Sophia Michaels
Lil Uzi Vert’s debut album, Eternal Atake, has finally arrived after a seemingly interminable year of delays and unmet expectations. Lil Uzi notoriously blasted through multiple projected release dates on his way to finally putting out his hot-anticipated debut album. Uzi’s longtime collaborator TM88’s new interview with Rolling Stone explains why, blaming the repeated pushbacks on an age-old scourge of the music business: Song leaks.
TM88 compared Lil Uzi Vert’s process to those of other rappers at the height of the game, Future and Young Thug, as a way of illustrating both the care Lil Uzi takes in crafting his art and how easily the balance can be upset by just one or two leaks. ““Future and [Young] Thug are doing 10 songs a night,” he explains. “Uzi really takes a lot of time on his songs. If a fan leaks one or two songs, that’s pushing his album back another eight months.” According to The Fader, this directly contradicts an interview given by Uzi’s former label partner Don Cannon, who signed Uzi to Generation Now with DJ Drama early in his career.
In that interview, Cannon says Uzi records hundreds of songs a year, but in TM88’s defense, it’s been a while since the last time Uzi and Cannon were on good terms. In all likelihood, time and experience have given Uzi a different outlook on the value of quality over quantity, especially when it comes to putting out the album fans have been clamoring for for nearly three years. Fortunately for us, Uzi got past all those leaks, giving us “Futsal Shuffle,” “P2,” and yes, the full Eternal Atake release we’ve all been waiting for this weekend.
Eternal Atake is out now on Atlantic Records. Get it here.
Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Written by: Uproxx
