Lil Uzi Vert - Luv Is Rage 2 Album Review
“XO Tour Llif3” is the sort of song artists spend
years trying to write: pained and poised, tapping into a vein that had
previously been found but never fully pierced. The “I don’t really care if you
cry” taunt that shouldn’t be believed melting into “All my friends are
dead/Push me to the edge” is a stretch of masterful songwriting, but withering
in a way that few artists could mimic without tipping into self-parody. Its
commercial benchmarks—No. 7 on Billboard, Platinum three times over—don’t come
close to capturing the depth with which people feel the song. It will probably define
Lil Uzi Vert for the rest of his career.
Which is fine, because artists have
been plagued by hits with just a fraction of the pathos “XO Tour Llif3” has.
But Uzi has been an ascendant star for at least a year and a half: from
promising rookie to SoundCloud darling to rap’s A-list and beyond.
He’s proven
himself a popular force with solo cuts like “Money Longer” and guest turns on
Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” and Playboi Carti’s “Woke Up Like This”; dozens, hundreds of imitators
across digital mixtape platforms cite him as a major creative influence, or at
least a welcome distillation of whatever’s happening in and around the Atlanta
scene. And yet in some small way, Uzi’s long-awaited Luv Is Rage 2 is a
referendum on whether he can live up to the standard “XO Tour Llif3” set. The
goal isn’t a streaming figure or a chart position, but a feeling.
Lofty as that is, Luv Is Rage 2
comes very close to delivering.
At its best, the album mines the psyches of
exhausted and exhausting people, searching for the moment where enough drugs or
heartbreak or iMessages or sleep deprivation can unlock a new part of the
brain. It’s the Philadelphia native’s most musically developed work and
features a bulk of his most interesting songs to date.
Take “The Way Life Goes,” which is
produced by Don Cannon and Ike Beatz. Uzi opens with a brief introduction to the
other half of his failed relationship, punctuated with, “I like that girl too
much, I wish I never met her.” From there, he launches into a full
interpolation of the first verse from Oh Wonder’s “Landslide”: “I know it hurts
sometimes, but you’ll get over it/You’ll find another life to live.” Uzi’s less
interested in the granular drama of the breakup than in the fallout, the moment
three or four days later when reality starts to set in.
Over and over again, Uzi careens
past the edge of convention or good social form. “Pretty Mami” is a desperate
missive from a tour bus; the excellent song about his mother, “Dark Queen,”
sounds less like an ode to a parent than a supernatural reckoning. The plunges
into Uzi’s psyche are mirrored by his delivery. He’s chaotically animated,
flitting between short staccato runs and heartfelt singing, punctuated by yelps
and bug-eyed ad-libs.
The perpetual churn of style and song structure can be a
strength, or at the very least helps cover up songwriting that can tend toward formlessness.
“444+222,” never finds its footing or has much to say, but at least keeps the
listener on his or her toes long enough for Ike Beatz and Maaly Raw’s beat to
make its imprint.
Rage 2’s production is almost uniformly excellent, poppy and full
of air, but with sinister undercurrents when Uzi summons something darker. (For
the brighter side, see WondaGurl’s “How to Talk” or Pharrell’s particularly
breezy “Neon Guts,” where he also trades bars with Uzi.)
If Lil Uzi Vert is innovating anything, it’s a macro approach to the emotion
and perspective in his songwriting.
The technical aspects—his flows, vocal
patterns, and even his vocal registers—owe plenty to his contemporaries and
immediate predecessors from Atlanta and Chicago. Metro Boomin and Pierre
Bourne’s propulsive “X,” for example, could be lifted from one of the many
batches of Young Thug leaks, down to its operative line: “Yeah, my life’s a
mess/But I’m also blessed.”
What makes Uzi’s music his own is
that instead of a one-off appraisal, he combs through his heart and Gmail to
figure out just how the blessings and messiness interact.
Luv Is Rage 2
is ultimately a record about keeping it together when your wits and resolve
have been tested and depleted. (The Weeknd-assisted radio play “UnFazed” falls
flat precisely because Abel’s practiced stoicism doesn’t gel with Uzi’s
risk-it-all performance). Whether he’s full of joy or howling into the void, he
pushes his songs to their edge, which helps to deliver on the promise shown in
his earlier work.
We knew Lil Uzi Vert would become one of rap’s biggest stars,
but Rage 2 suggests that he may spend his time on top experimenting
rather than retreating to a comfort zone.
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