Lil Uzi Vert. Live at the 02 Academy Birmingham review (9/4/18)

Lil Uzi Vert doesn't need a support act, his opener was an hour long DJ set that mixed all the greatest hits of the trap era with a few choice Stormzy and Giggs cuts. The Academy was in uproar as hundreds of sweaty kids, moshed and surged without even a hint of the star being on stage yet. Some went as far as waving their umbrella's in the air to further mock the pouring rain outside. The masses were content bouncing to trap hits but I was bored and waiting for the star to come on.
To put things into perspective, when I saw Run The Jewels in the same venue a few months ago,  they brought along two massive inflatable golden hands, Danny Brown, and 90 minutes of bars. Lil Uzi Vert had some cool graphics as his backdrop but he had no support, no guests, and put so little effort into his set that it felt like he was his own impersonator. Lil Uzi Vert is basically the millennial MC Hammer, content to dance around while a few thousand people shout his lyrics back at him. When he was on the mic he was drowned out by the sound of his own voice being played alongside the DJ's beats. It's hard to tell if he even sang or spat any actual bars at all. Uzi seemed to have an answer for me by saying "You know Lil Uzi Vert got a lot of haters right? well I don't care, cos I got all the money, and you know how I get that money? by making these great songs and getting them played on the radio". Except his songs don't get played on the radio and his tickets cost £30 each. After the DJ span 'XO TOUR Llif3' for the second time, he threw his mic into the crowd saying that 'you can all sing it better than I can anyway'. After this he kept dancing for a bit, started a mosh pit, and then hinted at a guest coming onstage before leaving the stage and coming back alone, when he left the second time he didn't come back, leaving a confused DJ keeping things running with 15 minutes till curfew.
Ultimately none of the 3000 people present had a bad night. Call me old fashioned but if I go see a rapper I'd actually like to hear him rap rather than just hearing 'Yuh' and 'Aye' every few minutes. Ever got the feeling you've been cheated?

6.4/10