Billy Corgan has thoughts about Yeat. Deep thoughts.

As part of his promo run for the Smashing Pumpkins’ new triple-LP rock opera ATUM — which, after a schedule change, is finally out in full this Friday — Corgan sat down for a chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. Part of the interview involved Corgan listening to music by the young cult-beloved rapper Yeat. As Lowe puts it in a TikTok caption, “Playing Yeat for Billy Corgan and asking for his reaction elicited an astute and deep and empathetic response.”

Here’s what Corgan had to say:

I hear someone struggling with the dissociative world. I understand why people have ripped society apart. Whether it’s gender, the idea of, like, “What is a marriage?” and all this stuff. All those things need to be examined hard. I have no problem with people ripping stuff apart. So what I hear is an artist struggling how to put those ripped pieces back together. ‘Cause the human spirit at the end of the day wants to be standing on a black beach in New Zealand looking at the stars and saying, “I am whole, I am complete, and I know what the hell I am doing here.” So for a lot of people, ain’t no beach. Ain’t no stars. Ain’t no future. But they’re still feelin’ all the human impulses. “Who am I? Who’s gonna love me if I’m myself?” Or whatever. I’m not saying that’s this artist’s journey, but that’s what I hear. So what you hear is what on the surface sounds like an abuse of technology. The Auto-Tune ain’t workin’ right. The loops are actually out of time. But I don’t think that’s on purpose as in a, “Hey, let’s be clever and do this.” That’s a, “This is making me feel something that’s fresh, and it feels like right now.”

Watch video of Corgan’s response below.

@zanelowe Playing Yeat for Billy Corgan and asking for his reaction elicited an astute and deep and empathetic response #yeat #smashingpumpkins #music #foryou ♬ Monëy so big – Yeat