Regardless of how much time passes, every era of hip-hop has its standout stars. While Pac and Biggie stood head and shoulders above other ’90s rappers, the 2000s and 2010s had a wider range of names in the mix. From Jay-Z to J. Cole, listeners would champion their favorites, making endless Big 3 and Mount Rushmore lists. Fast forward to 2025, and new(er) artists are still jockeying for those spots—sometimes, taking it to places we haven’t seen before.
At the moment, Playboi Carti and NBA YoungBoy have the rap game on lock. Their tours are going crazy, their records are doing numbers, and their names hold weight among their peers and fans alike. Even casual fans are somewhat tapped in.
But if there’s one artist close to joining their heavyweight class, it’s Yeat. With a cult fanbase, chart success, and a sound that keeps evolving, Yeat might just be making his way into rap’s next-gen Big 3.
Yeat’s Come-Up
Yeat’s first major moment came years after Carti and YoungBoy were already established acts in hip-hop. Though he started releasing music in 2018, his breakthrough hit, “Gët Busy,” from his debut studio album Up 2 Më, rang off in 2021. The now-iconic bell sound went viral, generating its own TikTok trend and pushing Yeat to a significantly larger audience.
From there, the rise was steep. His next project, 2 Alivë, featured co-signs from Gunna and Young Thug (who appeared on separate tracks, coincidentally), a sign that the rap world was taking notice. The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200, selling roughly 35,000 units. Yeat had officially entered the mainstream conversation.
Yeat’s Breakout Era
In an era where viral fame doesn’t always translate to longevity, Yeat proved his staying power with the next two bodies of work he released—Lyfë (2022) and AftërLyfe (2023). Lyfë, a 12-track EP (with a sole feature from Lil Uzi Vert), cracked the Billboard Top 10 and performed similarly to his previous outing.
While this was impressive, Yeat really cooked with AftërLyfe. NBA YoungBoy pulled up for the only guest appearance, and Yeat introduced two new alter egos—Luh Geeky and Kranky Kranky. He leaned deeper into his weird, futuristic universe, and it paid off—setting AftërLyfe apart from all his previous projects.
AftërLyfe debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, selling around 54K in its first week. It didn’t just top Yeat’s own numbers—it beat out big-name releases like NBA YoungBoy’s Richest Opp (51K), JID’s The Forever Story (30K), and Don Toliver’s Love Sick (38K). The Yeat hype was doing anything but dying down. In fact, it was gaining new life.
Yeat Goes #1 and Drake Co-Signs
At this point, Yeat was slowly but surely becoming a fixture in hip-hop—and if three things in life are certain, it’s death, taxes, and Drake tapping in with a rising artist. But unlike the typical co-sign pipeline, Yeat appeared as a feature on Drake’s 2023 album For All The Dogs. Their collab, “IDGAF” broke Yeat into a new audience of dedicated and casual fans alike, and set the stage for what would come next.
2093, Yeat’s 2024 album, was a massive success. The features were Rushmore-level: Lil Wayne pulled up for “Lyfestyle,” Future walked on “Stand On It,” and Drake returned the favor on “As We Speak” (from the P2 version). The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 with 70K first-week units—a career high at the time.
Then came the real takeover. Yeat dropped LYFESTYLE on October 18, 2024—moving 89K first week and earning his first #1 album. With a landscape much more adjusted to his sound, and yet another feature on Drake’s highly anticipated, post-rap war album ICEMAN, Yeat has proven that he’s a force in the rap game (and wants to keep it that way).
Who is Yeat’s Big 3 Competition?
To be considered one of the GOATs of this era, he has his work cut out for him. There are a couple other artists clawing for that title—namely NBA YoungBoy and Playboi Carti. Yeat is an interesting middle ground between the two: he’s incredibly active and drops music damn near every week it seems (similar to YB), and his sound is futuristic, gritty, and genre-bending (similar to Carti).
Compared to YB, Yeat is currently pulling in bigger streaming numbers. On YouTube, YoungBoy’s homecourt arena, Yeat has an audience of 52.7M monthly listeners compared to YB’s 34.8M (as of Oct. 10, 2025). Yeat’s most recent album went #1, but YoungBoy’s consistency has gotten him 16 albums on Billboard’s Top 10—a feat only JAY-Z, Nas, Drake, and Future have accomplished. Between the two, it’ll be a battle between peaks and longevity.
When comparing Yeat to Playboi Carti, the gap in numbers is much wider. Carti wipes, having 30M+ more listeners on both Spotify and YouTube Music. The real conversation to be had between Yeat and Carti is: “who makes better music?” Though there isn’t one definitive take that can be “proven” correct, there’s no denying that they’ve both shifted the soundscape with their styles.
Every Yeat song sounds like a Yeat song the moment the track starts. Some of his more eclectic features, such as “Cruisin'” on Childish Gambino’s Bando Stone & The New World, focus on using effects to bring his uniquely futuristic and grim ambiance to the track.
While numbers are the only measurable metric to go on, Big 3 conversations are about the attributes that make the artists stand out from the pack. With all three artists currently on tour, it’s a rare chance to see their impact with shiesty-wearing YNs and ragers in real time.
As the years go by, we’ll see if Yeat can hang with NBA YoungBoy and Playboi Carti, or if it’ll be a two-artist fight for the crown once again.
