Lil Uzi Vert, The Internets Prodigal Son, Is The Best Rapper Alive
(repost from 4/13/2020 from 3300+ Climbing)
WWE has a belt. The NFL has the Lombardi Trophy. The NBA has the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Hip-hop only has a title, which is kind of wack. A Championship Chain should be commissioned to Ben Baller or NIGO by to be passed around whenever a shift in the community happens. Not a shift in style or in the formatting of the music, but a shift in the title. The Best Rapper Alive is hardly ever given willingly, so the idea of a Chain getting handed on with no pushback is like covering a guy in seal blubber and putting him in a Polar Bear exhibit. It’s not going to end well. The title has shifted through the hands of icons like Nas, Ice Cube, MF DOOM, Eminem, and as of this moment, the most exciting guy under 6 feet to come out of Philly since Kevin Hart and Allen Iverson.
Sliding the Championship Chain out of Freddie Gibbs hands, and right in front of Benny The Butcher’s face, Lil Uzi Vert has earned the right to dawn it side-by-side with his already elite selection of jewelry. The Lil Uzi Vert story starts in the streets of Philidelphia Pennsylvania, with Samyere Woods being born, dropping out of high school, getting his first face tat, and seeing the possibilities of rap stardom. His first mixtape Purple Thoughtz was released in 2014, borrowing heavily from the sounds of South Florida supergroup RVIDXR KLVN, even cutting tracks with the crew’s pervasive leader SpaceGhostPurrp. After its release, the late great A$AP Yams (founder of A$AP Mob and was an early asset in the careers of Vince Staples, and Flatbush Zombies) embraced Uzi, along with DJ Drama and Don Cannon. The infamous mixtape DJs were continuing their quest of discovering new acts and putting them on but in a more legal way this time around. After Don Cannon heard Uzi’s song on Philly radio and passed it along to Drama, the DJs gave Uzi the resources to make his second tape, The Real Uzi, that lead to a deal with Atlantic Records and the DJ’s personal label Generation Now.
From here Uzi released the classic mixtape Luv Is Rage that gained mainstream recognition along with love from his peers. Features from Wiz Khalifa and Young Thug showed an understanding of the lane Uzi would be pushed for, the big leagues. During the time of Luv Is Rage Uzi became a leader in his peer group. Defined mostly by those who had been out of touch of underground hip-hop for a generation, Uzi along with Travi$ Scott, Playboi Carti, Kodak Black, 21 Savage, and Young Thug were all bunched together as the “mumble generation”. The phrase “mumble rap” is as corny as any other phrase the old guard has passed down, but what defined this generation is what they were right on. Inspired by the Gucci Manes and Lil Waynes before them, nearly all these acts were tattoo-covered, long hair swinging, high-octane rappers with sights bigger than rap. “I’m not a rapper, I’m an artist (also to be swapped at will with “I’m a rockstar”)” became a defining phrase as well, with most of the publicly lauded acts of this time wanting to be hard-partying energy merchants to their fans rather than lyrical song crafters with pop aspirations. Banging home that rockstar attitude by applauding the works of Marilyn Manson and G.G. Alin whenever the opportunity presented itself was another calling card, and that deepened that divide.
Lil Uzi found himself in generational battles time and again, one most famously coming after a February 2016 Hot 97 interview. With Ebro Darden planning to pull up DJ Premier beats for Uzi to freestyle on, the generational divides split the room. “I’m too young for that man, I’m not into that”. As Ebro and his co-hosts insisted on the importance of appreciating the past, Uzi kept steady in his words, leading to a convo on how 808’s & Heartbreak and drug choices are to some seen as Ground Zero of this very divide. His rockstar persona only grew more powerful as he powered through the Soundcloud charts with “Money Longer” and “You Was Right”, and the rest of his summer ’16 tape Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World.
He was the most streamed artist on Soundcloud but a wide margin, but the Billboard charts even 4 short years ago were not with the times in gauging an artist’s success. The shift from physical sales and radio play to playlist entries and streams nearly killed off a fleet of artists, but Vert took it in stride. This new era is what he built for. In 12 months Uzi went from some interesting new blood to become an XXL Freshman and a budding chart-topper. Standing together with what is now looked at as one of the most successful XXL Freshman groups ever, Uzi found ways to stand out. His freestyle was meme’d into oblivion, bringing new eyes to him. He was again bashed and seen as another cog in whatever machine is churning out “mumble rappers”. After a subtle late-year release on Soundcloud, “Bad And Boujee” ruled 2017 with Uzi’s assistance, setting up for his own breakout hit.
