Leave it to Lil Uzi Vert to make their merch stand out.
Before the 29-year-old took the stage at the 2024 Coachella Music Festival on Friday night, fans noticed that Uzi’s singular merch offering at the booth was a shirt with a punny reference to another famous rapper, Eminem.
As shared by Coachella attendees on social media, Uzi’s merch is merely a black t-shirt with a vertical photo of the rapper printed on the front with the word “THEMINEM” shown on both sides of the garment. So far the $40 tee seems to only be available for purchase at the festival.
Fans noticed that Uzi began using they/them pronouns on their Instagram account in July 2022. During an interview with 032c last May, the “Just Wanna Rock” rapper told the fashion magazine that they weren’t reluctant to make the change.
"No, I never hesitated. But I did take my time to learn as much as I could about this before I was able to proceed,” they said, per XXL. “Taking the time to figure out who you are is a big part of what it means to be alive. Once you figure out whether you’re here with it, there with it, or both, you’re not alone anymore. This community offers access to a certain kind of support that you might not have had [previously during] your entire life because you weren’t raised that way. I come from a household where it’s not okay to be 'non' anything."
"I’m not brave at all,” Uzi said about changing their pronouns. “I just think a good product [is] a good product. Think about fashion. Gay and trans designers are some of the biggest talents out there, and gangster-ass guys wear their stuff without a thought. What you make is what matters, not how you identify."
Uzi also performed an unreleased song on Friday night, presumably from Luv Is Rage 3, which they say will be their “last” album before retiring from the music industry. The song, featuring a looping chorus of “yas, yas, yas,” had Uzi voguing and doing dips, also known as “death drops.”
