The long wait was worth it.

After over a two year hiatus, Lil Uzi Vert released his album, “Eternal Atake” Friday, March 6. 

“Eternal Atake,” Uzi’s second official studio album was announced all the way back in July 2018. His last project, “Luv Is Rage 2” was released in 2017 and his fans were eager for a follow-up. Uzi delivered with this project and finally gave his fans what they wanted after all this time. 

Over the two years that he had announced it, Uzi had teased the project multiple times through Twitter. Many fans had high hopes for the release in early 2019 when he released his two critically-acclaimed singles, “Sanguine Paradise” and “That’s a Rack.” Months after the release of those tracks, fans questioned the release of the project and began to give up their hope for the long-awaited “Eternal Atake.” In late November 2019, Uzi returned to Twitter with a snippet of his new song, “Futsal Shuffle 2020,” along with a dance that had revived the hope of thousands of fans. Throughout the next few months, Uzi remained active on Twitter until the announcement and release of the album. 

The rollout of the album was nearly perfect and played perfectly by Uzi and his record label. At a time where it seemed like the hype had died for the project, he was able to re-engage his fans through a very odd but intriguing trailer and allowing his fans to vote for the album cover. Throughout the week of release, Uzi was interacting with fans all day through Twitter and he kept them on their heels for new information on the album. On Friday morning, he decided to release the album a week early which surprised fans and seemed to stop the social media world for a day. 

The trailer released by Uzi was the perfect fit to the sound of the album and was the perfect introduction to the long-awaited project. The album opens with the track, “Baby Pluto,” named after his alter-ego he had created for himself before the release. The song starts with a robotic voice which says, “Welcome to Eternal Atake,” and immediately pulls the listener in and starts the cinematic experience. It is a strong intro track filled with Uzi’s usual confidence, flow and melodic beat. Although it sounds familiar to past Uzi tracks, his voice sounds more mature and his progression as an artist is very noticable. This song is one of the many highlights of the project. 

Throughout the first six tracks of the album, Uzi continues this aggressive, in-your-face style which is a switch-up from his usual melody and flow and it serves as the strongest introduction out of all his projects. In a Tweet liked by Uzi, he claims that his alter-ego Baby Pluto was rapping the first six tracks, another alter-ego, Renji, was the next six and Lil Uzi Vert was the final form. In his “Renji” form, you can hear the sound of the album change instantly. The track “I’m Sorry,” is the strong switch-up from the aggressive rapping and is more like his usual style of rapping. The beat is very light-hearted and is perfect for his style of rap. It is a fan favorite of the album and brings fans back to his style of rap in his 2016 project, “Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World.” The track is followed by similar-styled tracks that carry a very consistent theme and tone throughout. 

Through the “Renji” side of the project, Uzi is able to find his usual sound and put a spin on it that fans have never heard before. It is the most consistent part of the project and, for me, secures this album to be in the album of the year race. At the end of the “Renji” side, Uzi also comes through with the strongest track on the album, “Prices.” The song samples the 2016 Travis Scott track, “Way Back,” and Uzi is able to flip the beat into something that captures the theme of the album as a whole. It is the biggest standout on the entire project and shows what Uzi can truly do at his best. 

Following “Prices,” Uzi closes the album out strong with another standout track, “Venetia,” and the nostalgic “P2” which serves as the second installment to his 2017 hit record, “XO Tour Llif3.” It is the perfect outro track to this amazing album and recaps the cinematic experience that is carried on throughout the entire project. 

Another part of this project that makes it so great is the skits in between nearly every track. The skits take you through this story of Uzi being abducted and experiencing outer space. It serves as “glue” to the album and keeps it cohesive as it goes on. The story is easy to follow but complex and perfectly matches the album cover that was chosen by his fans. Uzi was able to create an experience for this fans that he never had before and was able to capture the true meaning behind the album and lived up to the hype of the project. 

The only weakness of the album is the fourth track, “POP.” The song continues his aggressive tone like the tracks before it but he uses an off-beat flow over a boring beat that doesn’t fit his normal style at all. With that being said, the track is not bad whatsoever, but can tend to get boring and hard to follow towards the middle of the listen. 

Overall, I believe that this is Uzi’s strongest, most-cohesive project yet. This album creates an experience for the listener that not many artists are able to create and proved himself as a top artist in the rap game. This project showed his true potential and only builds up more hype for his project to follow. The ceiling is very high for Uzi and he can only get better from here. 

I rate Lil Uzi Vert’s “Eternal Atake” a 9/10 album.