We'll link sometimes and make some music. We're cool. We'll work on shit and hang out. Sometimes I'll go to his crib, have dinner and shit. We were kicking it at Coachella. He's good people. I like talking to him about music, too, and getting feedback.
What have you been listening to lately?
Besides my own music? Just crazy old stuff. I listen to random things, looking for sounds that I can sample. I like old sounds and crazy old ambient music. Like, this guy Jon Hassel is crazy. He died, but he has this scary ass song called “Hex” that I’ll play for you. It's from like 1970. It's insane. I wrote a whole movie script to it. When I got out of the doctor's this one time, I came back and I was out of it. I couldn't sleep, and I wrote a whole movie to that album. I've been working on movies and directing. I have a lot of crazy ideas.
Wow, I can't imagine what a Yeat movie would be like.
I have crazy ideas, and I've been doing scores, too. So I would score it, direct it, and do everything myself. I want to wait until I get the right actors and production behind it, though, before I ever pull a green switch on that. But scoring is something I could do in the near future. I would definitely score a horror movie for A24 or something like that. I'll play you some of the scores I've made. I've made some crazy, unsettling, scary-ass scores.
How else do you get inspired, besides by listening to music?
Inspiration just comes from me doing shit—going out on trips and experiencing things in Europe, Japan, and these random places. I always rap or sing about whatever I’m doing currently. Whatever girl I'm talking to or whatever trip I go on, I rap about experiences that I'm living.
At the beginning of your career, you said you always wanted to stay home and make music all day. But it seems like you've been stepping out more lately
Yeah, I'm outside more. It's a new vibe I'm on. I like being outside now.
Do you think that affects the music?
A hundred percent. The more experiences that I go through, there's more shit to rap about.
For years, you wore masks, but you’ve started showing your face more now. Why did you want to do that?
It was just time. Ever since I quit the percs, I wasn't wearing the mask as much. I just liked wearing the mask back then. It was my thing. It would go with the fits. That was my swag.
Now I'm just dressed more comfortably. I walk outside in gray sweatpants, white shoes, and a white T-shirt with no brands. Still looking fly, but being way more comfortable.
You've already had several distinct eras in your career. How would you describe this new era you’re in?
This new era is more polished and meticulous. I'm really dialing in the world and the sounds. I'm still doing everything myself—I'm still mixing, mastering, and producing, and every little echo and thing you hear in the song will always be me—but I'm a lot more open to making records better.
Until Dangerous Summer, I’d never gone back and opened up a session again. Like, once I made a song and it was bounced and in my phone, that session would never get opened again. I thought going back in on it was weird. So now I'm actually going back in on the records, instead of just one-taking it and just dropping it, which is fire, but now I'm being more particular about what I'm doing.
The records could be at 90%, but I'm trying to get it to a hundred percent. Like, going back in on it, changing this lyric, fixing this part. Add some post-production here, add some synths here, add a crazy outro here, add a bridge here. I’m dialing every sound in. The music's evolving with me. As I'm getting older, the music is growing with me. The fans are getting older and growing with me, too. Everything's growing. The newer shit's more evolved, more polished, and more clean.
That’s interesting. Some people tinker with songs for months or years.
I didn't even know that. I thought it was wrong to do that. Zack [Bia] explained it to me in a good way one time. He was like, a painter doesn't just do one stroke and say, "OK, now I can't do it anymore. It's done." They go back in on it for weeks and add little small things. But I always thought once you made it, it's done.
Now I might just go back in and add some ad-libs here or add an echo here or add a beat switch here. Or maybe I'll change one bar. I don't even change things crazy, and I still make a lot of songs in one take, but even just the idea of going back in is new to me.
I really look at it from the production side, too. We made most of the album in Saint-Tropez. I rented out these five villas. One of them was just a studio house, and I got a house for BNYX, a house for Sapjer, a house for this engineer Pat, and we just dialed in everything.
I would be sitting there, and I'd hear the beat, and I'd be, like, "Add a horn that's sounds like this." [Humming]. I'd be orchestrating everything in the room with all the producers. I'd say, "You send this melody to him, have him put this synth on it, send it back to Benny. Benny put these drums with this 808." It's a good collaboration, because I've been working with Benny and Sapjer forever. I know exactly how I want it to sound, so when I have everyone in the room with me, I can really orchestrate and tell everyone how to get it to sound exactly how I want it.
On songs like "Growing Pains," you layer your own vocals and ad-libs into the beat in ways I've never heard before. How do you make songs like that?
