Lil Uzi Vert returned from his brief retirement last week with “Free Uzi,” but not everyone was celebrating the rapper’s return. DC rapper GoldLink accused Uzi of biting the song’s flow from rappers from the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area, prompting Uzi to respond yesterday on his Instagram story. The Philly MC pushed back against the idea that he had lifted his flow from other artists, writing “I don’t steal flow. I AM The FLOW.”
Uzi’s post comes in response to a March 29 Instagram story by GoldLink, where he said Uzi would be getting rich off rising DMV artists' style:
The manner in which GoldLink presented his accusations, however, was a bit unclear. DMV-area hip-hop is best known for incorporating elements of go-go music, a regional style of funk popularized in DC, but here GoldLink is specifically talking about Uzi’s overlapping flow. DMV artists like Q Da Fool and Goonew are known for using an overlap-style flow, where bars bleed into each other by recording with extensive use of punch-ins.
While this style is popular in the DMV, it isn’t exclusive to the region. Artists like Atlanta’s Hoodrich Pablo Juan and Peewee Longway have also helped popularize overlapping flows. Pinpointing any one artist as the originator of a flow is notoriously difficult, and as Genius has previously reported, borrowing flows is a time-honored tradition in hip-hop:
Either way, it seems Uzi isn’t concerned about accusations that he had some outside inspiration when coming up with the “Free Uzi” flow. The rapper also revealed that he’s hard at work on more new music.
Catch up on all the lyrics to Lil Uzi Vert’s “Free Uzi” on Genius now.
