Album Review: Future and Lil Uzi Vert Join Forces to Share the Spotlight on ‘Pluto x Baby Pluto’

Both artists coming off of major releases earlier this year, Future and his protégé Lil Uzi Vert continue their extensive 2020 campaigns with this collab.

Written by Thomas Galindo

Most notably known as Future, Nayvadius Wilburn goes by several other stage names, including “Future Hendrix,” “The Wizard,” and “Pluto.” He is unquestionably a hip-hop and trap music pioneer, icon, and superstar, and has been a solidified figure in the genre since the beginning of last decade. Symere Woods, better known as Lil Uzi Vert, is a relatively newer figure in trap music. His commercial career began in 2015 and he has since compiled an impressive list of chart-topping hits and projects that are staples in the collective rap repertoire of the late 2010s. Uzi, who conjured up the nickname “Baby Pluto” for himself during the rollout for his recent album Eternal Atake, has put out an extensive list of bangers with Future that cemented the duo’s chemistry long before the idea of a collaborative album was even discussed.

In 2016, the two put out the single “Too Much Sauce” with DJ Esco that has since gone platinum, along with the hard-hitting track “Seven Million” from Lil Uzi’s mixtape The Perfect LUV Tape. But, the two wouldn’t link back up until this year. First, Future hopped on Uzi’s deluxe version of Eternal Atake titled LUV vs. The World 2 with the mellow, catchy “Wassup.” In May, Baby Pluto made his way onto Future’s album High Off Life with the track “All Bad” featuring instrumentation that felt heavily inspired by the bouncy beats on Eternal Atake. Then, the duo dropped a pair of underwhelming singles in August, “Patek” and “Over Your Head,” while alluding to a not-so-distant collaborative project.

That project would come to fruition when the two put out a trailer just a day before the album’s official release on Nov. 13. Pluto x Baby Pluto is a 16-song, 54-minute project showcasing just how similar the teacher-and-student duo of Future and Lil Uzi Vert really are. This likeness is a good thing for a large chunk of the album, but at times gives the music a very stale, uninspired sound. Over the course of the record, it becomes obvious that Future and Uzi’s styles have much more similarities than differences.

One key attribute Pluto and Baby Pluto share is the tendency to strain their voices to their limits when reaching for a melody. Most of the time, this goes over smoothly. Future achieves this well on his attempt at the chorus on the opener “Stripes Like Burberry,” and Lil Uzi nails this on the hook of the moody heartbreak track “I Don’t Wanna Break Up.” But, this method can backfire, as heard on songs like “Bankroll,” where the hook isn’t strong enough to overcome Uzi and Future’s annoying, autotuned crooning.

Another glaring similarity the two have is that they can pull off long-winded, uninterrupted verses that take up a good portion of the song. When the pair brings a lot of energy to verses like these, as they do on the song “Real Baby Pluto,” the outcome can be a fun, adrenaline-infused banger. If the energy lacks, like it does on “Stepping on the Floor,” the song just drags on, making it feel way longer than it actually is. The one caveat with either of these artists throwing out bars on a track for an extensive period of time is that they really don’t have much to say. Like any other rap verse, it’s a random combination of sexual innuendos, stacks of money, jewelry that resembles water, or describing the sensations taking drugs gives them. This is all good and well if taken in a steady diet. An overload of these motifs without making them particularly interesting doesn’t inspire much motivation to keep listening.

Most of the tracks on the record aren’t bad at all, and can actually be infectiously catchy, like “Drankin N Smokin” and “Plastic,” or irresistibly head-bopping like “Bought a Bad B-tch” and “Off Dat.” However, a little under an hour of continuous flows about sex, money, diamonds, etc. without any featured artists to break the monotony, combined with very few sonic risks, will probably tire the listener — regardless of how talented Future and Uzi are.

This project certainly is not a dud. Prior to its release, Future and Uzi had a pre-established reputation for creating memorable hits, and they delivered a good chunk of aggressive, explosive bangers and groovy, tuneful bops. The shortcomings of the album should not erase the numerous bright spots, but they also should not be overlooked. One thing missing that could have propelled this album even further was the surprisingly meager amount of back-and-forth, bar-for-bar verses on these collaborative tracks. It sounds like these two would just stand in the studio in silence while one of them finished a verse, waiting their turn so that the other could start theirs. That’s not a great way to build sonic chemistry. One of the only times these two occupied the same space in a verse was on the second track “Marni on Me,” and a song of this variety is something that the album could have definitely used more of.

Four days after the album’s initial release, Pluto and Baby Pluto decided to add the deluxe version of their album to streaming services, which included six brand new tracks, as well as the two singles, “Patek” and “Over Your Head,” from earlier this year. There’s nothing entirely too special in this deluxe edition. The first two additions, “Tic Tac” and “My Legacy,” follow the blueprint of the worst songs on the original album: uninspired, lengthy verses over generic trap beats. The third and fourth tracks, “Heart in Pieces” and “Because of You,” are cute, melodic love songs that see Uzi impressively ride glossy beats with Future backing the tracks nicely. “Bust a Move” is essentially a much worse version of Eternal Atake single “Futsal Shuffle 2020,” and “Baby Sasuke” is merely a repeat of the first two tracks in quality and style.

Overall, the original album and the deluxe edition both leave a good amount of room for improvement, but still provoke some appreciation of Future and Lil Uzi Vert’s consistent ability to create quality music, regardless of the setting. With no featured artists and not much variety of instrumentation, Pluto and Baby Pluto manage to hold the attention of the listener for 54 minutes, a feat that not many trap artists could achieve nowadays. For that, the duo deserves props, but they also did not reach their fullest potential, and should be held accountable for failing to do so.

REVIEWSAfterglow ATXNovember 20, 2020thomas galindo, lil uzi vert, future