Future & Lil Uzi Vert’s ‘Pluto x Baby Pluto’ Almost Gets Us There

2020 has been an incredible year for rap music.

Despite the looming pandemic, Lil Uzi Vert was able to take over the game—once again—with Eternal Atake (released back in March). This lit a fire under the rapper, who quickly followed up with a deluxe version. He continued to drop music as the year went on, teaming up with Future for two singles, “Patek” and “Over Your Head.” Future was also coming off of a hot streak at the time, releasing High Off Life just two months earlier.

Following their unification on the above-mentioned tracks, the rappers have come together, again, on their latest album, Pluto x Baby Pluto.

Released on November 13th, Pluto x Baby Pluto garnered a good amount of attention in the rap community, with the duo teasing the album during the week leading up to its release. While the hype was understandable—both rappers have been dropping great music over the past year—they overstepped their boundaries a bit. Don’t get me wrong, the album’s sound is not bad, and both rappers do a good job of utilizing their traditional flows over heavy trap beats. Unfortunately, after 16 tracks, this gets old fairly quickly. 

The album opens with “Stripes Like Burberry,” with Uzi taking charge and starting off strong. While he is referred to as Baby Pluto, Uzi’s presence on this track is powerful— he Philadelphia rapper’s vocals are much more bold and appeal to the ear. Future tries to keep up, but his flow does not meld well with the rest of the track. He makes up for this (on the next track) with “Marni On Me,” where both really do bring their A-game. Backed by production from Outtatown and Brandon Finessin, the two go back and forth with each other, building off of each other’s flow, backed by 808s creating an exciting, modern-trap sound. When they are not going back and forth, Future and Uzi support each other, during their verses, through ad-libs. On later tracks, both try to use the same formula to recreate this sound, but it just does not work out in their favor.

Although the album starts off strong, the bulky tracklist—coupled with a mostly unchanging formula—makes it a chore to listen to (after a while). Future and Lil Uzi Vert have notable performance lapses on tracks such as “Drankin N Smokin” and “Plastic,” with boring verses that don’t change much from the sound that propelled them to stardom. This is seen all over the album. While tracks such as “Lullaby” and “Million Dollar Play” bring something different to the table—courtesy of storytelling bars from Uzi and production from Zaytoven respectively—the lengthy tracklist takes away from any innovation either may have brought to the album. 

Future and Lil Uzi Vert have proven to be a promising success in the past, and they do have great chemistry on Pluto x Baby Pluto—especially tracks such as “Marni on Me.” Unfortunately, the album suffers a major drawback due to the tracklist. While the two do sound great together, once they get on a track, their refusal to provide variety makes it hard to keep Pluto x Baby Pluto in the rotation. This does not make the album terrible, but it could be better.

Are you a fan of the new Future and Lil Uzi Vert project Pluto x Baby Pluto, or would you rather hear something else from the two rappers? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comment section. If you want more music and style content in your life, make sure to check out our Instagram @audiblwav and YouTube channel. On our Instagram, we keep your feed fresh with concert videos, daily song suggestions, music/style news, and more. We also work to provide you with video content on our YouTube channel. Don’t miss out, tap the links above.