Lil Uzi Vert has built his name on hooks, melody and a penchant on songwriting. This type of style probably wouldn’t appeal to hip hop heads, but Don Cannon recently revealed that Uzi has the ability to do so. The famous producer was on Ed Love’s C’Mon Son! podcast and shed light on Uzi’s career choices. Cannon, who serves as head of Lil Uzi Vert’s label Generation Now, stated that Uzi can rap like fellow Philadelphia artist Meek Mill. But Uzi made the conscious decision not to.
Per Genius.
He would play me a record and it would be straight rap. Like Meek Mill. And I would be like, ‘Wait, what’s going on?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s boring. I don’t like that. Watch, I’m going to turn into a complete rockstar. I’ve got a whole vision laid out.’
In this 2013 clip, Vert’s rapping style is nothing in comparison to how he raps in the present day.
At the 1:14 mark below, you can find Uzi rapping on Old Dirty Bastard’s “Brooklyn Zoo” modern-day instrumental. Just like in the previous video, Uzi’s style, flow and cadence is nothing like his style today.
It should serve no surprise that Uzi and other rappers make the decision to focus on songwriting over lyrics. While artists can shoot for being the next J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar, with rap becoming the new rock, up-and-coming rappers may continue to move toward living in the pop music stratosphere, rather than gaining the hearts of hip hop purists.
