The second side, which features Uzi’s Renji alter-ego, is the album’s strongest and most vulnerable. “POP,” the intensely beating heart of the Baby Pluto section, takes pages from the playbooks of Chief Keef, Playboi Carti, and Waka Flocka Uzi’s repetition of the word “BOW,” “POP,” and, ultimately, “BALENCI” will make the listener want to ram their head into the nearest hard surface, whether from irritation or excitement. The first, which introduces Uzi’s Baby Pluto persona, is a relentless barrage of flexes and the site of the album’s most memorable rapping showcases. Eternal Atake contains some of the best rapping moments of his career, a development foreshadowed by the 2019 G Herbo-sampling loose single “Free Uzi,” as well as the snippets leaked and shared in the interminable run-up to the album’s release.Įternal Atake plays out across three six-song sides. He’s still melodically minded-note the almost melismatic flourish of “Got a model/ with vitiligo” on “Prices”-but Eternal Atake sometimes feels like a return to 2013, when he was a nobody in Philly serving the kinetic, drill-adjacent, rapid-fire street raps that inspired his name. Eternal Atake is Lil Uzi Vert’s best album yet, with a cohesiveness, slick concept, and performance that justifies every ounce of hype. It is difficult to remember a rap album released to such fervid expectations, let alone one that lived up to those expectations. “I live my life like a cartoon,” he raps on “You Better Move,” “Reality is not my move.” These are the truest words on the album.Įternal Atake arrives after two years of delays, label drama, and frustrations so intense that they led Uzi to momentarily quit music. Eternal Atake is also a concept album that tells the surreal story of Uzi’s abduction and journey through space, and its alternately explosive and glossy production (spearheaded by Philadelphia collective Working on Dying), well-executed skits, and Uzi’s pint-sized, Super Saiyan charisma elevate the LP from escapist fantasy to galactic odyssey. He stacks money to the moon, swaddles himself in jewelry, luxury clothing, and fast cars, and cycles through girls to preempt heartache, as though ramping up his blasé lifestyle can keep the ennui of stardom at bay. Uzi’s new, hugely anticipated album Eternal Atake serves as a stark reminder that he is not, in fact, one of us.