BEFORE LIL UZI VERT dropped songs like UZI, Money Longer, You Was Right, XO Tour Life
Before Lil Uzi Vert SoundCloud page would recivied millions of streams for each of his
tracks and he would sell out his homecoming show at the Philadelphia Theatre of The Living
Arts.
Before he would ink a deal with Atlantic records; make it onto the 2016 XXL Freshman Class cover;
collaborated with the likes of Young Thug, Wiz Khalifa, and ASAP MOB; and take the place
of Take Off on the biggest MIGOS song of all time,
Growing up in North Philly Lil Uzi Vert or Symere Woods would jame out to Mike Jones,
the Ying Yang Twins, Jones and believe it or not, Marilyn Manson, who he calls his greatest
inspiration, and the guy who motivated him to embrace his own musical interest and style.
In high school, he was the class clown, dressed like a skater, and would do anything for a
little attention.
When a friend of his started to turn heads with his rap skills, Symere decided to get
into the game himself.
But, at least at first, he didn't really have the talent.
Plus, his hard working mom wanted him to go a more practical route.
If he had listened to her wise advice, he might have stayed in school, and kept at his
job working as a stock boy at the dollar store.
What's going on everybody?
I'm Michael McCrudden, documenting the life and career of Lil Uzi Vert prior to fame,
here for you on Before They Were Famous.
I've recently documented Ski Mask the Slump God, XXXtentacion and Young Pappy.
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You gotta let me know in the comments down below, or on twitter or instagram, at mccrudden
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Lil Uzi Vert was born Symere Woods on July 31, 1994, in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Growing up in the Francisville neighbourhood, his parents were separated, and young Symere
would bounce between his mother and father's homes.
As a kid, he loved playing video games, especially Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, and watched cartoons
like Franklin and CatDog.
He grew up listening to Mike Jones, Bow Wow and Ying Yang Twins, before getting into Wiz
Khalifa and Meek Mill.
The first album he ever owned was Wanted by Mike Jones and Bow Wow, which he recieved
as a gift from his grandmother.
Cool granny!
But Symere's musical tastes were diverse, and he also listened to Paramore, My Chemical
Romance, The All American Rejects.
He was also, and remains today, a huge fan of Marilyn Manson.
Uzi Vert has also cited ASAP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Young Thug, Wiz Khalifa,
and Lil Wayne as musical influences.
In school, a young Uzi was a bit of an outsider, an attention seeker, and a class clown.
He was not a particularly good student, and was constantly getting in trouble at school.
He attended four different public high schools, Sayre, Northeast, Olney and Camelot.
At one point, his mother threatened to kick him out of the house, and to appease her,
he got the only job (other than rap) that he's ever held, working at Bottom Dollar.
But that didn't last too long.
He knew instantly that this wasn't for him, and after just three or four days, he quit.
But around 2012, in his senior year of high school, Symere found something that was for
him.
Rap.
A friend of his, William Aston, put out a freestyle over Chris Brown's Look at Me Now,
and the whole school went crazy for it.
As a young attention seeker himself, Uzi decided to tell William that he raps too.
Will called his bluff, asking him to spit something for him.
After several delays, Uzi managed to write a verse to rap for William.
Uzi recalls that it was pretty corny, but William encouraged him to keep at it.
Then one day, William invited Uzi to go to the studio with him.
Uzi agreed, despite being totally unprepared.
Unable to back out, Uzi got all the way to the studio with no worthy material.
Once there, he managed to lay down a track, and William must have liked what he heard,
because he suggested that the two continue to rap together.
Symere continued to work on his skills, recording freestyles over beats he'd find on youtube.
Despite being from the north, he would embrace southern sounds, inspired in part by artists
like ASAP Rocky and Big Sean, who were doing the same.
But as he developed as a rapper, it became clearer and clear that he would need a stage
name.
...And from there, he had found his moniker.
Lil Uzi Vert began posting his songs to SoundCloud.
Back in 2014, he would be lucky to see a few hundred people had listened to his work.
And when he got his first couple thousand, he was thrilled.
He told complex back in 2015,
“Just that couple of thousand felt so crazy.
