Lil Yachty, James Blake – Bad Cameo

James Blake continues his string of rapper-producer collaborations with a 10 song LP with meme, turned artist, Lil Yachty.

I have to say, I am somewhat unfamiliar with James Blake’s work, and the works of his I have heard I have never been too fond of. To me, he has always appeared as a producer attempting to be different for the sake of being different, but not too different.

On the other hand, Lil Yatchy’s music before the release of his album ‘Let’s Start Here.’ in 2023 was always impossible to take seriously. On the 2023 project, Yachty managed to successfully transition to being a serious artist, showing of vocal ability and refreshing production, evident on tracks like ‘sAy sOMETHINg’. However, in regards to ‘Bad Cameo’, he appears more as a feature artist, despite being credited as a ‘main artist’.

I never thought I would be saying this, but I don’t think there was enough of Lil Yachty.

The main focus of the album was definitely the production, James Blake continues his style of dystopian synths and wet and filtered drum grooves in a regular fashion, I wouldn’t say either of the artists venture outside their comfort zone.

The album appears to me to have a ‘night out, gone wrong’ type of vibe, in regards to the vibe of the songs and the album cover, and it sticks to this theme very well and feels like a complete project. In terms of mixing, the production is on point, as expected, but it sounds like any other James Blake-rapper collaboration. It has synth keys and Reese basses, and a bit of formulaic trend grooves as well. The two most evident of these being the tracks ‘Woo’, and ‘Twice’. I have no problem with popular Jersey Club or 4-On-The-Floor rhythms . . . if they are somewhat unique.

Also, I felt that some of the tracks towards the beginning of the album had too much differentiation within them, the first 3 minutes of ‘Midnight’ (my favourite song from the album) is a completely different song from the last 2 minutes.

In summary, if you want a album to play in the background while scrolling through Instagram at 11pm, this is a 10/10. I love both Yatchy’s new style, and high level electronic/ambient production, this album was lacking in both. This project was somewhat anti-climactic, therefore I am rating it a 5/10.