It’s still unclear where Lil Uzi Vert stands with his label Generation Now, but the Philadelphia rapper treated fans to two new songs yesterday. While the production on “That’s A Rack” is entirely new, “Sanguine Paradise” likely comes with a hint of familiarity for many fans. The track is produced by Oogie Mane and Brandon Finessin of the Philly-based collective Working on Dying, but draws from older source material: the 2012 club hit “Do It” by Mykko Montana and K Camp.
“Sanguine Paradise” samples the keyboard instrumental that underscores Mykko’s 2012 track:
Atlanta rapper Mykko Montana dropped “Do It” in 2012, and the song peaked at No. 24 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart in September of that year. “Do It” is produced by Nitti, who also found success in 2015 with Rich Homie Quan’s “Flex (Ooh Ooh Ooh).”
Uzi pays homage to Mykko and K Camp in the song’s lyrics, too, name-checking both rappers on the third verse:
Live it up, you can just go any day now
Mykko Montana, this beat is from K Camp
Uzi’s repeated “You do it” lyrics on the chorus also reference back to K Camp’s hook, where he sings:
Girl I love the way you
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it
Mykko even offered the song his cosign:
“Sanguine Paradise” was originally supposed to be released on Monday, April 8, but was delayed by more than 24 hours due to clearance problems. In an interview with Genius, Working On Dying’s Manager Finesse explained that the song’s leak forced them to rush through the clearance process.
“It’s hard to get legal done in two to three days, producer agreements, people getting paid, things of that sort,” he said. “The leak of the records forced our timeline a little bit, and we really cared about the records, so we were trying to get it out in a timely manner in order for people to still care about it or consume it.”
Some fans noticed that the beat changed between the leak and the final version, a fact that Finesse chalked up to the rushed release schedule. “Was I angry? A little bit,” he said. “Clearing samples is tough, especially when you have a small window. A lot of times, legally speaking, you have to make changes in the tempo and the pitch to get it through. Although we weren’t aware of those things, I understand that was what the issue was in order to get the music out within a timely fashion. But did we know? No.”
“Sanguine Paradise” is the latest Uzi song in 2019 to borrow heavily from older production. His March release, “Free Uzi,” used the beat of G Herbo’s “Gangway,” prompting its eventual removal from streaming services due to clearance problems.
Finesse reflected on that song’s messy rollout. “The ‘Free Uzi’ song was pulled. I like the song but it wasn’t put out correctly,” he said. “So that shows you that when something isn’t put out correctly, you can consume it for a day, but how do you consume it now? That’s the issue.”
Fans are still waiting on the release of Eternal Atake, and Finesse offered some insight into Uzi’s headspace while working on the project.
“He’s one of the most creative people that I’ve ever met in my life, and that’s tough man. It’s tough because he’s such a perfectionist that we’ve probably had 11 versions of Eternal Atake,” Finesse explained. “He records every day. But he’s not gonna put it out until he feels like every one is to his liking, and sometimes that pace is gonna be slower than what his fans like. So we get it. We understand, but equally speaking he’s working on the best music of his life. That’s gonna take time.”
Unfortunately he didn’t have an exact timeline to offer. “I don’t have any supreme inside information,” he said. “But I’ll say this: it’s close. And what I mean by close is he knows what it is. It’s like walking in the closet and you have 100 pairs of sneakers but you can only pack for seven days. So does he have the material? Shit yeah. Does he have it? Yes. But at the end of the day people want him to put out an album before he’s happy with it in his business.”
Read all the lyrics to Lil Uzi Vert’s “Sanguine Paradise” and Mykko Montana’s “Do It” featuring K Camp on Genius now.
