James Blake has revealed he's a big fan of Lil Yachty's 2023 track "Poland" and admits he listens to it regularly.
During their June 2024 cover story with Complex, Blake answered a prompt: "The song you hate that everyone loves?" He told Yachty how much he loves the "Poland" record that became a viral hit last year.
"I love it. It's a great song. It's pure avant-garde," Blake said. "I think that song's fucking amazing. I listen to it quite regularly. And I think it is a really fucking weird song. And somehow it still ended up being one of your most popular songs, which is crazy because most people's weirdest song doesn't become their most popular song."
Yachty then went into how the song was made by accident. According to Lil Boat, he was in the studio sitting with the mic and there was a Poland Spring water bottle close by that sparked the idea for the song. He also revealed he was close to not releasing the song at all.
"I was just there with the guys and the engineer and there was a Poland Spring water bottle on the table while I was just sitting in front of the mic," said Yachty. "And it's always some wock around. Always. So I was just like, oh shit. A lot of times if I'm in the booth and there's the glass where I can see my friends talking or something, sometimes I'll sing about what they're doing. And I kind of just was singing 'I took the wock to Poland. And that song would've never left my hard drive."
"Poland" was a huge record for Yachty as it peaked at No. 18 and No. 40 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot 100 charts while also bringing in 31 million views on YouTube for the official music video. In 2023, Yachty performed the song six consecutive times during a concert in Poland.
In the cover story interview with both artists, Blake also revealed he's always been a fan of Yachty, but his last album, Let's Start Here, made him really pay attention to what he was doing with his music.
"I've been a fan of Yachty for years," said Blake. "And when I heard his last record [Let's Start Here], I was like, this is really a turn. Not many artists are brave enough to do something that's kind of opposite of the last thing they did."
