I took a long time for me to be comfortable with myself. I’m honestly still working on it now, but it was tougher when I was younger. I moved around a lot, always was an odd man out, and was honestly a little weirdo. People say “it’s important to stand out” but when you’re a kid with a “girl” name from a country that’s literally at end of the Alphabet, you kinda just wanna blend in. However, I was blessed to learn to love myself, appreciate myself, and most importantly; enjoy myself. Yea I can be weird, but its fun to be weird. Lil Uzi Vert is a weird guy, but he makes it fun and with his music he lets it’s into his world.
When Lil Uzi Vert first dropped no one knew what to make of him, was he a mumble rapper? Was he gay? Was he a child? He was an enigma. Old HipHop heads got pissed off at his colored dreads, face piercings and sassy disposition. I was honestly on the fence til I saw him get in fights, sleep with IG models and stage dive at concerts like Mankind at Hell In The Cell. This dude threw caution to the wind did whatever he felt like doing. Sure he was weird, but that’s what he wanted to be. I honestly liked him before I liked his music..and then I woke up to a surprise album in the middle of March.
So with that said, let’s get into his long awaited album “Eternal Atake”.
This is something different.
Uzi makes music for people who grew up watching Toonami while fantasizing about being a drug dealer. “Eternal Atake” is a perfect example of this. It’s fun, up beat and sinister at the same time. He reminds me of an Anime villain; he starts off really cutesy/androgynous but as shit goes down he gets more and more dangerous and lethal. People cal Uzi a mumble rapper when in reality he just says his words really fast and flows in extremely unique way. He has a great stream of consciousness style where he mixes pop culture references, sexual advances and death threats together seamlessly. It would never happen but a Ghostface-Uzi track would be amazing.
Admittedly it took me a while to fully grasp what this album was. This is mostly due to the fact that Rony-Tony got us stuck in the house and this isn’t a good “stay at home album”. This is a good “I was watching anime all night and did molly at 2:30 in the morning” album, or “I just bought new cyan highlighters” music. I wasn’t sure if I could find a way to listen to it the "proper way”, and then I bought Final Fantasy 7. Nerd niggas of all races, sexes and creeds love Final Fantasy 7. When I played Final Fantasy with “Eternal Atake” in the background, everything made sense. It made me see that in Uzi’s weirdness and freedom of self, he's actually extremely guarded. He doesn’t love being himself as much as he hates “compromising” his identity. This can be in music, in life, and love. Though he can take the pain, he’s afraid of being hurt. He’s not an anime villain, he’s the (anti)Hero.
If I can think of any real faults to this album I can say that some of the songs are a little repetitive thematically. This wouldn’t be too big of a critic if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s so captivating. This almost feels like a chapter in a larger story than one self contained album.
I had a lot of fun and feels listening to this album and it’s honestly one of my favorites of 2020. I give "Eternal Atake” 7 Mako Shards out of 7.