Feb. 11, 2016, changed everything for Lil Yachty. The Atlanta rapper had been tapped to model in Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3 fashion show at Madison Square Garden, a now-iconic event that brought together some of the biggest rising stars in fashion and music. Yachty looked back on the moment in the latest episode of Club Shay Shay, saying it marked the beginning of his upward trajectory.

“I like to say that really did help my career,” he told host Shannon Sharpe. “It just put a lot of eyes on me. It just kind of made it a thing of like, ‘Man, who is this kid? Who is this?’ So that was cool.”

Yachty said he secured the gig through Ian Connor, a then-consultant for Ye’s creative team. And although he described the experience as “crazy,” he didn’t think it would lead to a career boost.

“This was when I was living in New York. Man, I was so broke. I had no money, no nothing,” he explained. “If you watch that thing, they had a curtain over us before the show started and I was in the back. I was in the last row… I was still happy to be there but I was like, ‘Nothing’s gonna come from this.’ And the last second, they took me and they put me right in the front — right before the curtain pulled up, they put in the front row.”

Soon after, Yachty began generating buzz among Kanye fans, which was perfect timing as he dropped his debut mixtape, Lil Boat, roughly a month later.

The “Sorry Not Sorry” rapper told Sharpe the event was the first time he saw Kanye in person, but had very little interaction with him.

“I saw him right before we went out. He checked all our outfits right before we went out,” he recalled. “But, yeah, I ain’t say nothing to him at all. I ain’t speak to Kanye for a couple months after that, until after he invited me to his studio. He wanted to sign me, actually.”

The anecdote seemingly impressed Sharpe.

“You’re moving at warp speed now,” he said. “You go from being in the back to the front to potentially being signed.”

Yachty offered a bit of pushback, insisting his success didn’t happen “overnight” but “it felt like it.” He said he spent years hustling in the music business and was determined to achieve everything he wanted.

“How did it happen? How does anything happen in life?” he said. “Chance, I guess. I guess when you want something and you just go for it… I think everything that’s happened in my life, I’ve wanted and I’ve told myself, or god, ‘Hey, I want to do this. I want to be in this place in life. I want to be here. I want to live like this. I want to look better, physically.’ Whatever it was, I set that goal out. I didn’t just lackadaisically go through life…and I guess it kind of helped me clear a pathway, especially early on. I’ve done so much now.”

But make no mistake, Yachty isn’t resting on his laurels. Although he has a lot of wins and accomplishments under his belt, he sees himself going even further.

“It just happened so fast but I did so much at a young age and I feel I’m not even close to my peak,” he said. “I feel like I got another 20 years of just doing shit, you know?”

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