After half a year of waiting, Future and Lil Uzi Vert are finally dropping their long-anticipated collaborative album, which may or may not be called Pluto x Baby Pluto, tomorrow. I know, I know, we’ve (literally) said this before, but this time around, it really seems to really be true. Even with Future referring to Friday the 13th as the “thirtieth.” There is concrete evidence that the collab tape will drop tomorrow, thanks to a video clip directed by Hype Williams in Belly-esque style, where Future and Uzi discuss heading to another planet, Pluto, because “the world over,” Future says, before adding he’s been trying to warn us. All that being said, we won’t know for 100% certainty until the clock strikes midnight, and there is (or is not) a mixtape booming across DSPs.
The road to Pluto x Baby Pluto has been long and winding. The two artists are not unfamiliar, they’ve collaborated more than a handful of times in the past, and Future does have a penchant for the collab album: his list keeps growing, with Uzi Vert only the latest alongside Juice WRLD, Drake, Young Thug, Zaytoven, Metro Boomin. Uzi, for his part, has ventured down the collaborative lane when he released his 1017 Vs The World with Gucci Mane back in 2016. Still, the project doesn’t stand out as anything particularly special, especially when ranked alongside Uzi’s solo releases. Thus, this is territory not oft tread from Uzi, especially considering the rapper’s elusive nature when it comes to releasing music in general -- remember how long it took to receive Eternal Atake? And then, all of a sudden, Uzi doubled up with LUV Vs. The World 2, his sporadic nature culminating in an entirely new album only 7 days after the long-awaited second studio album.
With a three-year wait time in between albums, fans were rightly cautious when approaching the news of a Future x Uzi joint album. Yet, perhaps the prodding of big brother Pluto and his incessant, unrelenting work ethic, helped push Baby Pluto back to the studio to get this effort done. Or perhaps it’s a simple catalog of leftover songs, the ones relegated to the studio cutting room floor at the time when their previous collabs were created. Either way, fans will be eating it up.
However, if we can hope for one thing, we hope to hear more collaborations from the two rap stars like the ones listed below. These fresh, melodic, and downright woozy collabs encapsulate what makes their chemistry together so magical.
Seven Million
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Let’s start at the beginning. “Seven Million” was released in 2016, just as Uzi’s name was gaining recognition, thanks to previous mixtapes Luv is Rage and Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World. The Perfect LUV Tape arrived shortly after, it was an exciting time to be Uzi (and to be an Uzi fan). Uzi wasn’t big on features at this point, he only had a handful scattered across all these early projects, with Future helping round out the tracklist on the album closer “Seven Million.”
With production from Nard & B, XL and Don Cannon, this beat is a strange, mechanical wonderland. It feels robotic and melodic at the same time, with Future’s raspy voice on the hook only adding to the feeling. And the subject matter is one we’ve come to both expect and trust from Future and Uzi-- if they know how to do anything supremely well, it’s the flex, whether subtle or aggressive, they’ve mastered showing off their wealth. While Future is kept on hook duties, this isn’t meant to discredit his contribution. The chorus is as important as the verses in rounding out this song’s replay potential and showing how these two rappers balance each other out. Future is a hook master here, offering very little in the way of invention to his drip-driven rhymes, relying on a proven formula. Meanwhile, Uzi is in sing-song mode, carrying the verses with a touch of eccentricity, leaving the listener guessing as to which way his vocals will go next. If they stick to a similar formula on the new album, it’s bound to be banger after banger.
Wassup
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“Wassup” is one of the duo’s more recent collaborations, arriving on the heels of Eternal Atake as part of Uzi’s deluxe edition, an entirely new album as it were, titled LUV Vs. the World 2. The record allows for duties to be flipped in contrast to “Seven Million,” with Uzi handling the hook and pre-chorus, and Future jumping in for a verse. “Wassup” offers something a bit more subtle than “Seven Million,” a bit more angelic if you will. The beat comes from Pierre Bourne and feels light and airy, with Uzi gliding over it when he sings out “Wasssssuppppppp.” True to form, the two rap about being from outer space, clearly bouncing their lyrics off each other, whether organically or planned. Beyond mirroring lyrics, Future also gives us a double-take with his rendition of Uzi’s flow in his own verse. It’s the type of synergy you like to see in collaborators, it speaks to something deeper than a brief e-mail exchange, a dollar amount dropped, and a verse received ten days later.
Beyond that, we’re simply hoping to see more of the “Wassup” energy on their collab tape. Stuttering hi-hats, and hi-pitched keys to offset their dark demeanor, yet still maintaining a certain lightness to give us an overall feel-good vibe.
Over Your Head
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We’re capping off this brief list with “Over Your Head,” moving in chronological order, this serves as the pairing’s most recent collaboration (alongside “Patek” which is clearly not on this list). “Over Your Head” may very well be the nearest indicator as to what type of sound to expect on the album, since it did arrive fully formed as an Uzi x Future collab (but what make you of the aforementioned-but-better-forgotten “Patek” in that case? Do we need more “Patek”?).
“Over Your Head” is the perfect intersection of “Wassup” and “Seven Million.” D. Hill’s production has a breezy demeanor, but it’s still got this fervent pace to it, as though we’re in constant catch-up mode. In its brevity, Uzi handles the hook, taking a page out of Future’s book when he sneers, “She keep tryna text me, leave her messages on read/On read, leave 'em on read/Fuck it off and end up with your best friend instead.” And in between the choruses, both rappers wax poetic about just how far their wealth spans, with Future rattling off, “I buy boxes and I buy boobs/I buy boots like Christian Loubs/Switch it out with your white girl, barely new.”
It’s definitely nice to see Future slide in towards the end of the record to join Uzi in the final chorus effort, however, if there’s one avenue that would be interesting to see these two explore, it would be a little bit of the back-and-forth within a verse.
Let us know what your expectations are for the new Pluto x Baby Pluto album, and your favorite collabs from the two artists in the comments.