I've just figured out a lot of new crazy things to use on Logic. I can't even give the sauce away, but it's crazy. I don't even know how I learned how to use half of these things. I'll just be clicking random plug-ins, just fucking with the sounds. I'll take shit that's supposed to be for a beat, but put it on my voice. Or vice versa. I'll put AutoTune on the beat, too. And I usually lay down the ad-libs and melodies first, in one take. I've been getting more into my singing bag and shit. That "Growing Pains" song is definitely next level. I like that song a lot.
A lot of people assume those crazy sounds are a part of the beat, but it’s actually your voice.
Yeah. That's what I'm doing now with it in real life, too. I still do that same thing with my voice when we're all working on a project together in the room. I use my voice to show the sounds I'm looking for. On the song "Oh I Did," I was in the room with BNYX and I was like, "Put a horn right here, like, [humming]." And that's how we made it. I did the same thing with the choir on "Comë N Go." I sang it first and then we put in the choir. We made that whole project in like four days.
“Comë N Go” from Dangerous Summer is one of my favorite songs you’ve ever made, and it’s putting up crazy streaming numbers right now. How did that come together?
“Comë N Go” was just an instrumental at first, and I recorded it with no drums. Sapjer had sent it to me, and he didn't know what drums to put on it. But I knew BNYX would know what drums to put on it, so I just imagined the drums in my head and made the song. Then BYNX added the drums exactly how I imagined.
That’s definitely the joint from Dangerous Summer. It's reaching a farther audience, and it's still rap, but it's just a little bit different. Dangerous Summer, to me, was just like, "It's been a while, here are 10 random songs that I have right now just to show you where I'm at conceptually." I'm doing shows, too, so it’s some new turnt shit to perform. But ADL, the next album, that's what I've been working on this whole time, and those were some records I could let fly to show where I'm going, but not giving away too much. I want it to be fresh, so people are surprised. This next album is really something. The sound is changing. It's going to be a crazy, crazy album.
The next album is called A Dangerous Lyfe, which you also tattooed on yourself. What's the meaning behind that phrase?
That was after I made Lyfestyle, and that's just what was on my mind. In my head, I'm just like, what am I on now? My life's dangerous right now. OK, I'll make this album about it.
How would you describe ADL?
It's new. I'm always pushing boundaries and always setting the wave on how I want shit to sound. I'm never scared to go out of any comfort zone and try different sounds. You can't even describe it soundwise. It's just good music.
What do you think you're getting better at musically?
Definitely singing. I've been singing more and figuring out new ways to use my voice. I always want to come with the weirdest melody on the beat. Something you would never expect. I hate hearing things that I've heard before. It needs to feel fresh always. I always try to think of something that's completely brand new. And the way I've been engineering shit, I've definitely gotten way better at that.
When you first emerged, a lot of people assumed you were able to come up with all of these crazy sounds because of drugs. But then you stopped doing the drugs and your music was just as crazy and weird and experimental. What was it like navigating that?
All those albums were basically a different drug. That whole Alivë and 4L era, I was on ecstasy a lot back then. And then Up 2 Më and Lyfë and AftërLyfe was percs. And then 2093 was completely sober.
How did you approach making music sober? What changed?
Well, I mean, I'm not completely sober. But also, that way that I make my songs, it never left me.
At this point, it seems clear that the creativity and experimentalism comes from you—not from any substances.
Yeah, what I'm on doesn't really matter. I'm always going to be thinking ahead and outside the box. In every situation.
It’s been almost five years since you broke out as a leader of the underground “rage” movement. What are you most proud of when you think back to that time?
It was a crazy time, because it was the last real time there was a whole underground wave really surging. I’m proud of the fact that, as fans and the whole community, everyone could push together and all enjoy that sound. There was so much behind it to get it to where it is now. It was a great time. There was a feeling of community, and with this new shit, I'm really trying to bring everybody together. That's really my thing. I love that.
It was cool to see you and Summrs link back up for the "GO2WORK" video last year. Do you still keep in touch with those guys?
All the time. Summrs, that's my bro. I'll never switch up on anybody. I love 'em.
You’re a mainstream star now after first coming from the underground scene. But I know some fans who discover artists in those early stages get protective and want to keep them at that level. How do you feel about that?
A lot of those fans like it because it's this cool niche thing that they know about, and no one else knows about, so they want to keep it that way. At the end of the day, though, you can't please everybody. I make the music for me, and it's always been that way. I never make music for anybody other than me. This is how I feel. If I like a song, I'm going to drop it, because I like it, and I really don't care for feedback. I mean, I'll take feedback into consideration within my team, but even that is rare.
