1017 vs. the World

On his recent Hot 97 appearance with Funk Flex, Gucci Mane noted his immense desire to work with new artists that had risen during his time in prison. He name-dropped Lil Yachty, Dae Dae, 21 Savage, and, of course, the partner he collaborated on this new mixtape, 1017 vs. the World, with: Lil Uzi Vert. “Anybody who hot, and the kids say he hot, I think it’s hot” Gucci told Flex. This kind of talk would fit in nicely at any music label boardroom, but because it comes from Gucci Mane, a street-rap elder statesman with a proven track record of promoting and influencing new rappers—particularly in Atlanta—you trust that it comes from a good place. Gucci has been making good on his promise and, with the fourth project of his to be released in 2016, 1017 vs. the World brings Gucci’s slower tempo and aggressive style together with Lil Uzi Vert’s anime-tinged eccentricity and goofiness.

Beyond Gucci’s desire to connect with a younger audience and make music with a young upstart, there’s not much of a meeting point between these two. Uzi is so elastic and cartoonish that it makes the already-traditional trap style of Gucci feel even older by comparison. The tape is certainly not bad, but the chemistry of collaboration is absent: The songs that work best for Gucci’s mellow, bass-heavy nonchalance don’t work as well as for Uzi because he sounds reined in, and the songs where Uzi bounces off the walls in his Nicktoons rockstar manner get bogged down by Gucci. They have a Who Framed Roger Rabbit dynamic, where Uzi is the elastic Roger and Gucci the plodding Eddie Valiant.

There is something intriguing about the sound of Gucci's voice on Honorable C Note’s candy-colored beats, like the opening “Changed My Phone”; it doesn’t fully work, but you can feel him trying to work with a sound outside of his own. Gucci shines most when the sound is on his terms, such as in the Mannie Fresh-produced “Blonde Brigitte”; a heavy, sluggish record where Gucci can rap with adoration about “a black girl with blonde hair, green lipstick she look like a rainbow.” Uzi’s spastic irreverence, meanwhile, is better-served on the video game soundtrack production of “Today!!”

The roster of producers on this brief tape is eclectic, but they can’t bridge the generation chasm. Since returning from prison, Gucci has sounded hearteningly strong if rarely inspired, and the implied madness that sparked much of his best material, from 2008 to 2010, has dissipated. It might have served him next to Uzi's playfulness and flippant disregard of masculinity, his “diamonds on my choker” and “I was watching Food Network and learned how to make the cake.” Uzi isn’t that far removed from Future or Young Thug, both frequent Gucci collaborators, but the difference between Uzi and Thug is that Thug came up under Gucci's tutelage. Thug is still a student, whereas Uzi has no connection to his elder, and it’s evident.