Trap rap icon Lil Uzi Vert releases a new track right in the heart of quarantine with "Sasuke," a reference to Uchiha Sasuke in the manga and anime series "Naruto," yesterday, April 24.
Vert earlier teased his new track with a series of tweets before officially dropping the track yesterday. "Sasuke" is now available on his YouTube channel, which features a mostly red background with three images somehow similar to Thai Khon masks or other similar art styles found mostly in Southeast Asian culture.
"This is not no Naruto, but I chop that like Sasuke," Lil Uzi Vert raps. In the "Naruto" franchise, Uchiha Sasuke is the anti-hero character and rival of the protagonist and a consistent fan-favorite, especially among female fans.
His new trap beat referencing Sasuke is the latest in his highly-productive 2020. Lil Uzi Vert released two albums just last month, the highly-anticipated and Billboard 200 topper "Eternal Atake" and its follow-up and deluxe version add-on "Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2."
Oogie Mane, a frequent collaborator to the "Baby Pluto" artist, produced "Sasuke" as with a couple of previous LUV singles such as "Myron," "That's A Rack," "POP," and "Sanguine Paradise." Mane and Vert conjured a trap beat that fuses Lil Uzi's common topics in trap rapping and his love for the anime franchise.
Near the end of the track, as Vert raps, you can hear a second voice singing "bee bee," which fans think is a reference to his fellow rapper Playboi Carti, who uses the same slang in his tracks. It comes in the middle of an apparent beef between the two artists which can be traced back as far as November 2019, when rumors insist that something was happening between the "wokeuplikethis" and "Lookin" collaborators.
In a Twitter question and answer, a fan asked Uzi whether he and Playboi Carti are in good terms, to which Uzi simply said "No," later explaining that he "just took a different route."
The months that followed were generally quiet between the two artists, with the fans speculating about the relationship of the two. In March 6, Lil Uzi Vert again responded in Twitter that "We not beefing dude" to a fan who wrote "They beefing dawg," referring to Vert and Carti.
Vert then answered another fan inquiry, asking him to drop one of the many songs that he and Carti supposedly have done together. The Philadelphia rapper said that he would love to but just can't find the other rapper.
Lil Uzi seems to throw some shade by tweeting "Just Meh" with the artwork for Carti's latest track, "Meh," but with an added assault rifle at the back. Both artists also tweeted "MoNDaY" last April 16, leading fans to speculate on a new collab dropping but to no avail. Instead, Playboi Carti retweeted a cover art for his album "Whole Lotta Red," saying that this is his favorite album. Vert then retweeted Carti's post with a question, "Did u drop yet?" with the rolling eye emoji.
