Lil Uzi's *Eternal Atake* Turns 6
Lil Uzi Vert's *Eternal Atake* hit its 6-year anniversary, having debuted at #1 on Billboard and racked up 4.3 billion Spotify streams. The album marked a major milestone in Uzi's career and hip-hop's streaming era. Fans are celebrating the project's lasting impact and influence on the genre.
The album's journey to release was a saga in itself, beginning with a cryptic announcement in July 2018. Fans endured a nearly two-year wait marked by numerous delays, false starts, and Uzi even declaring he was "done with music" in early 2019 before signing a management deal with Roc Nation. *Eternal Atake*'s release was notoriously plagued by extensive leaks, with hackers crowdfunding money to buy and release tracks online. Lil Uzi Vert later revealed the widespread leaks led him to scrap the original version entirely, stating the final album was completely re-recorded. The album is built around a loose sci-fi concept of alien abduction and is split into three distinct six-track sections. Uzi confirmed these segments represent three personas: the aggressive "Baby Pluto," the more emotional "Renji," and finally, Lil Uzi Vert himself. The original cover art, a direct rework of the Heaven's Gate cult's logo, drew threats of legal action from the cult's two surviving members. This prompted a last-minute change, with Lil Uzi Vert allowing fans on Twitter to vote for the new official cover just days before the album's release. Just one week after *Eternal Atake* dropped, Uzi released a surprise deluxe version titled *Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2*. While the original album featured only a single guest appearance from singer Syd, the deluxe edition added a sequel to his 2016 mixtape and was packed with features from artists like Future, Young Thug, and 21 Savage.
