Whenever interviewers ask Lil Uzi Vert what he likes to do in his spare time, he usually ends up explaining that he rarely leaves the studio. At the Grammys, he told one reporter that he's made "hundreds of stuff" with Kanye West, hinting at his prolific ways. This week, Don Cannon (who signed Uzi to Atlantic Records in 2015) gave some insight on just how much of a workhorse he really is.
Sitting down with Ed Lover on the "C'mon Son" podcast, Cannon remembers his first impressions of Uzi: "I saw his work ethic, and I was like damn, these are all the qualities we need." At the 23:30 mark of their conversation, Lover asks just how hard working Uzi is and Cannon replies, "Six songs a day. About 700 songs a year." We assume he means Uzi ends up with at least six songs each day that he makes it to the studio, totaling around 700 songs each year.
"He's a studio rat," Cannon continues. "You would think somebody that is performing and out there as much as he is, he wouldn't be in the room as much. He does not leave that space. He beats me in that space."
Cannon also recalls Uzi playing him "straight rap" records. But Uzi thought those were boring and already had visions of becoming a rockstar.
"He would play me a record and it would be straight rap," Cannon says. "Like Meek Mill. And I would be like, 'Wait, what's going on?' He's like, 'Yeah, that's boring. I don't like that. Watch, I'm going to turn into a complete rockstar. I've got a whole vision laid out."
You can hear Cannon's full discussion about Lil Uzi Vert's beginnings in the podcast above (beginning at the 20:00 mark). If you haven't heard Uzi's old "straight rap" style that Cannon mentions, check out some of his 2013 material below.
