Lil Uzi Vert

Symere Bysil Woods (born July 31, 1995), known professionally as Lil Uzi Vert, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Characterized by their face tattoos, facial piercings, a literal diamond engraved into their forhead, eccentric hairstyles and androgynous fashion,^[4] their music is defined by often dark subject matters and imagery built on a melodic emo approach to trap.^[5] Born and raised in Philadelphia, Lil Uzi gained initial recognition following the release of the commercial mixtape Luv Is Rage (2015), which led to a recording contract with Atlantic Records, to whom they signed to under DJ Drama's Generation Now imprint. https://youtube.com/channel/UCaMEJFmRAibkzxlKo7jpuwg

History

Symere Woods was born in North Philadelphia's Francisville neighborhood and they grew up listening to Mike Jones and Ying Yang Twins. They soon started listening to Wiz Khalifa and Meek Mill, who influenced their music style. They also began listening to Marilyn Manson, Paramore, Smash Mouth, The Rocket Summer, Simian, My Chemical Romance, and The All-American Rejects when they were 13 years old, and have said they are a "big Marilyn Manson fan" and stated that Mechanical Animals was their favorite album. They began rapping in tenth grade, and called themself "a regular kid who didn't really want to rap". Woods ended up dropping out of school and going to work at Bottom Dollar. However, they quit after four days after being kicked out by their mother, which lead them to get "Faith" tattooed under their hairline and to start taking their rap career seriously.

Career Beginnings

Uzi first began to rap in 2010 and began to associate themself with groups like Steaktown and what they say was "just for money" under the name 'Sealab Vertical'. They ended up changing their name to 'Lil Uzi Vert' because of the way they rap, which was fast, 'like a machine gun' and how they got their raps from the top\dome. Lil Uzi made their first track called 'Purple Thoughtz, Vol. 1' which was released on January 19th 2014. The project, which was described as "phonk" and having cloud rap beats from The Guardian due to its psychedelic and "trippy" production features Woods with a bigger focus on lyricism than most of their career and was released with the single "White Shit" which included a video. The track, which was produced by Spaceghostpurrp, went viral in 2017 within hip-hop circles following Wood's entry into the mainstream. Shortly after the release of Purple Thoughtz Vol. 1, Woods caught the attention of then industry-mainstays like the ASAP Mob.The project and following features caught the attention of producer and Def Jam A&R Don Cannon after DJ Diamond Kuts played one of Woods' songs on a local radio station, who signed Woods to their The Academy imprint and produced their first mixtape, The Real Uzi which was released on August 5, 2014. After the release of The Real Uzi, Woods signed a record deal with Atlantic Records through DJ Drama, Don Cannon's and Leighton Morrison's imprint, Generation Now.

Following their signing to Atlantic Records, Woods was featured alongside Rich the Kid and ASAP Ferg on Carnage's single "WDYW". They also released several songs on SoundCloud including the Metro Boomin produced "No Wait", "Pressure" which is a collaboration with Lil Durk and "Dej Loaf". They were featured on Fall Out Boy and Wiz Khalifa's "Boys of Zummer" tour in August 2015. Woods released their second mixtape, Luv Is Rage on October 30, 2015. The project, which features production from then-bubbling producers such as Sonny Digital, TM88 and Maaly Raw with features from Billboard charting rappers such as Wiz Khalifa and Young Thug, was received positively and was featured on numerous music blogs such as Fader, XXL and Vibe. They were further called a "breakout artist of 2015" by HotNewHipHop.

Trivia

• Uzi's verse on 'Bad and Boujee' went viral after their opening verse with 5 'yeahs'.
• The song with the most 'yeahs' was Ps & Qs, which took up 18.9% of the song.
• 'XO Tour Llif3' was played on The Weeknd's tour in Europe.
• 'XO Tour Llif3' is about Uzi's past relationship with Brittany Byrd.
• It was also premiered at The Weeknd's Starboy tour, which is also how it got it's name.
• The beat for XO Tour Llif3 was already made and was produced by TM88 and J.W Lucas, and TM88 sped up the beat and chopped the intro.
• Neon Guts went viral because of Lil Uzi Vert's part: "Back in the sixth grade, I got them bad grades I was in love with my tutor (Yeah)"
• The song "How To Talk" features a call between DreamDoll and Uzi (DreamDoll could've possibly represented Brittany)