Pink Tape Review: Whole Lotta Pink?
Music
Pink Tape Album Review: Whole Lotta Pink?
By Dylan Barbee
Release Date: June 30, 2023
Pink Tape was first teased on an Instagram livestream by Lil Uzi Vert in December 2020. Despite the prolonged wait for the album, Lil Uzi Vert has been able to stay relevant in the rap scene with impressive features on several Yeat songs, releasing an EP in 2022 called Red & White, and reaching No. 1 on Billboard with their genre bending "Just Wanna Rock" back in February of 2023. The creative and outlandish sound of the Jersey club hit bleeds into Lil Uzi Vert’s latest release which makes the Pink Tape the most creative and genre defining mainstream pieces of hip hop music since Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red.
Pink Tape released on June 30, 2023, and the highly anticipated project contains 26 songs that span across an hour and 34-minute listen. Some notable features on this project come from Nicki Minaj on “Endless Fashion,” Travis Scott on “Aye” and Japanese metal band BABYMETAL on “The End.” Through Uzi’s willingness to try new things and create art by blending unique sounds together rather than falling back on his original emo-rap delivery, Pink Tape is a decent and at times a well put together experimental album.
Pink Tape starts off strong as Uzi provides listeners with a catchy song that may provoke nostalgia. The introduction track “Flooded The Face” starts off very mellow as an echoing sci-fi sounding beat build up is covered with the familiar female voice telling Uzi to wake up, similar to what we heard on the introduction track of LUV Is Rage 2 “Two” and on the song “7AM” on their debut commercial mixtape LUV is Rage. Once the hi-hats kick in, Uzi breaks into an impressive flow and when the beat finally drops, listeners can’t help but nod their head to the beat and appreciate that Pink Tape is finally here. Lil Uzi Vert also demonstrates in the first half of the project how they have learned to master rage music. Songs like “Suicide Doors,” “Aye” and “Amped” are all songs that one can picture packed crowds going wild over at Uzi performances as all these songs are purely made for concerts.
The album is not just all rage music though as Uzi dips their brush into a range of styles on their palette. The middle portion of this album has a more lighthearted production style where Uzi resorts to comedic lines, at times awkward lyric samples, and even snarling sounds. The standout songs from this portion of the album are “Spin Again” and “Mama, I’m Sorry.” On “Spin Again” Uzi raps over a buzzing production loop and uses adlibs to carry the short one minute and 36 second song. While “Spin Again” is more of an unserious song referencing Ice Spice and mentioning how Uzi is spinning like a ceiling fan, “Mama, I’m sorry” is the complete opposite when it comes to their lyricism. Uzi apologizes to their mother for their constant substance abuse but explains to her that it just comes with the life they have built for themselves in the spotlight. Uzi even samples the lyrics off Gotye’s song “Somebody That I Used to Know” and the Chief Keef song “I Hate Bein’ Sober” while rapping over a futuristic melodic beat. This song has an impactful message when it comes to how fame influences a person’s lifestyle and their decision making.
Lil Uzi Vert was not afraid to try to push the boundaries of music with Pink Tape. Despite rap songs making up much of their discography, Pink Tape at times feels like an album where Uzi created songs they have always wanted to make but never had the time or option to until now. For instance, songs like “CS”, “Werewolf” with the band Bring Me The Horizon, and “The End” with BABYMETAL are all pure rock songs with an intense and overwhelming use of drums and electric guitars. Lil Uzi Vert even makes a walk out song for the professional WWE wrestler Nakamura and names it after him. Unlike the pure rock songs, “Nakamura” is listenable as Uzi shows off their impressive vocal range and includes inspirational lyricism. Some of these songs are not the style of songs fans would hear on a typical Lil Uzi Vert album and this unexpected shift may cause Uzi listeners to stay clear from these songs when revisiting Pink Tape. However, I do respect Uzi for displaying their creative versatility and the song “Fire Alarm” does an excellent job at blending rage hip hop music with metal rock.
When it comes to talking about the typical Lil Uzi Vert music there is also an abundance of that on Pink Tape. Songs like “Zoom”, “Pluto to Mars,” and “Patience” may have listeners excited to hear the “old Uzi” meaning the melodic emo rap style they successfully blew up on. “Patience” is one of my personal favorite songs on the album where Uzi talks about the uncertainty on whether their lover loves them as much as Uzi loves her. Uzi describes their lover’s love as numbing and repeatedly compares it to the antipsychotic medication Seroquel which is used to treat mental health conditions like schizophrenia. This confession of love is all told over a dreamy and hypnotic production loop layered under the angelic adlibs of artist Don Toliver that creates an emotional song that makes you want to float.
Although at times the album feels bloated and there are some awkward moments when it comes to the sampling and the rock section, Pink Tape is a sprawling but adventurous blend of various genres. I do think it is easily comparable to Playboi Carti's Whole Lotta Red due to how outlandish it sounds at first and how it may take audiences a while to realize the influence Pink Tape could potentially have on rap. Lil Uzi Vert’s personality takes control of Pink Tape and their ability to push the boundaries of hip hop music is bound to be looked back on and appreciated by the rising generation of new artists.
Rating: 7/10
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