Just being at home—even a thousand people listen to your song.
I'm like, 'Damn, a thousand people heard it or know my song.'
So, it was just cool.
Now, I see it in a day a song can get up to 100,000 or something, it makes me feel good.
I guess I'm doing something right.”
It wouldn't take long for he and William caught the attention of DJ Buzz Worthy, who offered
to manage the duo.
William declined, but Uzi agreed on the spot, and through DJ Buzz Worthy, he met producer
Charlie Heat, who produced his 2014 break out hit, UZI.
This song would make it into the hands of Power 99's DJ Diamond Kuts.
She got the song on the radio in Philadelphia, where it would catch the ear of an Atlanta-based
industry leader, who just happened to be in town.
Another notable influencer on Lil Uzi Vert's career was him receiving some online respect
from the now deceased A$AP Yams who reached out to Uzi via Twitter telling him he would
be a star.
On top of that, in 2014, Uzi started dated stylist, designer and artist, Brittany Byrd.
Nice catch!
Things definitely looked like they were coming together, but at the time, Lil Uzi Vert was
facing serious pressure to give up on his dream.
His mom, who made an honest living as a nurse, wanted Symere to make more practical plans
for his future.
He dropped out of school, was didn't want to go back, but in order to appease his mom,
he did get a job, working as a stock boy at a Dollar Store.
But, it wasn't long before he quit that too.
He was then kicked out of his mom's house, and found himself living with his Grandma,
who was a little more supportive of his rap career.
Now able to put school and day jobs aside, Uzi put everything into his music, and his
career was on the rise.
Cannon and DJ Drama had a lot of faith in the teenager so they brought him out to Atlanta
to record.
Uzi earned for himself nation wide attention after being featured on DJ Carnage's single
"WDYW" in 2015, with ASAP Ferg and Rich The Kid.
Uzi was signed to Generation Now and later Atlantic Records.
That same year Lil Uzi Vert got his very own music video for Safe House from his mixtape,
Luv is Rage.
Following this would come his mixtape Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World with his breakout hit
Money Longer.
The song would be certified double platinum and chart billboard, hitting number 9 on the
US rap charts.
From there he would be collaborating with his idols, touring America and would find
himself on the cover of XXL in the 2016 Freshman Class.
In June of 2016, Lil Uzi Vert broke up with his girlfriend Brittany Byrd.
After the break up, rumours about her cheating spread all over the web, but Uzi dispelled
them via twitter.
He did however, drop a new song, called Stole Your Luv
Lil Uzi Vert released The Perfect Luv Tape on July 31st 2016, with songs like Seven Million
(featuring Future) and Erase Your Social.
In October of 2016, Lil Uzi Vert collaborated with the Migos on Bad and Boujee.
This would be number one single for both Lil Uzi Vert as a featured artist, and the Migos
as lead artist.
A definite win for every one involved, but you gotta feel bad for Take Off, who seemed
to give up his spot on the track for Uzi.
Bad and Boujee would get Uzi nominated for Best Hip Hop Video at the 2017 MTV Music Awards.
It was nominated for Top Rap Song and Top Rap Collaboration at the Billboard Music Awards,
where Lil Uzi Vert was also nominated as Top New Artist.
But unfortunately, he wouldn't take home any of these awards.
Collaborating with Gucci Mane, Lil Uzi released 1017 vs the world in November.
In February of 2017, he released Luv Is Rage 1.5.
That EP would include his highest charting single to date, XO Tour Life.
This song garnered Uzi his first major music award, taking home the prize for Song of the
Summer at the 2017 MTV Music Video Awards.
It would also feature on Lil Uzi Vert's debut studio album, Luv Is Rage 2, which was released
on August 25th, 2017.
The album crushed billboard, topping the charts in the number one spot on the Hot 100, the
US RandB and hiphop chart, and the US Rap chart.
And the rest of the story, well, we'll have to wait and see, because this is Before They
Were Famous.
My name's Michael McCrudden.
Thanks for watching, guys.
I've got over a thousand bios on this channel, so be sure to check it out.
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Love you.
Bye!