Lil Uzi Sales Numbers Exceed Expectation
Lil Uzi Vert is a master at blurring the lines of genre’s making the listener decide what genre to put him in. Each year his crowds increase in size, his songs become better known, and his star power increases exponentially. Uzi’s hit single XO Tour Lif3 was an instant hit produced by TM88. Below I have a list of songs I liked on the album but I purposely chose not to put XO Tour Lif3 in there because we all know about the super track already.
First thing id like to do is dive into the numbers. According to Billboard, Uzi’s Debut album scored the No. 1 Spot on the billboard 200 list after it reportedly moved 135,000 unites in the first week with 28,000 of those units coming from traditional album sales ! These numbers well exceeded the expectation of many, I personally felt if Uzi did 80,000-100,000 it would be a success and anything over 120,000 would be phenomenal. To see him eclipse 135,000 units in his first week is a major achievement in itself but it has also been reported that in week 2 it moved another 73,000 units bringing total sales to 208,000 thus far.
I would like to give Uzi all the credit in the world, but there were other components to this album as with any that helped catapult its success. First off I would like to give DJ Drama some shine due to the fact that he postponed the album release over 8 months because Uzi was already on fire from his Bad & Boujie and his hit single XO Tour Lif3 that by releasing a project at that moment would cannibalize the wave he was riding from these two tracks alone. Plus the fact that in February of 2017 Uzi released a four track EP, Luv is Rage 1.5 which served as an exciting prequel for Luv is Rage 2. Also, in July 2017 DJ Drama and Don Cannon premiered five songs, four of which were not on the album on their shade 45 radio show. Not to mention that “Money Longer” and “You Was Right” had also been floating on the Billboard top 200 for several months. So the timing of the album was textbook and although Uzi may have been upset about it in the beginning it has all paid out for him at the end.
This albums producer lineup consists of some heavy hitters such as TM88, Pi’erre Bourne, Metro Boomin, Don Cannon, DJ Plugg, Bobby Kritical, and my current personal favorite Maaly Raw. Maaly Raw is scattered all throughout the album featured as a producer on 6 out of the 16 tracks. Maaly Raw a 22 year old producer who is creating a new wave in Philly and he is responsible for some of Uzi’s biggest hits (Do What I Want & Money Long). Maaly Raw and Uzi have been working together since 2014. According to an interview XXLMagazine and Maaly Raw, the producer and Uzi would basically sleep in the studio they would be in the studio from 2pm to 6am every day. I think all of these producers played a huge role in Uzi’s success on this tape and I was impressed with Don Cannon’s showing on “Pretty Mami” and “Sauce it up”
Sauce it up – my favorite song on the album. It is an early highlight and one of the purest rap songs on the album where uzi’s confidence shines. Uzi proclaims that he is one of the greatest to ever do it in the beginning of the song and ill leave that up to you to decide. I think Don Cannon did an amazing job with the instrumental as you can hear a multi layered melodic beat with various different harmonies flow together in the background in a seamless fashion.
For Real – The 808’s and bass on this track are absolutely incredible. The instrumental is by far my favorite on the album bar XO Tour Life. From the hi hats to the the futuristic ray gun sounds ricocheting around the beat make for an innovative sound coupled with Uzi’s clout make for a sound that I’ve never heard in hip hop. The downfall is that the chorus is a bit plain but we expect this from Uzi. Overall I’d put this track on my top 5 on the album.
X - Makes me want to dump my ex for a second time. Metro and Pierre Bourne really came together to fuse this instrumental into something special. Uzi doesn’t have his same happy sound here, he begins to show us how his heart is beginning to darken as he focuses on material things. He also gives Leonardo DiCaprio multiple shout outs on the track.
Pretty Mami was released in July by DJ Drama and Don Cannon on their Shade 45 Radio under the name “Let You Know” it was not released via CDQ but with the tech savy users on the internet in less than 24 hours the CDQ was on youtube with hundreds of thousands of plays. This song really encompasses Uzi’s punk rap star sound that he has so gracefully mastered. The intro of this song before the beat comes in sounds as if his voice was fused with a funky electric guitar. He is doing things in this music game that we have never seen before and continues to push the envelope at the age of 23. This track also goes in my top 5.
Neon Guts – This song stood out to me right away! Pharrell did an awesome job with the production on this track. Best put by Sheldon Pearce of Pitchfork “Uzi is ushered along by Pharrell, who provides suave lead-ins to both Uzi verses. Pharrell glides and Uzi struts, but they both move in tandem inside colorful xylophone chimes, accented by delicately plucked string and buzzing bass.” This track allowed me to see some of Uzi’s growth over this past year. The experimental touch of Pharrell and Uzi allow this track to secure the final spot on my top 5 spot on this album.
A Bonus track for me could be XO Tour Life but you already know about that so I would definitely say that “Feeling Mutual” could be a runner up track…
Overall thoughts, there were a few tracks that haven’t particularly caught my ear just yet but who knows maybe next month I may find one of these tracks to be a new favorite song of mine. I often find that happening with Uzi’s work. I would give this album a 4/5 I gave this rating for the album because I expected Uzi to stick in his comfort zone, I expected him to stick to his sound from earlier mixtapes but to me it is evident that he is always trying out new techniques and sounds and constantly expanding out of the pocket. Was it better than some of his older mixtapes? No.. I don’t think so but his growth and progression is what allows his debut album to be in my current rotation on the regular. Hope you guys enjoyed the review. Check the rest of the website out for other cool content.