“XO Tour Lif3” was apart of a 4 track Soundcloud exclusive EP named Luv Is Rage 1.5, that after topping the platforms charts would be released as an official single to all major platforms, ringing in a Top 10 Hit, a Virgil Abloh directed music video and his first 6-time platinum single. After coming off tour with The Weeknd, the fans and Uzi himself forced pressure on Don Cannon and DJ Drama for months for the release of Luv Is Rage 2 for it to come in late August 2017. While LIR2 was beloved by fans, critics, and lead to mainstream radio and playlist placements, the time between it and his new project was long and checkered.
Eternal Atake, an album rumored to be related to the Heaven’s Gate cult, was held off by his label heads for what turned into years. Uzi was also still going back and forth with old rumors of copying Atlanta rapper Reese LaFlarre’s style and cover art, fistfights with former friend Rich The Kid (Uzi is still certified for hitting Rich so hard he slid over a Starbucks counter), the occasional public relationships, and a failed tour with Playboi Carti. A year passed, but leaks connected back to Lil Uzi’s camp and online hackers flooded the internet, keeping the fans at bay, but also raising excitement. Feeding the online army just enough to keep them at bay worked for so long. To the hardcore fans, Uzi was progressing in front of our eyes, and wasn’t getting the chance to prove it. His face became littered with illegible tattoos and jewelry, and his on mic style was as radiant as his chains. Loosies like “Free Uzi” and “That’s A Rack” kept his name in the “hottest rapper out” conversation, by providing eye-opening features with Young Thug, Meek Mill, and Gunna. 2018 and 2019 passed with no new album. Even with Uzi getting in contact with Jay-Z and his Roc Nation management company, the legal hoops he needed to jump through took time. Then 2020 rolled around. Borderline abuse on Instagram and Twitter still rained down as the Eternal Atake release date neared, known at the time to nobody, maybe not even Uzi himself.
More Uzi features appeared across the hip-hop community in 2020. He appeared on songs with G Herbo, Lil Baby, and Yo Gotti, along with his own loose singles in the weeks leading up to the release. Twitter soon became Uzi’s mouthpiece to the world. Not only had he for years expressed openly his feelings on all social platforms, but now he was posting active polls for fans to choose his album covers. The raving online stans with their own Lil Peep avi’s and solar system of emojis in their bios had real hope of a new album.
Then, early on the morning of March 6th from the sky drops Eternal Atake, the beginning of a new form of Uzi. Instead of waiting the extra week, he took everything in his own hands (at least that’s what this promo run is making it seem). The same version of Uzi peaked its head on earlier songs “New Patek” and “20 Min”, now for over an hour straight of you witness him fully blossoming and getting his sea legs. The project’s production is handled in large part by the members of the Philly-centric Working On Dying collective (most notable work being Drake’s “I’m Upset” along with a whole generation of Soundcloud hits) with the lines filled in by Wheezy, TM88 and Supah Mario.
The glittery keys, electro leads, full soul choirs, and hard-nosed trap drums mesh so many eras and scenes of hip-hop, and it’s not even intentional. No one wakes up wanting to make a gumbo of every song they’ve ever heard, but the access to having computers in our lives gave us was one to broaden our ears. Lil Uzi grows up in Philly in the early ’90s, he wouldn’t have even heard Florida tapes unless the wind blew perfectly for him. His music sounds one of a kind when really it’s the first of its time. Thanks to his early age starting off, and the connections his internet-centric music got him, he at 25 is already 3 major releases deep with proven success, a bottomless budget, and an unseen vision. He is the closest we may ever see again to a Lil Wayne, and this moment is the equivalent to early Carter times in Wayne’s life.
Though Wayne started at 12 and was many more albums deep then Uzi is, the situation and level jump are the same. Both were prodigies in their perspective sections of rap, that became a fan favorite and later the budding face of his generation. During that early Carter era, Jay-Z was retiring, Eminem and 50 Cent’s music quality was flying downward, Kanye was almost a household name, while Ludacris and T.I. were still finding their ways and earning respect hit after hit, all leaving the crown for the taking. Though during this same period you had maybe more “real MC’s” (gag) in the conversation, they didn’t have the mainstream appeal Wayne did. Now in 2020 Uzi has the momentum, with the big three of the last generation (Kendrick Lamar, Drake, J. Cole) still on a simultaneous hiatus building towards new albums, Migos and Future are adored but have fatigued most listeners, while Lil Baby and Gunna have not fully set themselves to succeed longterm yet, but gaining steam.
The Championship Chain being in Uzi’s possession seems set to be short, with a full lineup of albums coming this year, but the noise may end up muddying the race to the point it might be easier for him to just hold it. Another similarity between Carter 2 in particular and Eternal Atake is the common disregard of song structures.
