Don Cannon thinks his label’s star Lil Uzi Vert deserves credit for 2020’s deluxe edition trend in Hip Hop. In an interview with Complex, the Generation Now co-founder claimed other artists are following Uzi’s lead.
“Uzi started the deluxe [trend],” Cannon said. “It’s like he’s doing a whole other wave of visionary shit.”
Expanded versions of albums are nothing new, but deluxe releases have become more frequent in 2020. Uzi initially dropped his Eternal Atake album on March 6 then followed it a week later with a deluxe edition titled LUV Vs. The World 2, which added 14 songs.
“[He] wanted to provide the new feeling of this new Uzi,” Generation Now’s Leighton “Lakeshow” Morrison told Complex. “He made his fans wait so long, but he also wanted to give them a little bit of that old Uzi, too. That’s why the name is Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World 2.”
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Although Uzi wasn’t the first person to drop a deluxe album this year, there has been a noticeable uptick in such releases since he dropped LUV Vs. The World 2.
Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Russ, G Herbo, Gunna and the late Pop Smoke are just a few of the notable names who’ve put out deluxe editions in 2020. Most artists have waited a few months to share their expansions, but others such as Machine Gun Kelly have delivered them just a few days after their original LP’s release.
The deluxe trend has proven to be beneficial on the Billboard 200. Uzi’s quick release of LUV Vs. The World 2 helped Eternal Atake spend two straight weeks at No. 1 since it was counted as the same album. Lil Baby also saw his My Turn LP return to No. 1 after 13-week hiatus thanks in part to his deluxe edition.
But to some degree, artists are simply gaming the system by releasing EPs or full projects worth of music under the same title to increase chart longevity.
Stream Uzi’s Eternal Atake (Deluxe) below.
Deluxe album is a fucking scam to try to make you buy that shit twice. Smart listeners will see through the scam and just download that shit. Yall kids got it easy. Back in the day with CDs yall had to pay for music. Now rappers aell streams for pennies and make most of their mobey on merch, youtube clicks, and live performances.
Back in the day, we had to BUY albums nixxa! Like real physical albums! It was tough times, we was starving just to be able to buy albums. Y’all kids got it easy man!
@ Real Talk / all trues no doubt but some rappers back then would brag about they going platinum from one single “hahaha” and bang, Napster popped up and said fuck you I’m taking the one song I want and fuck the rest of your lazy ass filler album. But I 100% agree these youngens got several ways of getting their music played and paid it’s extraordinary really
Lil Uzi Trash and what @Real Talk said, it’s a fucking scam
I swear to god man as soon as one of them last generation rappers cosigned one of these bitches it was over …
Too many frauds in this rap business of today!
Young Thug dropped a deluxe for ‘So Much Fun’ at the end of 2019 with 5 extra songs and an added machine gun Kelly remix. Alternative album cover too. That was definitely before Uzi or Lil Babys’ deluxe.