Like Thug, Uzi is a distinctive rapper (the stage name was given, not taken), but the key to his sound is melody, mixing post-trap rumble with the candied hooks of pop-punk and neon surfaces of EDM for a style that splits the starkness of modern hip-hop into prismatic color. But definitely not a rapper in the traditional sense.Д«orn Symere Woods in North Philadelphia in 1994, Uzi first started rapping to one-up a classmate, quickly making the leap to national relevance through features with Young Thug and Migos while building a tight-knit collective of producers and collaborators, known as Working on Dying, at home.

That he could turn a line as bleak as вЂњPush me to the edge/All my friends are deadвЂќ (вЂњXO TOUR Llif3вЂќ) into a singalong only made him more vital-here was a guy feeling the pain and packaging it in style. Where previous generations of rappers leveraged influence through the boardroom (Jay Z: вЂњIвЂ™m not a businessman/IвЂ™m a business, manвЂќ), Uzi represents a generation fluent in fashion and social media, not just a recording artist but a kind of creative director whose personality and sense of world-building telegraphs almost as loudly as the music. Lil Uzi Vert told us upfront, in his intro to Playboi CartiвЂ™s вЂњwokeuplikethis*вЂќ: вЂњIвЂ™m a rockstar.вЂќ The metaphor wasnвЂ™t about dominance so much as it was about flamboyance, for Uzi as a purse-carrying, post-Kanye MC raised on anime and Marilyn Manson, whose indifference toward hip-hop orthodoxy made him a punk to some and a hero to more.

Lil uzi xo tour life key