Lil Uzi Vert

Born Symere Woods July 31st, 1994, in North Philadelphia’s Francisville neighbourhood, his early musical influences were very much a pull in two directions. He started rapping under the name ‘Vert’ which he himself says stands for ‘vertical’ meaning his ambition to move upwards. He later changed it to Lil Uzi Vert because of the way someone described his rap flow, saying his flow was “Fast, like a machine gun.” He dropped his first ep in 2014 entitled Purple Thoughtz Vol. 1, his signature cloud rap psychedelic sound was set from the start and with a strong lyrical focus it caught the attention of the aesthetically like-minded ASAP Mob. Between 2014-2017 a string of various collabs and hot productions with the likes of ASAP Ferg, Wiz Khalifa, Metro Boomin and Kodak Black initiated his climb up to mainstream stardom. Things really took off when he collaborated with the rap group Migos in October 2016 on the single “Bad and Boujee” which in January 2017 reached number 1 on the US Billboard and became a worldwide hit.