Eternal Atake & Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2 - Lil Uzi: Review
is a Philly born trap rapper who developed a cult like following off the back of his come-up, culminating in his 2017 debut studio record Luv Is Rage 2. Since then he has been on numerous features and continually delayed the release of his previously announced follow-up. But now Eternal Atake has arrived a week ahead of schedule, and just as fans were beginning to digest the record Uzi surprised dropped the sequel to one of his most loved mixtapes LUV Vs. The World 2 on the original announced release date for Atake.
Review By Lavender:
Lil Uzi is one of the artists I have always received a ton of hate for not blindly following. I gave an admittedly tough review to his debut studio record that I still can't really stand to this day. And I've always liked his big singles and marquee features much less than his fans do, with the exception of Shoota with Playboi Carti. I was always interested in what Uzi would do next and how he would push his sound and on Eternal Atake I got the answer, he wouldn't. The record sees Uzi trying to do what he got famous doing three years ago, but is considerably worse in every way which lead to me dreading reviewing another Uzi record just a week later. But as it turns out Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2 was the follow-up that I had been hoping for all along.
This is a review for both records so to flush all the terrible nonsense out of the way first lets take on Eternal Atake and get it out of our system. The record without its bonus tracks is about 55 minutes long which is way more Uzi than I wanted, but the reality is even worse, lets get through the most terrible first before we talk about what is actually recoverable from the album. Lo Mein is the beginning of a long train of lyrics so stupid they aren't funny and are just painful. The beat is completely lifelessy and Uzi rarely goes more than a bar or two without interrupting himself with a dumb adlib or random stoppage for no other reason than he has nothing to say. POP is terrible and sees Uzi doing nothing but trying to sound like Young Thug with non of the vocal versatility or charisma and its honestly the first point on the album that really makes me consider turning it off. The next track You Better Move just seems like its destined to be popular on Tik Tok for a week and then disappear the ugly vocalizations are incredibly annoying and I have no idea why Uzi thinks dropping out the beat and repeating the songs title over and over is compelling because it isn't.
Celebration Station reminds me really strongly of a song I didn't like on the last Lil Uzi record I can't really remember which one and I refuse to go check, its even more boring three years later. Chrome Heart Tags is one of the numerous tracks contending for worst track here the verse here is fucking terrible and just as underwritten as that Travis Scott feature on the new Justin Bieber record. It sounds like Uzi just said whatever was in his head into a mic and they rolled with it. Urgency is another total disaster that sees Uzi pairing up with Syd and she absolutely bodies him vocally. Hearing them try to harmonize is embracing and genuinely cringey to the ears, I have no idea how a major label heard this and decided it was good enough to be part of a major artists release.
So that's the bottom of the barrel but way too many of the rest of the tracks here do absolutely nothing beyond have a generic vibe, or have a major flaw. Baby Pluto is the albums opener and Uzi's vocals can be really difficult to get past, there are some decent bars and the record tries to set up its space theme but ultimately the song is a pretty weak intro. Bust Me sounds like a computer generated Lil Uzi song I don't necessarily hate it but I would absolutely never go out of my way to listen to it. Venetia has some pretty insensitive lyrics which is another big theme of the album, but is tolerable. The track is super average as a whole but I do have to say it's one of the only points on the record where the adlibs are actually good and supportive of the verses which is a positive. Secure The Bag is a super average emo trap ballad, I don't like Uzi's singing still but thankfully he isn't doing a cringey voice or something.
There are a handful of tracks on the record that are worthwhile in some way although I can't always explain why. P2 is a pretty cheeky experiment where Uzi flips the beat for his biggest hit XO Tour Life and essentially remakes the song, its one of the much more tolerable points on the album but it almost feels like cheating. Bigger Than Life is a decent track when all is said and done but I like it because it's the only point on the entire album where Uzi actually sounds charismatic on the mic and the verses are delivered with some semblance of swagger. Homecoming has a middle school freestyle grade hook that is admittedly pretty catchy but the verses are pretty average until the great explosive final verse. Silly Watch is a pretty catchy song even though the lyrics and performance leave a lot to be desired the bars are catchy and it has one of the best hooks on the record.
There are only two songs on Eternal Atake that I unequivocally like starting with I'm Sorry. The beat is a chopped up trap banger that I love and the track has the only good singing Uzi does on the entire record, as well as some of the best thematic focus for his lyrics that makes it one of the only songs worth actually listening to what he has to say. Prices is far and away the best track on the record and I don't care what anyone says about the stupid repetitive chorus because its catchy as hell and loaded with personality, the album so desperately needed more songs like this.
