Just a year ago during quarantine, Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty released the third installment of his Lil Boat album series, “Lil Boat 3.” After a year of celebrating his music, Yachty returned to the studio, releasing his seventh studio album “Michigan Boy Boat.” 

Yachty comes out swinging at the start with “Final Form,” demanding the respect he’s felt he’s lost throughout the years. The intro is probably the lowest point on the album, with a weird tone of voice over the minimalist beat. Some of the lyrics are hard, and Yachty talks a lot about how people he helped make are now forgetting about him. Despite being the worst song, it’s a solid tone setter, especially leading into the show stealing track of the tape.

“Dynamic Duo” is one of the hardest tracks of 2021 so far. With a classic Detroit beat from producer Helluva, it becomes another banger from the Yachty and Tee Grizzley duo. Grizzley opens up the song with his verse, going absolutely nuts in the opening verse. The track feels so similar to the classic “From the D to the A” song by the duo from 2017. A lot has changed since that music video broke the internet, but Lil Boat finishes the tracks with another heavy verse that capped off one of the best songs of the year.

For the most part, that’s as interesting as the project gets. “Concrete Goonies” is the only other solo track on the mixtape, and sounds like another typical Detroit-style song with a beat from NRG beats, one of the main producers on the album. “Don’t Even Bother” sees the first two features from underground Detroit artists, with appearances from Veeze and Baby Smoove. All three artists do their part, creating a slower paced track with a mixture of different vocals. It’s followed by “G.I. Joe,” which is one of the few songs that somewhat strays from the same beat style. The feature from Louie Ray is perfectly placed, and makes it one of the biggest standout features on the album.

“Never Did” is another solid song, with a feature from Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee, the weird selection of a feature somehow works between the two, who trade bars flexing their riches over a heavy 808 filled beat. The tape takes a drastic nosedive in quality following it, with “Ghetto Boy” and “Plastic” continuing the repetitive theme in terms of beat selection, however the beat for Plastic is genuinely one of the hardest hitting instrumentals on the album, and would have fit much better with a feature from Sada Baby. 

“Fight Night Round 3” has more solid production, featuring a boxing style bell ringing throughout the beat. It also sees the second feature from Veeze, who definitely threw out his best bars on his first appearance. We hear Sada Baby for the first time on “SB 2021.” Sada is probably the most well known rapper on the feature list, aside from Tee Grizzley of course. His unique and raspy voice is what makes up a lot of his appeal, and he brings out the best of it when he shows up on Michigan Boy Boat. 

He returns just two tracks later, following the boring “Stunt Double” with another interesting feature on “SB5.” His flow on this song was absolutely immaculate, and is followed by Yachty continuing the flow over the slow and echoing beat. The beat selection feels like a callback to Yachty’s “Lil Boat 2” album, with a slow, yet hard hitting beat complimented by an echoing sample. 

“This That One” closes out the album, assembling the entire Detroit avengers on the feature list. The three  minute track includes appearances from Krispy Life Kidd, Louie Ray, Slap Savage, Veeze, and another well known Detroit artist, YN Jay. The track is quite hilarious, and is a lighthearted and fun way to end the album. It seems as if everyone got to get their final dig into the album before it closes, almost like their closing argument in a court case.

The project as a body of work was fairly mediocre, but the enjoyable songs kept it at bay and the short runtime helped this album tremendously. It’s a 5/10, but the high points on the album are extremely high, and Dynamic Duo is one of the best songs that has dropped this year.