The beat is half the story: Expertly weaving a woozy synth woodwind, a trickling synth chime, a pounding 808, loose but deft hi-hats, and what sounds like an old-school tape recorder clicking on, it’s a marvel in its own right.
Produced by 808 Mafia stalwart TM88, “XO Tour Llif3” conveys a somber sense of wheels spinning in place, an impression underlined by a stasis-courting music video, in which an animated, miserable version of Uzi drives a car without getting anywhere. All indications suggest that the song has yet to peak, the most important indicator being that the song is supremely catchy: Not since Future’s “Fuck Up Some Commas” has a song lent itself so readily to repeated plays. “Bad and Boujee” isn’t his only appearance in the top ten: For the past four weeks, “XO Tour Llif3,” the third track on Luv Is Rage 1.5, has been hovering between Nos. That much was predictable - fame leads to more fame, until it doesn’t - but few could have predicted how swiftly he would ascend as a mainstream figure in his own right, not merely as a wingman for more established acts. Between the chart-crowning success of “Bad and Boujee” and continued touring with the Weeknd, it was clear that 2017 would lead the artist to still greater heights than the year preceding. The quote above, from “Boring Shit” - the first song on Luv Is Rage 1.5, a four-track SoundCloud playlist Uzi released in February to tide over fans until the summer release of Luv Is Rage 2 - encapsulates most of the aesthetic: a mix-and-match collage of sounds and cultural references held together by the concept of “animation.” As his guest verse on Migos’s “Bad and Boujee” amply demonstrated, Uzi is capable of cartoonish levels of exuberance. Samurai Jack on a journey, on my lonely, always rocking Vêtements Like 808s & Heartbreak, Kanye with a little hentai It seems like I’m always on that thin line You like me, I will love you always till the end of time If the established canon of East Coast rap had long taken substance to be a style of its own, style, for Rocky and Uzi alike, was a substance of its own, one worth cultivating at all costs.
Like New York City’s A$AP Rocky, Lil Uzi had a pronounced interest in merging the worlds of high fashion and streetwear. The beats owed at least as much to Atlanta producers, especially his patron Don Cannon, as it did to Philly his voice was Auto-Tuned as often as not.
the World, a cornerstone of later-aughts nerd culture. the World featured a jaunty anime-style rendition of the artist with Byrd, like a small cat, resting on his head the title invoked the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The cover of his 2016 breakout mixtape Lil Uzi Vert vs. He liked nerdy stuff and was open about liking it. He talked about his girlfriend, a designer named Brittany Byrd whose pink hair contrasted nicely with his purple, all the time. As countless commentators noticed, he owed as much to the example of rock artists - whether punk, pop-punk, or shock rock - as he did to that of rappers. Like Will Smith, the Roots, and Eve before him, Uzi offered a homegrown alternative to the prevailing Philly paradigm, but his style had little in common with any of these outliers. While those artists made their names focusing on the cold, bare facts of urban violence and deprivation, Lil Uzi had opted for a different mode of presentation - one where leaping 20 feet into a sea of fans, as he did at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival over the past weekend, was considered normal. Born Symere Woods in Philadelphia, the artist had carved out a style of his own that shared little in common with the classic heritage of Philly street rap inaugurated by Schoolly D in the ’80s, sustained by Beanie Sigel and crew in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and most prominently represented by Meek Mill in the 2010s. When Uzi rose to prominence in 2016, he seemed to do so in contrast to the dominant tradition of rap in his home city. Melding nerdy animations and rock-star habits with fashion-mongering, Atlanta trap production, and Auto-Tuned vocals, the song is the clearest proof he’s developed a distinct and inimitable sound of his own. Popularity doesn’t always equate to quality, but “XO Tour Llif3,” along with being Lil Uzi’s biggest song, happens to be his best, as well as an ideal introduction to him.
Released for free at the end of February, Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO Tour Llif3” has rapidly proven itself to be the most popular song of the young Philadelphia artist’s career, racking up over 70 million listens on SoundCloud alone later rereleased on Spotify and Apple, the song’s streaming numbers have lifted it to the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100.
Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Coachella