At only 25 years old, Yeat has turned into one of the biggest stars in hip-hop. Over the last four years, not only has he gotten major co-signs from the likes of Drake, the Weeknd, Lil Yachty, and more but he’s already had a No. 1 album and multiple singles crack the Billboard Hot 100.
Born Noah Oliver Smith on Feb. 26, 2000, Yeat grew up in Fullerton, California, after being born in nearby Irvine. Early reports often pegged him as a Portland artist, but he spent just a few late-teen years there. “I only went to high school there, so I guess people think that,” he told Complex of his time in the Pacific Northwest. “But no, I’m not really from there.”
As a child, he developed an early interest in music. Part of that came from his household: his father was a musician who played in a rock band, while his mother leaned toward mainstream Top 40, often playing artists like T-Pain around the house. Those influences sparked his own curiosity, and he eventually gravitated toward rap.
At 16, he began releasing music on SoundCloud under the name Lil Yeat. After graduating high school, he moved to New York City and doubled down on making music. He became associated with the brief rise of the collective Slayworld and the pluggnb sound, which was starting to define hip-hop’s underground. And then in 2021, Yeat broke into the mainstream with tracks like “Sorry Bout That” and “Money Twërk.” His momentum grew even stronger with “Gët Busy,” which went viral on TikTok. The wave of online attention eventually helped him land a joint venture deal with Zack Bia’s Field Trip Recordings and Geffen Records.
Yeat’s most recent project is the EP Dangerous Summerreleased on August 1, 2025. At just nine songs, it may be his strongest effort yet at blending pop sensibilities with the chaotic, underground sound he came up on. The EP features guest appearances from SahBabii, Don Toliver, FKA twigs, and frequent collaborator Bnyx, each adding a splash of their own sauce to Yeat’s world. The project debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, marking his sixth top 10 entry on the chart.
And that’s just the music he’s put out. Yeat has also become one of rap’s best live acts and a festival favorite. After killing it with Don Toliver at Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash and going crazy at Coachella, he’s now set to shut down ComplexCon 2025. Yeat will close out the first night on Saturday, October 25, headlining after performances from Peso Pluma and Central Cee. (Night two will be headlined by Young Thug, with Ken Carson and 2hollis on the bill before him.)
As his popularity continues to grow, we thought we put together a list of everything you need to know about Yeat, who is now one of the most popular rappers in hip-hop.
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 back in 2021. “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.”Like we mentioned before, he was known as Lil Yeat when he started putting music on SoundCloud. but he eventually dropped the “Lil.” And almost all of that early SoundCloud music has been deleted.
Yeat has made a staggering amount of music. During a sit-down with Complexhe revealed it only takes him 10 to 20 minutes to finish a song, adding, “My computer alone has 16,000 [songs].”
He’s been releasing music since 2016 and, over the past nine years, has dropped 16 projects, including his latest EP Dangerous Summer. Some of his early work—before his breakout in 2021—is harder to find on DSPs, but most of the essentials, basically everything after Aliveare available on all platforms.
Yeat’s 2021 single “Sorry Bout That,” which appeared on his project 4L, went viral on TikTok, and is currently one of his most popular songs to date Speaking on how the song came together, Yeat says it was spur-of-the-moment. “I really just be living my raps, and be talking about whatever I’m going through at the moment. All my music is like that. It’s just about whatever is on my mind. I don’t be writing or none of that.”
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 on, 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.”
Yeat definitely has a way with words. He’s known for coming up with words and phrases that you can’t find in the dictionary. “Twizzy” for instance, is a word Yeat came up with on a whim, and it means “twin.” Giving a vague explanation for its origins, he says, “It started when I was out in New York.” Since then, he’s developed his own language of sorts, coming up with words like “luh geeky,” “SHMUNKIT,” and “Luh Shmunkëm.” There are whole sites dedicated to deciphering the meaning of each one. He also peppers his songs with eclectic references (“Tonka” is a big one). Though Yeat is making it trendy now, he says his dad was the original GOAT of making up new words. “I think I got it from my dad because he be making up words for shit all the time,” he said. “So I just do that shit randomly.”
There have been a lot of questions concerning Yeat’s identity since he stepped on the scene. During his interview with Our Generation Musiche set the record straight, revealing that he is half Romanian and Mexican. His mother is of Romanian descent, while his dad is Mexican. Though Yeat said he is technically partially white, he seemed to criticize some white rappers’ lyrics, saying, “if you break down what they’re talking about, they’re not saying shit.”
Like many artists who play with different genres, Yeat doesn’t think his music can be put into a box. He’s stated that he takes after Young Thug and Future, who can adapt to many different sounds. “I feel like my style isn’t really set on one thing,” he explains. “I be having mad different vibes, mad different styles. The way I even my voice on different songs, I feel like I got that from listening to a lot of Thug shit.”
