Lil Uzi Vert: The Perfect Luv Tape

There are a few ways to mark an artist’s evolution, especially in rap. One of the clearest signifiers of progression is their ability to get meta — to refer to previous hits, to be able to take scope of their accomplishments to date and recognize their past work as that of a completely different person. On Lil Uzi Vert’s second mixtape of 2016, The Perfect Luv Tape, he does just that, creating a stronger work than the year’s previous Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World, but without the clear hit that the prior release had.

The meta talk started off quite early, as, just two lines into the tape’s opener “Do What I Want”, Vert elucidates, “It don’t matter, aye / Pocket fatter, aye / Nowadays I’m on my haters, they got sadder, aye / That’s ‘Money Longer’, yeah / Different song but, yeah / Different producer, yeah.” The rest of the song isn’t particularly impressive, with a glistening trap beat floating behind the standard I’ve-made-it talk, but, like the song it interpolates, it has a hook that’ll worm its way into your ear (unsurprisingly, the song’s title forms the basis for this repetition). The second telling, albeit less meta, quote from the tape that suggests his fame’s progression is the brag “‘Cause my picture all on her header / On Twitter, on Twitter, on Twitter, on Twitter.” He’s invaded your girl’s social media platforms! This is millennial stunting. So with that obvious bit of progress evident on The Perfect Luv, how does it stack up to the rest of his catalog? In a phrase, he’s more consistent than he’s ever been.

The Perfect Luv Tape is a decidedly lean affair — ten songs running under 10 minutes, and three guests: Offset, Playboy Carti, and Future, three stalwarts of the Atlanta scene that Vert has drawn much inspiration from. Even on tracks produced by longtime affiliates Maaly Raw and Don Cannon, Vert finds himself rapping over the springy trap that producers like Metro Boomin and Zaytoven, both of whom provide beats on this tape, have crafted. But, unlike the song “Flexing on Purpose”, released a couple days after The Perfect Luv and featuring Uzi on the hook with Ralo, 21 Savage, and Young Thug providing verses, the collaborations are less than the sum of their parts.

Instead, it’s on the solo tracks where he’s showing his greatest artistic growth and ability to be the star he so readily claims to be. His turns of phrase are now more forceful and there’s a definite confidence in the way he says lines that is all but a prerequisite to be an upper-echelon rapper today. Take the hook of “Original Uzi (4 of Uz)” — “Don’t want to fuck, I swerve her / That be that ‘Bye, bye, birdie’”. It’s not a particularly impressive two lines by any means, but he sells the feeling of passing up a chance for relations. There are times when he oversells a line, such as repeating “damn, you wet like a puddle” despite the countless similar similes that have occurred this decade. But by and large he avoids obvious clunkers like those and opts for feel-good brags that work over the churning, twinkling production.

Let’s not get confused here: Lil Uzi Vert has yet to create a song as potent as Young Thug’s peak tracks — “Danny Glover” chief among them — nor a full-length as intensely insular as 21 Savage’s recent Savage Mode. But for what he’s doing, rock star music made about the rock star lifestyle, he’s certainly moving in the right direction. And who’s to say that this doesn’t come with good advice? In this hyper-connected age, his revelation that Snapchat is “too personal” is refreshing. Rock stars like their privacy, too.