Top 10 Lil Uzi Vert x ATL Collaborations

Like many before him (Rae Sremmurd, Waka Flocka, Metro Boomin), Lil Uzi Vert found that relocating to unofficial rap capital, Atlanta, was the best way to advance his career. The Philly native got his big break back in 2014 when another guy originally from his hometown, DJ Drama, was introduced to him by Don Cannon (also a Philadelphian!). Those guys signed Uzi to their Generation Now imprint, started bringing him down south, and last fall, Uzi bought a house in a suburb northeast of ATL. He seems to like it there, and is certainly well-liked there. 

Baltimore's A$AP Ant was Uzi's biggest collaborator before he made in-roads in ATL, with the pair linking up several times in 2014 and '15, but since picking up steam, Uzi's made much more powerful friends, most of them from the A. In the past year, he's worked with Rome Fortune, Rich The Kid, Metro Boomin, Southside, Young Thug, FKi, TM88, Sonny Digital, Wheezy, DJ Spinz, Rich Homie Quan, Playboi Carti, 2 Chainz, Zaytoven, Future, Offset, Nard & B, and as of today, 21 Savage and Ralo. That's pretty much everybody who's currently popping off in the city. 

Today we're sifting through this huge body of material that's popped up just in the past year or so and picking Uzi's best work with ATL artists. We're leaving out posse cuts that are only tangentially linked to Atlanta (for instance, "WDYW," a song produced by Guatemala's DJ Carnage and featuring Uzi, NYC's A$AP Ferg, and ATL's Rich The Kid) in favor of one-on-one collabs with producers and/or rappers. Here they are, presented in chronological order. 

One of Uzi's first-ever collabs with this Atlanta-via-St. Louis superproducer, "Motorola" is decidedly trappier than most of his work nowadays, right down to its coke artwork and phone chirping beat. Uzi sounds a bit more generic than usual here, but it showed that he was more than capable of boilerplate ATL trap-- he'd add his own personal flair to it later. 

Soon after "Motorola," before he broke out with DJ Carnage's "WDYW" and Luv Is Rage, Lil Uzi linked up once again with Metro, who this time brought along his close 808 Mafia cohort, Southside. "No Wait" comes closer to the spaced-out melodicism we're used to from Uzi by now, and is an important building block in his stylistic evolution.

Shared just a few weeks prior to his breakout tape Luv Is Rage, Uzi's "NuYork Nights At 21" hinted at the dream-pop-style sound he'd be pursuing going forward in his career. FKi's First, also the guy behind much of Post Malone's success, cooked up something that continued his rep as one of the most inventive beatmakers out of Atlanta. 

One of the weirdest songs Uzi's ever released, this two-parter that appears towards the end of Luv Is Rage is again the work of FKi. It meanders from a smoky, horn-led first half into an even more stunning conclusion that features languid guitars and some truly transcendent vocals from Uzi. 

Fresh off of a huge success with Luv Is Rage, Uzi dropped this fast-paced banger, his first work with longstanding ATL fixture Sonny Digital. "So Hit" is more aggressive than most of the tape's material, but Uzi still manages to bring his unique personality to the forefront. 

Since this dropped in January, Uzi's found a close friend and collaborator in Carti, who he chose to bring with him on tour a few months ago. The name of that tour, incidentally, came from this track, produced by quite a venerable trio of beatmakers. 

This blippy cut appeared on Uzi's 2016 tape Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World, and to date, is one of his most successful tracks. "You Was Right" has racked up a whopping 28 million plays on Soundcloud alone, making it Uzi's biggest track with Metro Boomin to date.

Uzi has collabed with Thugger a few times now, first on Slime Season 2's "Big Racks" (on which Uzi appears for all of 15 seconds and repeats one line), then on Luv Is Rage's "Yamborghini High," then on this, the best of the three. "Yea Hoe" makes an entire song out of Juicy J and DJ Paul's famous ad-lib, and both rappers bring their A-games to the table. 

Esco and Future's E.T. tape was a little uneven, but "Too Much Sauce" is an undeniable hit. Uzi and Fewtch interweave their vocals more adeptly than they do on the new track "Seven Million," and there's an ebullient Zaytoven beat to boot! 

Uzi and Future's second collab to date closes out the former's new tape, The Perfect Luv Tape, and is one of its sure highlights. Teaming up with frequent Fewtch collaborators Nard & B, as well as XL and Don Cannon, the duo split hook and verse duties this time, giving each other more space than on "Too Much Sauce," but still ending up with a great result.