Every time I listened to Eternal Atake it became more and more clear to me how little Uzi actually has to offer. The record is packed full of terrible filler tracks that had almost no thought to them at all, but the most disappointing part is that one of modern raps biggest personalities can't manage to sound unique anywhere on the album. Uzi sounds like a far lesser version of himself remaking records from years ago and the sonic result is absolutely mind numbing. I had pretty low expectations for the record not having been an Uzi fan up to this point but I never anticipated being this disappointed, which is why I was so surprised by its immediate follow-up. 3.5/10
Review By Lavender:
Hey there Lil Uzi stan! Thanks for continuing to read even though I know you're mad at me about the last review, but I stand by every word of it. Before you go off on me on my Twitter or further embarrass yourself publicly in some way check this next part out. On LUV Vs. The World 2 Uzi uses a much more refined tracklist and some really strong features to break up the monotony and as a result crafted what is definitely my favorite of his projects to date.
Lets start with the features because after Eternal Atake had only one in its 55 minutes, the 43 minutes of LUV is packed full of them and it is so much better for it. Bean sees Pi'erre Bourne bringing a fire istrumental, which he does numerous times across this album. On top of this Uzi and Chief Keef pair up for a really solid pairing that has a ton of chemistry. Even though the hook fucking sucks it really doesn't last that long and it only makes my brain partially numb. Yessirskiii opens up with what is probably the best beat on the entire record and the 21 Savage adlibs just make my heart flutter. 21 was an absolutely perfect choice for the track and his long opening verse is exactly what the record needed right at that point, the song just rules from start to finish and had me so excited to be truly vibing with an Uzi song again. Finally Wassup is a decent track with a kind of non-hook and a generic beat, but once again a strong feature saves the day as Future comes in and absolutely bodies the song with his experienced trap singing that is just so refreshing.
Strawberry Peels is a song I was excited about as soon as I saw Thugger was on it but I didn't think the track was going to instantly go hard as FUCK. Thugger really murders this song from his verse to the hook to everything about it. The song is so good that even Gunna has a pretty fire verse and a good Gunna verse is even more rare than a good Uzi verse. Speaking of a good Uzi verse Strawberry Peels also has that and the fact that the song slides in at under two minutes is even better and just makes it the perfect track for a record like this. No Auto features Lil Durk an artist I usually dread seeing on a record as he is almost always terrible, but even his performance here is pretty solid, even though Uzi is way better and drops some clever high energy bars on the track I still think its a highlight. Finally there is Got The Guap another Young Thug feature and another huge hit as the track shows off a mellower side to both artists than their team up earlier on the record and they both perform just as well, proving that more Thugger is always a good thing.
Not all the features are perfect though. Money Spread is a really unfortunate track as it has genuinely one of the best performances I've ever heard from Uzi as he is locked in with killer lyrics and a fiery delivery of the bars. But the really difficult part is that the Young Nudy feature on the track is one of the worst things I've heard all year and as he tries to aimlessly ramble through some impossibly stupid lyrics for half a minute its difficult not to cringe so bad you just have to turn off the song right there. Finally the closing track Leaders is basically a glorified Nav song that sees Nav somehow having the balls to poorly impersonate Uzi on his own record and why Uzi allowed this to happen or put it as the closing track is completely beyond me because it totally sucks.
As far as the songs that just feature Uzi go, most of them are solid. The opener Myron is immediately better than any of the songs on Eternal Atake and is a quintessential Uzi song that sees his formula of simple bumping trap beat, genuinely funny lyrics and great attitude put to perfection. That bar about wearing more Supreme than a hype beast is just classic Uzi. Come This Way is pretty solid I like the hook quite a bit and Uzi certainly delivers some funny bars, it's also absolutely overflowing with his personality which is refreshing in its own right. The very next track Trap This Way is also pretty good as it sees Uzi rapping about money and bitches but he never pushes out of his vocal range which makes for a pretty smooth and catchy experience that doesn't overstay its welcome.
The record isn't completely without its flaws though. Lotus is a pretty generic Uzi tune that gets annoying given that most of the song is taken up by Uzi doing pretty much the exact same refrain over and over again including the corny infectious at the end of the bars. I Can Show You is a song that slips into the annoying really quickly but at just 2 minutes long it doesn't quite get to the point of being unbearable thankfully. The only song I really can't stand is Moon Relate which is a shame because its one of the best songs here from a songwriting standpoint but Uzi's voice is absolutely dreadful. I can't get past the horrible delivery of the vocals and I would love to hear a better performed version of this song at some point because it really is a good foundation to build on.
LUV vs. The World 2 really just brings up one question for me, why release Eternal Atake in the first place? When its follow-up is so universally better in absolutely every way and fulfills the slightly above average potential I've always known Uzi had. The record isn't perfect and certainly won't be one of my favorite of the year, but it is by far my favorite of Uzi's yet and is just so laughably better than Atake that releasing this as the "Bonus Tracks" feels like a deliberate test of Uzi's die hard fans to see what they would tolerate. Regardless I enjoy this set of tracks quite a bit and it makes me pretty conflicted about what to expect from Uzi going forward, however long it may be before we get new music from him. 6.5/10
