Lil Uzi Vert hasn't dropped much music in 2019, but he's still managed to capture the attention of his fans regardless. He started off the year by telling the world he "deleted everything," indefinitely delaying his highly-anticipated project Eternal Atake. In a rare interview with GQ, the Philly rapper has opened up about the possibility of retirement, and why fashion is more important to him than music.
Known for his legendary fit pics on Instagram just as much as he is for his infectious songs, Uzi remarked, "Honestly, in my heart, I think I do this better than music." Previously known for his almost constant stream of new releases, he added of his fit pics, "The music shit is effortless. I actually take my time with this."
This doesn't mean that he'll be retiring from music anytime soon, however. "I like making music, and I like making people happy, but the music is whatever, bro," he said. "I really do it just to make my family happy. Like, it's just something for my family to talk about."
Asked why he threatened retirement, Uzi replied, "I dunno, just how I felt. That's all." He added that he "just wanted to be more normal."
While he insisted that a more normal life is something he's in pursuit of, he did also explain that buying a Bugatti is "the ultimate goal," and he has since reportedly bought Floyd Mayweather's old Veyron.
Fashion remains incredibly important to the rapper, although he also revealed he often doesn't try anything on before buying clothes. "I ain't gonna lie. This is the first time I tried anything on," explained during the interview while pulling on a Sacai skirt. "I never try on shit. If I can't fit in it, I just give it away. In the store, if I try on shit and I'm too small, I'll be upset, bro! I just gotta take it."
Samuel Hine, the author of the piece, added that Uzi was late to the interview because he was busy shopping.
"Lil Uzi isn't even human," Virgil Abloh said of his friend and collaborator. "He is another level of a creative being. To me he is an Impressionist painter replacing pigments with ready-made brands and clothes."
An inspiration to both hypebeasts and high-fashion connoisseurs, Uzi has always felt as though fashion is his higher calling in life. "I always wanted to do that, but I just didn't have a lot of clothes before," he said of his commitment to fit pics, while also adding that he has often believe he dressed better than those around him even during the early days of his career. "It was like when you come to the last level and you open the door and it's, like, a whole new world—not even a new level but a whole new world," he said. "You're like, ‘Wait a minute. You're telling me I can't buy all this stuff out the store, I have to get archival stuff?’ Oh, shit! I'm losing. But I'm not losing anymore, though."