Yeat says he doesn’t necessarily have a music process. He just goes with the flow. “Whenever I feel like recording, I just record,” he said. He also doesn’t use an engineer—he usually just records himself and produces a lot of his own music, using a template that artist Weiland previously gave him. “I do everything myself.”
Yeat has attributed early drug use to helping him get into music. When he was younger, he dropped acid, also known as LSD. “I really think it helped open my mind and think about shit differently. It didn’t make me rap, but it kind of gave me the idea, like, I could just do whatever I put my mind to,” he says of the psychedelic drug. Though it sparked his desire to pursue music more seriously, Yeat said, “I probably wouldn’t do acid anymore, though.”
Yeat has spoken about his other influences like Young Thug and Future, but one of his biggest influences growing up was actually T-Pain. “I feel like that’s why I be singing and shit. I don’t be singing, but I feel like that’s where I got that inspiration from,” he said in the interview with Our Generation Music. He also revealed that his mother was the one who put him onto T-Pain’s music when he was a kid. “He’s really the GOAT of Auto-Tune,” he added.
Yeat isn’t the only artist in his family. His dad used to perform as a member of a band and “always had guitars and pianos laying around” his house. Yeat didn’t develop a knack for playing any of the instruments, but it did inspire him to pursue his own interests in music.
For a rapper who likes to have fun and play with mystique, Yeat has some of the most interesting merch of any new artist. Sure, his drops include the usual fare—snazzy T-shirts, hyper-stylized hoodies, and vinyl—but he’s also gotten creative. For Dangerous Summerfans can buy work gloves, a street sign, an alligator pool float, and even a roll of “Dangerous Summer” tape. Not too shabby.
Back in July, Yeat took to Instagram to announce that fans had the chance to add a Yeat-inspired meal to Taco Bell’s menu. The collaboration was part of Taco Bell’s Fan Style campaign, which let fans create custom menu items. Enter the YeatWrap: a twist on the classic Crunchwrap Supreme, made with steak instead of beef and jalapeño sauce.
In 2025, Yeat released two albums: the pop-leaning 2093, which featured the hit “Breathe,” and the more underground-laced LYFESTYLE. 2093, released on February 16, 2024, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, moving over 85,000 units in its first week. But with LYFESTYLEhe would surpass that. Dropping on October 18, 2024, the project debuted at No. 1 with 89,000 equivalent album units, including 60,000 pure sales.
That was no accident. With LYFESTYLEYeat wanted to cater directly to his core fans, employing a physical-first strategy. The rollout included signed CDs with bonus tracks and multiple editions, each featuring exclusive songs unavailable on streaming. On October 22, he also announced a digital deluxe with four highly anticipated tracks, posting on Instagram: “GRA1LS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR 48.”
At this point in his career, Yeat’s chart success has been remarkable. He already has five top 10 debuts, and there’s no sign of him slowing down.
According to his label boss, Zack Bia, Yeat is an all-around “visionary artist.” He told Complex in Feb. 2022 that Yeat is one of a kind “in terms of creating a whole lingo, having a very unique style of music, and building a whole world around it.” Explaining that Yeat is a self-contained artist, he added, “He’s created something so unique that people can really buy into, so I don’t want to take credit for any of it. It’s all Yeat, and I’m just here to plug in the plays behind the scenes, and help facilitate all the relationships. I’m here to make sure the music is packaged right and handle all the things that a label executive should.”
In Bia’s mind, it was only a matter of time until an artist like Yeat emerged from the new underground and carried the torch of boundary-pushing rappers who came before. “Artists like Young Thug and Carti have already broken down a lot of doors, the internet’s completely changed with TikTok, and the way the world is set up now, there’s a perfect storm for someone new and unique to come,” he explained. “It’s time for a new generation. I feel like there’s been artists that have dominated the last decade, and now as we usher in this new era of music, it was primed for someone new to come in, and I think Yeat is that artist.”
ComplexCon is only a couple of weeks away, taking place over two days in Las Vegas. On Saturday, October 25, you’ll be able to see Yeat & Friends headline. Peso Pluma, and Central Cee will also be hitting the main stage. On Sunday, October 26, features Young Thug, Ken Carson, and 2hollis.
Daniel Arsham, who previously handled artistic direction at ComplexCon Hong Kong, is this year’s Global Artistic Director. VIP and general tickets are still available here. If you’re a Yeat fan, this is an event you won’t want to miss.
ComplexCon returns to Las Vegas on October 25–26, 2025, with over 300 brands and live performances by Young Thug, YEAT & Friends, Peso Pluma, Central Cee, Ken Carson, and more. Get your tickets now.
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