Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World

When Lil Uzi Vert dropped *Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World* in 2016, he was already one of rap’s most promising young talents. After he amassed a cult following of early adopters from a combination of early SoundCloud releases and his breakout 2015 tape *Luv Is Rage*, all eyes were on him when he dropped the follow-up six months later. At just nine tracks long, *Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World* widened the breadth of his artistic whims to the point that it would catapult him leagues ahead of the SoundCloud-famous MCs he was initially grouped with. Here, he can be found singing over warped EDM sirens on “Hi Roller,” thumbing his nose at ex-girlfriends on “You Was Right,” and, maybe most strikingly, rapping over an accordion sample on “Ps and Qs.” It was around the time of *Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World* that Uzi became the poster boy for that dismissive designation “mumble rap,” but you can hear just about everything he says on *Lil Uzi Vert vs The World*, the same way you can on all of the increasingly popular Uzi releases that follow it.

Coming on with a playful, druggy, off-kilter, and fresh sound in 2016, Lil Uzi Vert is a charismatic ball of youth, stumbling around the world of rap a couple months after Future busted the genre open, and doing it with enough talent that they seem enormously important.