Rapper Lil Uzi Vert, more formally known as Symere Woods is under some backlash under his new and highly anticipated album Eternal Atake 2. Fans expected this album to be an instant classic and somewhat of a revival for Uzi considering his run of poor albums dropping as of late.
This is the continuation of the fan-favorite album Eternal Atake, which debuted atop the billboard hot 100 debuting with 400 million streams and the 4th largest streaming debut across all genres at the time of release. The album went certified platinum.
“As a personal listener I’ve always loved Lil Uzi but with his new album, it was a bit of a let down compared to his first album,” junior Austin Banushi said. “ The songs that the second album had were not up to par as I was expecting due to the fact the first had breath taking lyrics and instrumentals”
Some die-hard Uzi fans will always be in support of the artist, regardless of what he puts out. Uzi switched from trap rap, hip-hop, R&B rap and melodic rap to the same flows with a bit more of a rockstar rap approach. Uzi has lately taken on this approach for his 2023 album Pink Tape which was received a bit better from fans.
“I think Pink Tape was better than Eternal Atake 2 because Uzi changed into the rockstar rap direction for the album and I think it was much better for the album but would’ve never worked well with Eternal Atake 2,” junior Quilen Sims said.” Eternal Atake 2 wasn’t that bad but it could’ve been better for sure and I think he should’ve made it more similar but still different compared to the original.”
Controversial music critic, podcast host, and streamer, Anthony Fantano of the social media platform “The Needle Drop” gave his opinion on Eternal Atake 2, giving the album a strong two to a light three. His main criticisms come from the beat selection, production, and vocal performances on how they get stale, played out, or just downright sound bad.
I will say a good first third of this album is just unlistenable point-blank period. Even “Light Year”, which has a very cool Philly Club switch up around on the chorus, sees Uzi really rushing on the beat tempo-wise. There’s not really a comfortable pocket that they’re sitting in on a lot of these instruments,” Fantano said. “The Big Time Rush feature on the track “The Rush”. It wasn’t really a feature, but a very awkward intro. And all the nonsensical vocal pitching on that track just doesn’t really do anything for the appeal of the song. It doesn’t really bring those psychedelic or surreal feelings that many tracks from the original Eternal Atake were shooting for. Rather, it just sounds like Uzi Vert dicking around while high with some vocal effects. Plus, let’s be honest, with the whole bit of this track, like “I’m Big Time Rush“, so on and so forth, this was something Lil B did way better over a decade ago. Not to mention the closing track “Space High” is packed with flows that Migos already perfected in the middle of the 2010s, with better choruses, I might add, and instrumentals that featured better pacing.”
Fantano’s unforgiving review on this project is pretty much the standard of what everyone else thought on this project.
“After spinning this project, I came away from it thinking, what was even the point? It’s hardly catchy. It’s not really all that memorable. It’s not esthetically defining in any way. It’s not really seeing Uzi Vert travel into any new or exciting territory. There is a load of tracks on this thing that are so sloppily executed that they’re just, again, totally unlistenable. It’s almost like Lil Uzi Vert forgot how to rap or sing or make music for a few cuts here.” (The Needle Drop)
Eternal Atake 2 is a total let down for fans and considered one of his worst projects to date. The highly anticipated album debuted at Number three on the Billboard Hot 200 which isn’t surprising considering it was shocking for fans to hear he was dropping this album. As time flew, fans started to dislike this album and stomped on the experimental approach Lil Uzi took upon making this album. With Uzi’s last album a flop, fans won’t be expecting much more greatness from him on his next drop.
