In the mid-2010s, Lil Uzi began his rise on Soundcloud alongside a generation of young hip-hop artists weaponizing the uninhibited ethos and reach of the platform. In the wake of Eternal Atake’s release, several industry insiders and collaborators weighed in on how Lil Uzi has ascended to such rarefied air. “In the future, you’ll be able to see a lot of trends, attitudes and openness influenced by him-but he will always be ahead of that.” “He was one of the first young artists in the last half-decade to look at his creative output overall: how he was releasing, distributing, and presenting the music the videos he was shooting, the way he was approaching his live shows,” Zane Lowe, a DJ and the Global Creative Director of Apple Music, says. How did such an alienating and iconoclastic figure ascend to the top of the pop music world? In a post-genre, streaming-dominated landscape, Lil Uzi has become the perfect avatar for the many changes happening in the music industry-and his creative choices have shifted many norms around genre, masculinity, and stardom. This week, Chance the Rapper took to Instagram to dance to Uzi’s #6 hit “Baby Pluto” and scream, “UZI!”
Its second week wasn’t much different: a deluxe version of the album debuted at number one, with all 22 songs hitting the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. But while fighting back against establishment forces has sidetracked the careers of many would-be superstars, Lil Uzi has somehow only grown in influence and stature.Īnd he’s currently hitting his highest peak yet: midway through March, his highly anticipated and oft-delayed second studio album Eternal Atake debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and racked up a jaw-dropping 400 million streams, claiming the fourth largest streaming week ever. He makes strange genre-fluid music, releases albums on a haphazard basis and openly feuds with labels, journalists and other artists who have tried to corral him.
Lil Uzi Vert, the 25-year-old self-professed rock star from Philadelphia, has rejected convention at every step of his young career. The current top hip-hop artist in the world idolizes Marilyn Manson and Hayley Williams, has Super Mario and anime tattoos, wears women’s clothing and stands at a proud 5’5″.