Philly rapper
Lil Uzi Vert established himself as a one-of-a-kind force when he zipped from an outlandish verse on
Migos' ubiquitous 2016 hit "Bad & Boujee" to his own chart-conquering 2017 debut studio album,
Luv Is Rage 2.
Uzi delivered his rhymes with charisma, versatility, and a futuristic weirdness that combined with inventive production for a groundbreaking take on pop-ready trap. Second album Eternal Atake arrived as a surprise release after a stretch of relative silence while the rapper was dealing with administrative issues with his label. The time away likely accounts for the meticulous production and amplified energy of the 18 tracks that make up the album. While he's as obsessed with cars, designer clothes, money, and sex as ever,
Lil Uzi Vert moves from the loose, restrained rapping of his earlier days into more complex, exhilarating styles. Where he'd gotten by on charm and a unique persona before,
Uzi's technical prowess is sharpened on tracks like "Celebration Station" and the woozy, start-stop flows of "You Better Move." When he combines inventive rapping with sung melodic hooks,
Lil Uzi Vert's pop appeal comes into full focus. The slippery refrain that "Bigger Than Life" is built around is somehow smooth and frenzied at once, and
Uzi flips a
Backstreet Boys sample on "That Way," inconceivably transforming a universally adored hit into something new and all his own. There's a vague, poorly conceived alien abduction narrative that runs throughout the album in the form of disjointed skits, but it's easily ignorable. The science fiction essence of Eternal Atake comes more from the video game samples and synthy touches that Philly production team Working on Dying brings to many of the beats. With all of its energy, Eternal Atake can still drag on after a while. A week after its release, a deluxe edition with another 14 outtakes was released as Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2, suggesting that the hour plus of material that made it onto the proper album was pared down from any inessential extras. Even though it's a lengthy journey and some of the songs start to feel similar, nothing here is filler. Renewed and hungry after a few years in record-label limbo, Eternal Atake (and its supplementary material) represents the floodgates of
Lil Uzi Vert's creativity opening back up, taking us to new, out-there places. ~ Fred Thomas