Music
Lil Yachty takes center stage for the U.S debut of Red Bull Setlist Chicago
Ahead of the U.S. debut of Red Bull Setlist at Radius Chicago, Lil Yachty reflects on his Chicago roots, Lyrical Lemonade connections and the fan-powered concert experience.
His stage name might imply a modest scale, but there’s nothing small about Lil Yachty’s career trajectory—or his headline slot for the upcoming U.S. debut of Red Bull Setlist.
Taking place at Radius Chicago on October 24, 2026—tickets available here—the unique, fan-powered concert is an interactive live music experience like no other. Rather than simply watching from the crowd, attendees are just as much in control as Yachty, helping pick songs from the rapper’s catalog that they want to see him perform. Not only that, over the summer, emerging local talent had the chance to open for the “Poland” hitmaker before he hits the stage through an open-call freestyle competition.
Part interactive spectacle, part grassroots springboard, Red Bull Setlist is not just a concert—it’s a collective takeover full of twists and turns where the crowd holds the setlist, the city holds the mic, and the element of surprise is the real star of the show.
Lil Yachty brings his genre-spanning catalog to Chicago
© Daniel Zuliani
The idea of giving the fans some creative control on top of it being a night of flipping things around excites me
“I’ve never been a big fan of huge change in a show mix or arrangements of music, but I think it’ll be interesting to flip things around a bit,” Lil Yachty says during a break on set of a promo shoot in Orlando for Red Bull Setlist.
Now, you might be wondering why Yachty, a flagship Atlanta artist, is headlining Red Bull Setlist on Midwestern turf. While he wasn’t born in Chicago, the rapper’s ties to the city—and its surrounding regions—run deep, dating all the way back to his childhood. Born Miles McCollum, the 29-year-old spent pivotal stretches of his youth making the pilgrimage north to visit his grandfather in Chicago and his mother’s side of the family in neighboring Gary, Indiana.
For Yachty, those early trips were defined by core adolescent milestones: freezing winter air, his very first taste of Garrett-style popcorn, and memorable GameStop runs with his granddad—where he picked up a copy of SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (a fun moment of foreshadowing for the rapper, who these days is a regular in the WWE ring). But visiting exclusively during the winter left him with a skewed, ice-cold perception of the city. It wasn’t until returning as an adult during the warmer months that his whole perspective changed.
“It is freaking beautiful—it’s insane,” Yachty says, genuinely wowed by the city’s iconic skyline. “Especially in the summertime! It’s one of the most beautiful cities to walk around in America ever. It’s super clean, the water, the people, the nice buildings. Honestly, it’s just such a cool city.”
But beyond his familial roots, Yachty, like most hip-hop heads, grew up with his ear glued to the sounds of the Windy City’s rich rap scene. A city of sharp contrasts, Chicago is on one hand raw, resilient, and uncompromising; on the other, it’s soulful, poetic, and boundlessly creative. This beautiful juxtaposition has always informed its ever-evolving musical tapestry, in particular the kaleidoscopic sounds and styles brought to life by its rap artists.
Evolving through its distinct eras, the sound of Chicago hip-hop has always reached far beyond its borders. The city’s lineage stretches from the rapid-fire double-time flows of Twista, Do or Die, and Crucial Conflict to the conscious lyricism of Common, Lupe Fiasco, and Kanye West—whose genre-bending blueprint paved the way for so many across the world, but at home in particular, his fearless experimentation influenced the vibrant, gospel-infused textures of artists like Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa.
“My father was a huge Common fan,” Yachty recalls, sharing that his earliest memories of Chicago rap involved listening to the city’s greats on the radio with his dad, renowned photographer and creative Shannon McCollum. “So Common, Kanye West, Twista—those are my earliest memories as a child.”
Chicago helped shape Lil Yachty's musical perspective
© Daniel Zuliani
More recently, the city reshaped global rap culture through its relentless drill movement, pioneered by figures like King Louie, Lil Durk, G Herbo, and Chief Keef. For Yachty, Keef, aka Sosa, stands in a league of his own. “Let’s pinpoint it—Sosa is responsible for so much,” he says, before running through a quick roll call of the GBE (Glory Boyz Entertainment) artists Keef put on, including Fredo Santana, Lil Reese, and SD.
Lil Yachty’s relationship with the Windy City is far more than just admiration from afar, though. As the Atlanta rapper built a powerhouse career—earning diamond records, Grammy nominations, critically acclaimed genre pivots, and collaborations with heavyweights like Drake, Future, and Kanye West—he forged a catalog that bridges Georgia’s trap epicenter with Chi-Town’s sonic innovators, routinely joining forces with an extensive roster of Chicago artists.
“I’ve worked with Famous Dex, Chief Keef, Lucki, Kanye West, G Herbo,” shares Yachty. “I haven’t worked on music with Lil Bibby, but I’ve had a lot of experience with Bibby through Juice WRLD. Chance the Rapper, Lil Durk—man, I’ve collaborated with a lot.” This Chicago-Atlanta cross-pollination makes Yachty, who also goes by Lil Boat, a uniquely qualified curator for Red Bull Setlist—a bridge between two of rap’s most influential capitals, bringing a regional blend of sounds and styles alongside an innate understanding of the city’s pulse to a venue where fans hold the setlist.
Yet, among all his Chicago connections, none is perhaps as defining—or prolific—as his creative partnership with Cole Bennett, founder of Lyrical Lemonade, the Chicago-based multimedia giant serving as official media partner for Red Bull Setlist. Today, the pair’s collaboration seems like a given, but according to Lil Yachty, their partnership almost never happened due to a years-long misunderstanding that he can now laugh about.
