Luv Is Rage

About

Before he was a global superstar—before minor changes to his wardrobe would set the agendas for fashion editors and streetwear reseller, before the personnel decisions he made on albums could make or break careers—Lil Uzi Vert already had supreme trust in his instinct. His debut mixtape from 2015, <i>Luv Is Rage</i>, is a testament to this confidence, an intuitive survey of everything that was bubbling up in rap production at that moment, and what was to come. Much of <i>Luv Is Rage</i> sounds hot, as if the speaker system in a crowded nightclub is about to fry itself from the sheer intensity of a set. Listen to the way “Safe House,” “Banned From TV,” or “Belly” cut through the mix, serrated and sweaty. On the nearly hallucinatory “Yamborghini Dream,” Uzi trades careening verses with Young Thug, two of rap’s great eccentrics feeding off one another’s unpredictability. Though Uzi had yet to fold in the literal elements of rock music that augmented his later work, this opening salvo is full of the rockstar ethos that would come to define him, all fearless experimentation staked on a belief in his own charisma. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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