Both blew traditional hooks to the wayside, rather swapping in short refrains or just kept rapping a mile a minute. “Homecoming” is a shining example, with the “hook” working perfectly into the flow of the record with little change in Uzi’s focus despite calamitous skits doing their best to stop him. Selling roughly 320,000 copies its first week and earning the peak on the Billboard. Within less than a decade Lil Uzi has gone from an underground cloud rapper to youthful hitmaker, into the most beloved star in an era filled with stars. A Soundcloud superstar with little to no baggage hitting the Billboard charts has been few and far between, with Uzi himself being the last standing torchbearer. Like Wayne the type of success Uzi is attracting is going to lead to those in his same generation following soon. After Carter 2, Gucci Mane was becoming a known commodity for his high volume of releases, and West Coast’s Game would get running on his own mixtape catalog. Will everyone follow suit with masterful intergalactic production? Probably not, which is part of the case for him being the best rapper alive. No one is doing what he does, at the pace he does, while receiving the proper love for it. Plus, he’s rapping the best in his career. The LP is a loose concept album about him traveling through space and time and his different alter ego’s living through them, as confirmed by Vert himself on, you guessed it, Twitter.
“Silly Watch” and “POP” have some of his most progressive flows, throwing in jabs about every article of clothing he or his crews ever touched. “Chrome Heart Tags” is Chief Keef’s finest moment as a producer, opening the gates for a classic Uzi love story. “Celebration Station” gives off the aura of an otherworldly Miami bass track, rolling his words seamlessly the whole time. After getting lost in space for 15 songs, Vert comes down to Earth and redoes his biggest hit on “P2”, a new angle on “XO Tour Lif3”. Where Luv Is Rage 2 had guest spots for Pharrell, The Weeknd, and Oh Wonder, the lone guest vocals come from Syd of West Coast funk and R&B outfit The Internet, harmonizing together on “Urgency” about intimacy with a perfect woman that may never come.
Then came Uzi online again. Not to just read and cherish the praises from these dedicated fans who he had given the album they dreamed of, but to speak on more music. A slew of random album talk, and asking fans what songs they want him to officially release from his lauded catalog of leaks, followed with a single sentence.
“I will be back wit a deluxe bye” — Lil Uzi Vert
A few days went by, with a new buzz of excitement radiating off his fans. The album they begged for came through with flying colors, and an extension of it was going to follow soon. Now when the deluxe version of Luv Is Rage 2 came out, it featured 3 songs added to the end of the tracklist. Now as we’ve all seen, streaming services have allowed for an endless combination of possibilities with releasing music. Not only can songs be edited and updated at will, but they can be released via multiple EPs over the course of a year only to later packaged together into one product, dropped at a moment’s notice, or delete off entire records never to be seen again. Instead of following these mainstream trends, Uzi went his own way, calling the extended tracklist selections on the Eternal Atake deluxe Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2. Two separate projects, released a week apart to be bundled together, yet on all streaming platforms, they are seen as a package deal leading to more streams and higher chart positioning. The only artists in my experience I’ve sen troll their fanbase in this way were Future and Robb Bank$. Future rumored at an album named Future Hendrix for years, even originally slating for Honest to hold this title, just to be changed at the last minute. Years later he released the self-titled trap stimulus package FUTURE, following through a week later with the more-R&B centric HNDRXX, essentially going full Outkast just on his own accord. Robb Bank$, underground trailblazer and former RXIDXR KLVN affiliate, at one time, hinted at two separate albums, one to be called Calendars 2 and the other Death Of My Teenage just to drum up excitement for what ended up being C2: Death Of MY Teenage, a singular and long-winded title, but one album nonetheless. The records on Lil Uzi Vert vs The World 2 pale in comparison to Eternal, but have highlights across the board with the Kobe Bryant dedicated “Bean” with Chief Keef, and the slimy fever dream that is “Strawberry Peels”.
The guaranteed hits from these albums are few at first glance. The man who once said, “I can never miss / even if I miss it’s still a hit” (which ironically is a line that gets flipped into a hook on “Got The Guap”) is as of now almost too progressive to strike through to the broad public. But that’s what makes Uzi special. Every hit he’s ever been a piece in has blasted off due to it being a left turn from what is conventional. He rambled over a cavernous Metro Boomin beat for “Bad And Boujee”, “Top” was a slow-paced but bass crusher turned anthem, and “The Way Life Goes” is heartbreak healing lament based on a pop-punk sample. It’s time now to stop questioning Lil Uzi. He’s been right about everything he’s said across interviews, nearly everyone around him has become a star, and he’s engrained himself in the internet that connects our lives. Building his artistry from an underground nerd to the undersized punk rapper has allowed millions of fans to attach themselves to his rising fame, making a dedicated cult where the only entry fee is having a vertical ID. The concept that rap is a young man’s sport has been challenged on and off for this entire century as the genre ages, but for today Uzi is adored by the youth and is doing it at a rare level, making him the best rapper alive.
