Lil Uzi's 'The Pink Tape' Dabbles in Punk, But Stumbles in Execution

Lil Uzi Verts’ highly anticipated third studio album The Pink Tape was finally unleashed upon the world last week on June the 30th. The lengthy, but not by Uzi standards, album is comprised of 26 songs in total with features by Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, Don Tolliver, Bring Me The Horizon, and BABYMETAL. The album also contains production credits from nearly 60 artists. Most notable of whom are BNYX, Cuebeats, Don Cannon, Rick Rubin, and WondaGurl. Can all these heavy hitters create an album that's a successful follow up to his highly acclaimed 2020 release Eternal Atake?

Photo by Hypebeast

In short … unfortunately not quite. I’m going to start this by saying I’m a huge Uzi fan, and have been following his career since his Luv Is Rage tape in 2015. So I am by no means a hater, and if anything a little biased in his favor. The Pink Tape, however, missed the mark for me.

Photo by Rolling Stone

My immense excitement in seeing this album contained both Bring Me The Horizon and BABYMETAL features slowly sizzled out as I made my way through the bloated 26 track album. Though that's not to say this album doesn't have some fantastic songs that have been on repeat this weekend.

As an avid metal fan, I really love all of the punk/metal influences in this album. Songs like Suicide Doors, Werewolf, Crush Em, Fire Alarm, and Amped immediately went into my heavy rotation playlist. The tracks in between these were weak by anyone's standards but especially Uzi’s. I was surprised by the number of skips I had even on the first front to back listen. I generally love his more pop inspired songs, but these failed to grip me like they did on earlier projects. Listening to the songs I didn't enjoy I couldn't help to shake the feeling of something being just a little off in each of them.

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One thing that truly makes Lil Uzi an incredible artist is his ability to pull from all different genres, sounds, and influences to create an amalgamation of modern art unlike anyone else in the game. Uzi’s past projects expertly blend these influences and take you on a rollercoaster type journey through his mind and emotions. The Pink Tape fumbles through these influences. Instead of creating a carefully curated experience this album makes you feel like you're being yanked in and out of different pockets of sounds. Could this be representative of the emotional journey Uzi has been on since his Eternal Atake, or lackluster curation during the album's creation?

Photo by Variety

In a lot of his work Uzi touches on the hate he gets for being him. Anyone familiar with hip hop knows how unique a personality Uzi is. Yet he bravely continues to be himself even in this modern trend hopping and conforming world we live in today. He takes in the beauty this planet manifests then digests it, and creates something new and unique. We know Uzi is capable of making a longer form album pulling from tons of different inspirations, and making a truly beautiful piece of work with the 32 track Eternal Atake. So the question is, is Uzi trying to fight back against the world by making The Pink Tape 'uglier' on purpose? Or did Uzi finally miss?