Lil Uzi Vert Drops Surprise EP Maverick Almost Forever on 31st Birthday

Lil Uzi Vert turned a rough Friday into a full celebration. Hours after a last-minute Lollapalooza cancellation due to stormy weather in Chicago, the Philadelphia rapper dropped a surprise eight-track EP called Maverick "Almost Forever" on July 31, their 31st birthday.

It is Uzi's first project in two years. The cover art keeps it personal: a photo of a young Uzi with their grandmother. The release date carries weight too. Exactly a decade before this drop, on July 31, 2016, Uzi put out The Perfect LUV Tape, which debuted at No. 55 on the Billboard 200 and went gold. Uzi had been hinting at new material since mid-July, sharing studio footage on Instagram before the EP materialized.

What Maverick Almost Forever Means for Uzi's Run

This is not a comeback for someone who went away. Uzi has topped the Billboard 200 three times, with Eternal Atake in 2020, the deluxe reissue Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2 that same year, and Pink Tape in 2023. They scored a Hot 100 No. 1 as a featured artist on Migos' "Bad and Boujee" in 2017, and their own "XO Tour Llif3" peaked at No. 3 and is certified diamond by the RIAA. Maverick "Almost Forever" lands on top of that foundation, not as a reset.

The Lollapalooza cancellation, officially blamed on weather, pulled Uzi from a slot just ahead of headliner Charli XCX at Grant Park. Zara Larsson was moved up to fill the space. Uzi took that moment and redirected it entirely.

For artists and creators watching: this is a clean lesson in controlling the narrative. A missed set on someone else's stage became an independent drop on their own terms, on a personally significant date, with a project that now owns the cultural moment instead of being buried under festival recap coverage.

If you are an independent artist thinking about how to time releases and reclaim momentum, [pass the aux](/pass-the-aux) and let the conversation go somewhere useful. And if you have music or a creative project ready to move, [submit it here](/submit) so we can put eyes on it.

Keep watching Maverick "Almost Forever" as it moves through streaming and chart tracking over the next few weeks. First-week numbers will tell us a lot about where Uzi's audience is right now after a two-year gap between projects.