On ‘Cocoon’, Yeat Returns to Rage-Rap Form With Mostly Dull Results

Yeat, the California-born rapper-producer who zigzagged between mainstream pop and the grimy rage-rap that made him a name over the last couple of years, has now released a seven-track EP called Cocoon. It’s billed as a return to form — a short, 17-minute journey back to the sound that carried him through his SoundCloud days. But the results are mostly dull.

The Drake Hook That Works

The EP’s biggest bright spot is the Drake-assisted “MISS MY DAWG.” The track first premiered during Drake’s Fear of Missing Out film and marks the pair’s fourth collaboration. On it, both artists rap about loss and growth with genuine emotional stakes. Yeat’s grizzled, machine-gun delivery feels hungry, the kind of performance that recalls his earliest days on the platform. It is the most convincing Yeat has sounded since those early days.

Slop, Repetition and Migos Mimicry

But the rest of the record is where the trouble starts. Across the EP, Yeat leans heavily on overwrought, repetitive rhyme schemes. The “COCOON” track, in particular, drags out its Migos-inspired cadence until it becomes pure monotony. The effect is not smooth evolution; it is slop, dressed up as confidence.

Travis Scott’s Croon

The issue of influence looms over Cocoon. The stretched-out croon that opens “EARNËD IT” bears an uncanny resemblance to something that could have come directly from Travis Scott’s Astroworld. The comparison is not flattering. The posturing in Yeat’, even though the record’s clear debt points to a more established and talented artist.

A Diss Named After the Other Artist

Rumors surfaced in early September that Travis Scott was behind the removal of Yeat’s verse from “Eaters,” off Young Thug’s YSL compilation Slime Language 3. Yeat answered back with what appeared to be a direct diss toward Scott “ON NOTHING.”. The track maintains it is “pushin’ the limit,” yet the entire EP seems constructed from feeding “Travis Scott” into an algorithm — a smart copy that never fully breaks free from its template.

Fan Service That Falls Flat

Cocoon also reads as fan service, returning to the familiar product that Yeat’s sizable following has come to expect. Even on tracks aimed at the rising generation of rage-rap fans, like the Synthetic-co-produced “HOLY WATËR,” the effort falls short. The opening line — “I’m a lumberjack, yeah, I split the tab” — carries some of his old absurdity, but by the second verse he is reduced to repeating variations of “I don’t give a fuck ’bout shit,” as though saying it enough times might make it feel like a point of view.

The Promise of Change

This EP presents itself as a proposal for a change or a new beginning, a notion that has grown increasingly common in Yeat’s work. Ahead of his March release ADL, he informed Zane Lowe that he was “definitely trying to change it up, trying to give the youth some real music, some real art.”. Much like that album and 2093, Yeat’s current musical preoccupation involves figuring out where his sound belongs.

When he first arrived, his records were fresh, and that freshness carried him through. Though his music bore clear marks of the era, he offered listeners a distinct version of the rage rap that defined the early 2020s. Today, though, the novelty has worn off, and his newer work comes across less as a confident statement and more as a search for a sense of self.

The Verdict

The album Cocoon finds one standout moment amid a steady descent into mediocrity. That standout is the Drake collaboration, which rises above the rest of the record. Everything else is a mix of borrowed croons and repetitive rhymes that come across less as creative ambition and more as exhaustion.

Key Verdict: Mostly dull results.

Key Facts Box

• EP: Cocoon — 7 tracks, barely 17 minutes
• Drake collaboration: “MISS MY DAWG”
• Travis Scott influence: “EARNËD IT,” “ON NOTHING”
• Previous release: ADL (March)
• Earlier work: 2093

Comparison Table

Source material: “On ‘Cocoon’, Yeat Returns to Familiar Territory With Mostly Dull Results,” Rolling Stone.

album review · Drake · rage rap · rap · Travis Scott · Yeat