Lil Uzi Vert turned a scrapped festival set into a celebration on Friday (July 31), surprising fans with a new EP on their 31st birthday hours after a last-minute Lollapalooza cancellation.
The eight-track project, Maverick “Almost Forever,” is the Philadelphia rapper’s first release in two years, and arrives with cover art depicting a young Uzi alongside their grandmother.
The drop landed on a date with history in Uzi’s catalogue: exactly a decade earlier, on July 31, 2016, they released The Perfect LUV Tape, which debuted at No. 55 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified gold by the RIAA. Uzi had teased new material as recently as mid-July, sharing an Instagram Story showing work on a studio project.
The release followed the abrupt cancellation of Uzi’s Lollapalooza set at Grant Park in Chicago, where they had been slated to perform Friday evening ahead of headliner Charli XCX.
Lollapalooza’s official statement attributed the cancellation to “weather issues,” and NBC Chicago separately reported the cancellation was tied to the heavy rain and stormy conditions that swept the area throughout the day. Zara Larsson was moved up to fill the slot.
The birthday release extends a run that has made Uzi one of the most commercially dominant hip-hop artists of their generation. They have topped the Billboard 200 three times — with Eternal Atake (2020), its deluxe reissue Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2 (2020) and Pink Tape (2023) — and scored a Hot 100 No. 1 as a featured artist on Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” in 2017. Their own “XO Tour Llif3” reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and is certified diamond by the RIAA.
Maverick “Almost Forever” arrives as Lollapalooza 2026 continues through Aug. 2 at Grant Park, with Smashing Pumpkins, Mustard and Yungblud among the acts who performed Friday.
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