Happy Days

With An Outlook As Bright As His Smile, Kyle Is Imbuing The Rap Scene With A Welcome Dose Of Positivity.

- Jeff Weiss

Technically speaking, Kyle is a human being . He’s a flesh-and-bone mortal, draped in a blue Nike sweat suit as he careens out of the elevator at the offices of his label, Atlantic Records. His smile is crooked, his high-top fade is ready for a House Party reboot. But he seems to be the real-life analogue of a Saiyan from Dragon Ball Z as he zips past posters of Biggie and Led Zeppelin. His voice betrays a nasal exuberance and slight lisp. He’s an Animaniac, a Technicolor Disney cartoon come to life, ready to burst out into song and jazz hands. As if on cue, he breezes into a conference room, spots a shabby, slightly out-of-tune wood-grain piano, and starts plinking the familiar riff to his breakout anthem, the chart-topping hit “iSpy.”

“I did everything wrong with the promotion of that song,” Kyle says with a blinding smile. “I didn’t put the link to the song when I tweeted it. I didn’t put it on Sound-Cloud for days. And it just went viral. I can’t explain it. Yachty is a genius.” He’s alluding to his “iSpy” collaborator, Atlanta’s Lil Yachty, the cherry-Kool-Aid-haired king of the teens. Kyle then slips into a pitch-perfect impression of Yachty’s prediction of how massive the ode to Instagram flirting would turn out: “Bro. We got a smash, bro.”