Future and Lil Uzi Vert might as well be on two different planets right now. Uzi’s still hot off Eternal Atake, one of the year’s best rap albums, and its star-studded B-side, LUV vs. The World 2. On the other hand, Future’s most recent release was High Off Life, a record in which he sounded nearly asleep, as if operating on autopilot. One of the only highlights from High Off Life was the bubbly, Uzi-featuring “All Bad,” a strange yet welcome breath of fresh air that felt like an Eternal Atake cast-off. A collab album from Uzi and the man who inspired his Baby Pluto persona felt inevitable after they appeared on each other’s albums, but the disappointing two-pack of “Patek” and “Over Your Head” from this summer left much to be desired. However, Pluto x Baby Pluto is more than a slight improvement from their earlier missteps—it’s like watching two friends trade lives for a day.
They warmly embrace each other’s production choices on here. Future sounds just as comfortable over the cartoony, electronic Working on Dying production as he does on DJ Esco’s racing melodies. The cheery horns and rattling drums of “Bankroll” sound like they were ripped straight from a Stunt Taylor mixtape. The chaotic tracklist puts producers like WOD’s Brandon Finessin and NeilaWorld’s Lukrative, who first rose to prominence on SoundCloud, on the same album as Atlanta veterans like Zaytoven.
What Uzi brings to Pluto x Baby Pluto is a revitalizing energy that makes Future wake up for the first time since The WIZRD. On “Marni on Me,” they trade bars over ominous whistles, trying to one-up the other with uncounterable flexes. “I push a button my car need no keys,” Uzi says with a carefree shrug. “I push a button, the car drive by itself,” Future immediately fires back. As the album goes on, their designer lifestyle gets even more animated and expensive. They talk about owing money to Elliot Eliantte and buying out stores in Paris as if these were regular occurrences. But even with all this super-charged energy, it’s hard to ignore the moments where Future lags behind, like his unimaginative hook from “Sleeping on the Floor.”
If a project from Future and Lil Uzi didn’t spend some time trying to get their exes to fall back in love with them, it wouldn’t be a project from them at all. On “I Don’t Wanna Break Up,” it’s bizarre hearing someone as self-serious as Future right after Uzi goes full pop-punk on the chorus. “Tryna make better decisions, tryna be more consistent, yeah,” Future dreamily sings. “I’m going through hell just to get to you again.”
Despite their newfound chemistry on Pluto x Baby Pluto, Future and Uzi’s best rapping comes when they’re left alone to get lost in their own thoughts on their solo songs. Future raps vividly about betrayal over the prickled keys and piercing strings of “Rockstar Chainz.” Uzi sounds like he’s rapping every bar as soon as he thinks of it on “Lullaby,” not giving himself a chance to forget a clever thought. “I try my best just to hug her with my fingers crossed, cause I know deep down inside, I am really doing wrong,” Uzi painfully exhales.
Throughout Pluto x Baby Pluto, it’s hard to escape the feeling that Future is playing catch-up with Uzi. It wouldn’t be the first time Uzi’s out-rapped an Atlanta legend on a collab tape. Regardless, it’s exciting seeing how they’ve learned to play off of each other’s energy. It’d be easy for Uzi to coast and phone in verses after the year he’s had so far, but he’s shown no signs of slowing down.
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