I feel like that's always going to happen with any artist, though. The fans from the beginning are going to feel protective, and they won't want things to change, because they found it before everyone else. But it's all about showing them where I'm going, even if they don't like it at first. I'm also open to new audiences, and a lot of new people are still finding out about me daily. But it's still all the same community. My fans all come together and we're all still in the same world.
Real fans of mine will grow with me and appreciate what I'm doing, and I want them to evolve with me. That's the whole point. Sometimes if you're leading the charge, it could be looked at in different ways, but I want it to be communal. I'll always still be Yeat and you can't take that out of me. So the "new Yeat" versus the "old Yeat" is just me getting older. I can't make the same song 50 times in a row. It's just going to get old. I'm not talking about changing genres and doing all this crazy shit, but if I made "Monëy So Big" 50 times in a row, I would be going nowhere. That song is great, but if I just kept releasing that over and over again, people would be like, "OK, where are we going to go now?" I just have to take charge, and then everything follows.
That's the sign of a true artist.
I'm never afraid of limitations. There's nothing anyone could do to ever stop me from making what I want to make, and be as creative as possible. That will always be in me.
Do you have any mentors? Or people that you go to for guidance in the industry?
Musicwise? Not really. Everything I do is self-taught. Everything I do is just me with my computer and my producers, just trying to push boundaries. That's how I came up, just doing my own thing and not looking for any handouts. I've always wanted to be self-sufficient. I try not to rely on anyone. But yeah, mentors, lifestylewise? Maybe Future [the Prince], who I met through Drake. I've learned a lot from him on how to operate businesswise, lifewise.
You were on Drake’s Iceman livestream this summer, exactly four years after meeting him back in 2021. How did that original photo you took with him change things for you?
It definitely changed things, because it showed that I wasn't just this small underground thing anymore. I was getting recognition from one of the biggest artists in the world, if not the biggest. It changed things for everybody—for my fans and for outsiders. They're like, "Who the fuck is this kid?" It really put an eye on what I was doing, and we didn't end up dropping a song until however many years later, but we always stayed close through that.
It seemed like there was always a real relationship there.
Yeah, that's how I like to do any of my collaborations. I have to know the person. We have to be cool. Otherwise I won't release music with them. If I don't like somebody, then I can't work with them. We have to have a personal connection.
You guys have made a lot of great songs now, including “Dog House,” which you just dropped. On a pure musical level, what's your favorite thing about collaborating with Drake?
He's just really good at making really good music. He has unlimited hits. He can really just sit there and do it over and over again. Being around him, it makes sense why he's in the position he is. It's great to witness. Being on the road with him was fun, too. The shows are crazy.
What have you learned from being around him?
I've learned how to operate at a higher level, just from being around him and peeping the way he moves. Watching him do these shows and the way it's all set up, it's given me a lot of good insight on how you take things to the next level.
He's taken it bigger than anyone has ever.
That's what I'm saying. I always knew I was going to be big. I didn't think there was ever a cap to how big I'm going to get because of how creative I am, and how far I'm down to push the boundaries, but seeing it firsthand and being around The Boy, it was good insight. And that's my brother. It was good to see how shit works at that level and at that capacity.
People were surprised when you and Donald Glover appeared on each other's albums. How did that happen?
We just linked up at the studio one day in LA. We were just talking for hours. I love him. He's a great, great person. It just happened naturally. I played him a bunch of songs. He played me a bunch of songs, and then we just caught a vibe. We were telling each other our visions of the future, and they were both kind of opposites, so it was crazy. We were just going back and forth, bouncing ideas off each other. I would definitely love to get tapped in with him when it comes to movies and all that type of stuff. He's great with that stuff. I love his work. Atlanta is a great show.
He's a genius. We have more records, too. We were in Paris one time making this song... I found a sample and made a beat from scratch while he was singing. I engineered him, too. He's almost like me with melodies. We'll be in the middle of a conversation and he'll start humming a melody and then start singing something. It's inspiring. We made the craziest song. It's got to come out someday.
Can you share what your vision of the future is?
Hopefully there will be more community. More people coming together. That's my hope for the future.
One other surprising collab you had was with FKA Twigs. How did that happen?
