Lil Uzi Vert will soon have plenty of time to play Call of Duty with Nardwuar.
Lil Uzi Vert, 28, announced during a recent stop on their Pink Tape Tour that their upcoming album, Luv Is Rage 3, will be their curtain call. In fan footage taken of the event, Uzi (born Symere Woods and who uses they/them pronouns) told their fans that the end is near. “I came to this conclusion not too long ago,” said Uzi. “I was gonna, like, wait ’til later to say it, but, you know, I’m dropping Luv Is Rage 3, and, you know, Luv Is Rage 3 will be my last album.”
The fans in attendance were, expectedly, upset. However, Uzi reassured their fans that they wouldn’t completely vanish once the highly anticipated album hits streaming services. “Relax, it’s okay,” said Uzi. “After Luv Is Rage 3, I guess I will go on another tour. But after that, I want to try to live a normal life.”
While the crowd was still heartbroken, the tide turned as the fans began chanting Uzi’s name. The reaction touched the “Bad and Boujee” rapper. “Thank you for all your support and thank you for supporting me on my decision,” they said. “I’ll make sure that I give it my all on Luv Is Rage 3 this time because we gotta keep the legacy going. Thank you.”
Uzi dropped Luv Is Rage, their first commercial mixtape, in 2015. The project helped launch Uzi’s career, which they followed up with Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World and The Perfect LUV Tape in 2016. Uzi released Luv Is Rage 2, their first studio album, the following year. As of 2023, the project has gone double-platinum and remains Uzi’s best-selling album to date.
Since breaking out in 2014, Uzi has dropped a handful of mixtapes and has been a fixture on the Billboard Hot 100 as both a lead artist (“XO Tour Llif3,” “Sauce It Up,” “Futsal Shuffle 2020,” “Endless Fashion”) and as a featured rapper.
In June, Uzi dropped Pink Tape, their third studio album. The album topped the Billboard 200 album chart and received middling to positive reviews, netting an overall 64 on Metacritic.
Also in 2023, Lil Uzi Vert reunited with Nardwuar the Human Serviette, 55, the venerable interviewer and media personality from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Audio from Nardwuar (born John Ruskin) interviewing Uzi in 2018 went viral on TikTok – “We have for you, Lil Uzi, a Rob Zombie poster” – and this reunion produced another sweet moment.
“Where have you been?” asked Uzi. “I haven’t [seen] you in a long time.” From there, Nardwuar and Uzi embraced, with the interviewer saying it was “great to see [Uzi] again” after so many years. Uzi said that seeing Nardwuar was going to “make [them] cry.”
Uzi sampled Nardwuar in “Futsual Shuffle 2020,” a fact Nardwuar brought up during the 2023 meeting. When asked why they sampled him, Uzi told Nardwuar, “Because you’re one of my best friends that I’ve had … in my life.”
At the end of the chat, Uzi noted that instead of waiting for them to tour British Columbia so they could hang out again, Nardwuar could “just come to my house and have dinner. … I’ll give you my number and I can teach you how to play Call of Duty.”
