Industry Insights: Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti are Delaying Albums as a Rollout Method

As much as rap fans may hate to hear it, their favorite artist’s most effective tool to build hype around a new release is to delay it.

Industry Insights explores the inner workings of the greater music industry, and what they mean for artists and fans alike.

Written by Thomas Galindo

In this day and age of hip-hop, it seems as though rappers are previewing or teasing music more than they are actually releasing it. Whether they do this intentionally through Instagram or Twitter, or unintentionally through Soundcloud leaks, it is clear that this is the easiest way to get fans excited for new music. While most artists in rap today are guilty of this, there are a handful who specialize in this publicity method and have built their brand off of keeping fans waiting, such as Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti. But, while this is an effective way to garner attention, the full execution of the rollout must be to fans' liking, or they can be quick to turn the other cheek to these artists.

Lil Uzi Vert

Lil Uzi Vert dropped his official debut album Luv is Rage 2 in August 2017. The album sold 135,000 units and garnered 150 million streams in the first week of its release. The album debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and included hits like “Neon Guts,” “The Way Life Goes,” and the single “XO TOUR Llif3.” After dropping the deluxe version of the album in November, Lil Uzi didn’t wait long until re-entering the spotlight and eventually teasing his next album Eternal Atake.

In January 2018, he began to feud with his label Generation Now and co-founder DJ Drama. Later that year in July 2018, Lil Uzi Vert tweeted the words “Eternal Atake,” and also a photo of the album artwork, which mimicked the logo for infamous 1990s cult Heaven’s Gate. In September, Uzi dropped his first song since Luv is Rage 2, “New Patek.” Later that year in December, Lil Uzi announced during a show of his that the album was finished. In January 2019, Lil Uzi Vert claimed he was retiring from music and had deleted his entire album, due to issues with his label. During 2019, a few of his guest verses on other rapper’s songs that were supposed to be released did not end up releasing because of this dispute, including the song “Habits” by Nav slated for release in March and “Pink Toes” with Offset and Gunna slated for release in August, where his leaked verse was replaced by a verse from DaBaby.

Throughout this time, several dozens of other songs by Lil Uzi Vert had been leaking on Soundcloud. At the end of March 2019, Lil Uzi Vert was finally able to leave his contract with Generation Now and signed with Roc Nation on March 28, dropping the song “Free Uzi” the same day on Tidal and Soundcloud. Three days later on the 31st, Lil Uzi dropped two new songs, “Sanguine Paradise” and “That’s a Rack,” presumably singles for his new album, since his label dispute had finally ended. In May 2019, he told the crowd at Rolling Loud Miami that his album was finished, the second time he had done so. But, fans wouldn’t hear from Uzi again until he dropped the song “Futsal Shuffle 2020” in December 2019, accompanied by a TikTok dance, again momentarily feeding starving fans. In February 2020, he tweeted “16 songs….,” once again alluding to the release of a project. At this point in time, it felt like clockwork, where at least once a year Uzi would tease the new album. This time however, transparency helped reassure Uzi fans the wait was up. He would tweet back at fans often, and in early March 2020, dropped the song “That Way” and let fans choose between three different album covers for Eternal Atake. On March 3rd, he released a teaser video for the album titled “Baby Pluto.” Eternal Atake was set to release Friday, March 13.

Lil Uzi Vert is not ignorant — he could feel the fans about to explode from excitement. This album was almost two years in the making. So, on the morning of March 6 at 9:14 a.m., Uzi tweeted, “YALL READY TODAY IS THE DAY !!!! F--K NEXT FRIDAY WE DOING THIS NOW !!!!!! #ETERNALATAKE BABY PLUTO'' and Eternal Atake was released on streaming platforms, including “That Way” and “Futsal Shuffle 2020” as bonus tracks. A week later, he dropped the deluxe version of the album with 14 new songs under the title Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World 2, including songs like “Bean (Kobe)” and “Myron,” both of which were previously leaked.

Eternal Atake sold 288,000 units and achieved 400 million streams in its first week, more than doubling the numbers of Uzi’s album from 2017. For better or worse, delaying his album certainly earned much more commercial success for Lil Uzi Vert.

Playboi Carti

If you’re an artist that is using delayed releases as a tool to garner attention, when the time comes for you to drop music, it has to satisfy the fans. When Playboi Carti released Die Lit in May 2018, he turned hip-hop on its head, relying on repetitive, infectious choruses and hard-hitting production instead of lyrical content to capture the attention of fans and critics alike. There wasn’t much in the way of motifs or motivation behind the project, but it was uniquely enjoyable, with hits like “Shoota (feat. Lil Uzi Vert),” “Long Time,” and “Love Hurts (feat. Travis Scott).” This led fans to soon anticipate what Carti would release next. Three months later, in August 2018, a video of Carti shows him discussing the name of his forthcoming album titled Whole Lotta Red. In November 2018, he would preview two songs at a show of his, proclaiming that they were going to be on his upcoming album.

But, he wouldn’t address the album again until July 2019, over half a year later. “I’m trying to drop that sh-t in the next 60 days. I ain’t gon' lie. It feels like we worked too hard for this moment so I'ma do this sh-t with no features,” Carti said at a show in Milwaukee on July 28. Over sixty days later, on Oct. 15 he posted an Instagram photo with the caption “him <3 red incoming” alluding to Whole Lotta Red. He also teased the next day, in another Instagram photo with the caption “<48hours! Locked in,” alluding that the album would be released in the next 48 hours. That did not happen.

However, throughout this entire time, much like Lil Uzi, numerous Playboi Carti songs were leaking on Soundcloud, and Carti was well aware of the anticipation this album was building. In an interview from January 2020, he announced that the album was going to drop this year. Then, on April 14, 2020, Playboi Carti posted album artwork for what would be the single “@ MEH,” that dropped two days later. The song was not received well, as Carti took the signature baby voice he popularized in his 2019 features like Tyler the Creator’s “EARFQUAKE” or Mustard’s “Baguettes in the Face,” to a whole new level. The cute, glossy beat was not a style Carti had ever used before, and fans did not seem to be fond of it. On the same day, he tweeted “. MoNDaY” alluding to the album dropping on Monday, April 20. When the day came, he sent out tweets like, “HEy . <3,” “rED .,” and “Red is MY fav album of mine .” But, predictably, the album did not drop. Fans are beginning to grow tired of Carti misleading them, and if he doesn’t drop a quality project when the time comes, he certainly will have burned some bridges with some of his most loyal fans.

While it may result in different outcomes critically, delaying their albums has been an effective method for Uzi and Carti to draw attention to their music, an overall positive thing for their careers. With so much music being released each week, it may be wise for other rappers to use this method rather than dropping as much as they can, because it seems the more music is announced then delayed, the more it is discussed.

This article was added to Industry Insights after its publication, upon the creation of the Industry Insights series.

CULTURAL CONTEXTSAfterglow ATXMay 6, 2020thomas galindo