I wasn't super tapped in, but I had heard about her, and then I went to see her perform. We were doing the same festival in Belgium, so I went side stage and watched her whole show. After the show, I hit her and I was like, "Yo, come to my green room." We just chopped it up, I played her some shit, and we talked about collaborating. I thought her voice was great, and I really wanted to work with a female artist, so it just lined up perfectly. We made the song and it was so natural. I wanted it to be a call-and-response type thing where she kind of responded back to my verse. It was great.
You used to keep things pretty mysterious, but it seems like you're opening up more now. Do you want to be more of a public figure? Like, are we going to see you on Kai Cenat stream one of these days, or some shit like that?
I think it's all about how you're perceived in public, but it just depends on what it is. I'm very particular. I won't do anything unless I actually want to do it. Otherwise I will not do it. Ever. No one can get me to do anything. I feel like I still am mysterious in some ways, too, because I don't really reveal a lot of what I'm doing. I don't post all the time. I don't talk about a lot of things. That's just how I live. I don't like to put my whole life online. I don't want everyone to know everything I'm doing. I like to keep it private, but I'll still pop out. More recently, people have seen videos of me walking in the street of Paris or a random TikTok of me in the club. I'm definitely outside more now, without the mask, just turning up or shopping.
What is your relationship like with your fans when you see them out in the world?
I always show love. I'll never not take a picture of my fans, because I appreciate them and love them all. I love when I see my fans. It’ll be in most random places, too. One time I was in Germany, meeting with people at the Mercedes headquarters. I was chopping it up with the CEOs and stuff, and when I left, there were like 20 kids that came running out of a field in the middle of nowhere. They were like, "Yeat! Yeat! Yeat! Let's get a picture." It was insane. It always feels great, especially in other parts of the world, to know that I've reached that far. Going to Romania and doing that last show with 150,000 people was crazy, because my mom's Romanian. It feels good.
You're going to be performing at ComplexCon in Vegas. The lineup is billed as "Yeat and friends." What should people expect?
I’m definitely going to bring out some people. Technically everyone I work with is my friend, so it could be anybody. There's going to be a lot of collaborators, some people you wouldn't expect, and then I’ll be putting my arm around some of the newer generation, too. Some people I've worked with in the past, some new people I haven't worked with yet.
What excites you about music right now?
To be honest, I don't really go on the internet, so I don't really know what's going on right now. I think music's in a very different place than it was like three or four years ago. But I'm most excited for what I'm doing, because that's all I really pay attention to. I don't have the brain power to keep up with too much, so I just keep up with my shit. I'm most excited for ADL and seeing where music's going to go.
What motivates you?
I just love pushing boundaries. I love seeing how far I can take things. I'll never stop having that creativity in my head. It's always there. Money and fame has never been a factor to drive me. I've already made more than enough money to be set, so I'm really trying to see where I could push the music, the creativity, and new ways of thinking. I'm trying to push any boundary I can, and not just in music. Fashion, too. Movies. Just creativity overall. I'll always have that drive in me. It can never go away.
How do you hope you'll impact the world when everything is said and done? How do you hope you'll be remembered?
I hope I'm remembered as somebody who wasn't ever afraid to take risks and was always down to push boundaries and be as creative as possible. I want to be remembered as someone who always tests any limit, and isn't ever afraid to do what I feel is right for me and my people. I want to be remembered as somebody who cares about the community. I care about my fans and everyone around me and it shows.
Do you have a message for the world?
Always keep pushing for whatever you believe in. There's no goal that's impossible. Whatever goal you have, if you fully believe in it and fully put yourself behind it, it'll take shape no matter what. And if it doesn't, then it just wasn’t meant to be. It means there's something else that's your calling. Also, never be afraid to take risks. I'll take any risk ever. I'll swim with sharks in Hawaii. I'll go carry an alligator in Florida. I'll put out whatever music I want to put out. I'll do whatever I want to do. I'm very straightforward. I do everything exactly how I want to do it, always. So my advice is: Never be afraid to take risks, and take life into your own hands.
CONTRIBUTORS
Cover Star:
YEAT
Photographer:
CIAN MOORE
Styling:
Antonio Pulvirenti
Assistant Styling:
Tommaso Giudici
Set Design:
Andrea Elliot Sogliacchi
Assistant Set Design:
Samuel Amodeo, Pierpaolo Petruzzelli
Producer
Cecilia Terenzoni
Production
Borotalco.tv /Clover NYC
Video Director
Bogdan “Chilldays” Plakov
Special Thanks
Nicolò Romano, Chrome Hearts, Dolce & Gabbana and Nike