“You know what’s funny? At the beginning of my career, Cole wouldn’t do a video with me to save my life,” Yachty says with a wide smirk. “I found out recently somebody had told him I didn’t like his videos or something, which was a lie. But there was like six years where I was like, ‘Cole, when we gonna shoot a video?’ And we never shot a video. When Lyrical Lemonade was at its peak with Juice WRLD, Lil Skies, and Lil Tecca, we had zero videos for like six years.”
Lil Yachty and Cole Bennett built years of creative history
© Daniel Zuliani
Once they cleared the air, the creative floodgates didn’t just open—they exploded. The pair went on a tear, shooting a staggering string of visual projects together. “We finally did one and then we just kept going,” Yachty recalls. “I love Cole to death do us part, so I’d do 20, 30 more Lyrical Lemonade videos.” Estimating their shared videography at around 17 videos and counting, Yachty quips: “It’s made me look like a mascot for the company.”
When pressed to pick a single favorite visual from their deep catalog, Yachty pauses to carefully weigh his options. After a brief back-and-forth with Ari Mairena-Dannon—the rapper’s personal videographer, who pulls double duty directing his most recent videos for Lyrical Lemonade, making him the perfect authority to consult—he locks in his definitive top choice: 2023’s hit single “TESLA.”
“It’s my favorite video we did because of my color coordinating,” Yachty explains, breaking down his meticulous approach to visual direction. “I think it’s really important to coordinate the colors with the set. Not like on some Wes Anderson sh**t—but like on some Wes Anderson shit. He uses more of an offset aesthetic. I usually either blend into the set or I just like the coordinating, and in that video I think it was a decent job.”
While “TESLA” represents one of his favorite visual moments from his deep catalog, predicting what Lil Yachty will perform at Radius Chicago is anyone’s guess—and that’s entirely the point of Red Bull Setlist. Over the past decade, his discography has evolved rapidly. From the infectious bubblegum trap of his early classics like “One Night” and “Minnesota,” to global smashes like “Poland,” his genre-bending 2023 psychedelic rock album Let’s Start Here, and 2024’s ambient collaboration with James Blake, Bad Cameo, Yachty’s catalog offers fans an incredibly diverse repertoire to choose from.
Yet, despite his relentless output—which also includes his 2024 Concrete Boys crew compilation, It’s Us Vol. 1—he remains deliberately coy about where his solo music is headed next. When asked whether a new project is on the horizon, Yachty acknowledges that it’s been a while since he dropped a solo project. “It’s been almost five years since my last rap album,” he says, pointing out the gap since 2020’s Lil Boat 3. But don’t mistake that metric for an official release date. “I didn’t say [a solo project was coming soon],” he laughs. “I’m just telling you … It’s been a long time.”
As for a timeline? The rapper prefers to keep the public guessing rather than set arbitrary deadlines. “I don’t know. We’re just trying stuff. I’m gonna leave it in the air,” Yachty explains. “When it’s time, I’ll make it very known. I’ve done the thing before where I over-speak early, and all you do is give false hope, set timelines, and then have people like, ‘Where is it?’ I’d rather start speaking when I got something to talk about. Right now I’m in a room throwing paint at the wall.”
Outside music, Lil Yachty is focused on WWE appearances
© Daniel Zuliani
Lil Yachty’s “main focus” right now is his involvement in the WWE. A regular on SmackDown, he acts as both hype man and manager for Trick Williams, aka ‘Mr. Whoop That Trick’—and he takes the role very seriously. “I’ve been a die-hard WWE fan since I was in pre-school,” he says, revealing that he was introduced to wrestling by his brother as a kid. Now that he’s inside the ring, the thing he’s enjoying the most is his lack of experience. “I really love how green I am, and how much I don’t know anything,” he admits. “I love being the new guy.”
That might sound strange coming from a rapper of Yachty’s status—especially in a genre built on bravado, chest-puffing, and asserting dominance—but he’s intentionally set his ego aside to absorb new skills. “I love learning,” he admits. “I’ve been doing rap for 10 years, I’m very comfortable. There’s only so much you could tell me. But I’m coming to this space as a new guy, where there’s everything you could tell me. It’s extremely humbling. I appreciate feeling like the new kid on the block.” As for his level of dedication, he’s fully locked in, revealing that just a week earlier he flew 16 hours for 10 minutes of TV time.
Despite how his flashy, high-energy persona might come across on TV, Lil Yachty insists that off-camera, he’s surprisingly low-maintenance. “It seems unsimple when you got a million dollars worth of jewelry on, and you got 12 cars, three earrings, diamonds in your mouth, and a whole bunch of other extra shit,” he laughs. “But I swear to God, if you take all that stuff away, I’m really a simple guy that loves a good slice, music, and a cool movie.” Critics across social media might have their own assumptions about who he is based on what they see on screen, but Yachty isn’t losing sleep over trying to convince anyone. “There’s an extensive amount of people who say things about me on the daily,” he says. “I don’t even have the urge or desire to correct assumptions, because realistically it doesn’t affect me.”
For now, the one thing true fans can affect is Red Bull Setlist, where they’ll have the rare opportunity to experience the real, unfiltered Lil Yachty up close and personal when he surrenders control of his one-of-a-kind concert. “I don’t believe in perfect,” he says, “but I’ll be prepared.”
Buy tickets now at RedBull.com/SetListChicago