The Singles Jukebox

We return fire…

[Video][Website]
[5.00]

Will Rivitz: I feel weird rating singles from uber-prolific trap artists like Uzi, since their music works a lot better in deluges than quick bursts — it’s hard to parse individual songs on a mixtape like Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World (or any of the Slime Seasons, or anything backed by DJ Esco) because its smorgasbord is meant to be consumed in full. That said, “Money Longer” is a fever dream, off-beat rapping and hypnotic string-sounding synths spiraling into a maelstrom. I’m still not really sure what to do with this new wave of hip-hop, but the more I’m exposed to it the more I find myself liking it.
[7]

Alfred Soto: I barely listened to his April mix tape (and he’s got a new one) so this blurb would be context-free. The ascending synth hook foils a rap that vacillates between sadness and satisfaction. It’s the same story: mo money mo problems, which doesn’t mean Lil Uzi can’t find new truths.
[6]

Katie Gill: The song walks a wobbly line between a ‘look at me now’ sort of brag rap and an odd sadness that seeps through. After all, he’s comparing himself and his girl to a couple that broke up years ago. Can’t deny the impact of that hook though, especially since the verses are almost nonexistent.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: Those ascending/descending bleepy 8-bit noises insist that this song is perky and happy. Everything else contends the exact opposite; it’s a track divided against itself.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: A friend of mine listened to this at my behest and said, “It sounds like a parody of hip-hop.” And he’s right. It’s got an exceedingly generic trap beat, pretty vulgar lyrics, and boatloads of braggadocio from someone who really hasn’t earned it yet. Plus, Lil Uzi Vert’s name is really, really stupid, and you’ll have to forgive me if I’m not a big fan of rappers’ names referencing machine guns these days.
[0]

Brad Shoup: The woozy synth ostinato keeps straining for the night sky. It pushes Uzi into unending comparatives: money longer, pockets fatter, cars faster, haters sadder. The joke about money so old it’s spoiled is sneaky-great: we still infuse new rappers with crazy amounts of cultural capital, and it absolutely can’t be left alone.
[7]

Adaora Ede: From the ever changing dread colors to comparisons to Chef Boyardee’s theme music, Lil Uzi Vert is the type of artist that seasoned hiphop heads (read: J Cole fans) want to hate. But his self-perpetuating delivery and carefully worked rhyme schemes make it so damn difficult to turn your nose up at Uzi. “Money Longer” sounds like what I feel like mainstream rap should sound like. Yeah, Uzi’s mainstream enough to top Billboard’s rap and urban charts, but the bubbly trap that he lays his hyperactive singsong flow upon when rapping about Dita glasses and Phashtie (I totally just coined that) has a greater reach than the Twitter savage niche. In the same line of reasoning, I’m sure there could have been more work put into that “speaker got louder/car got faster” hook to distinguish it from an early 2010s Katy track.
[6]