Instagram is perhaps the most clear and concise example of this: you see something, you like it (or else let it pass right by you), and there is nothing deeper than that.
![lil uzi vert album cover heaven lil uzi vert album cover heaven](http://s3.amazonaws.com/hiphopdx-production/2018/07/180731-lil-uzi-vert-getty-800x600.jpg)
The internet, especially now, has allowed and even encouraged the adoration of the surface. The internet allows us to consume at a fervent pace, and disseminate of the materials just as fast, with no physical repercussions - we’re not left with a tangible object staring back at us on our coffee table, a CD collecting dust that we must eventually shelve.
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You can scan through new music, letting it go in one ear and out the other, as you can do similarly with quick-reads of Wiki pages or, perhaps even worse, headlines. In the same way a book is a physical object, something you can grasp, so to the internet and anything you consume therein is the exact opposite. However, consuming knowledge or content on the internet, even sharing ideas online, doesn’t seem as lasting or affecting as it does IRL. Topics are endless too: whether it’s digging yourself into a wormhole of musical discoveries on YouTube, or a Wikipedia vortex of historical facts. The accessibility the internet allows us means that you can fall into a rabbit hole of any topic, every day of the week. The lack of boundaries means that whatever is niche is also much more open in a sense- it’s accessible to any and everyone, should they chose to find, or look, for it. On the flip side, the internet has allowed for many man-made borders and divisions to collapse. Indeed this seems true: niche cultures are able to thrive in dark, anonymous places on the internet, whether they are vile or innocent. I was too young to properly remember anything about this cult- it sounded vaguely familiar- nor did I know anything about its history prior to two days ago.Ī CNN article from 1997, written post-Heaven’s Gate mass murder-suicide, noted how the internet was well-suited for the development of niche culture. The chances are extremely high, too, because if you are a fan of Lil Uzi Vert, you are likely born right before or right after this infamous cult made headlines (1997 being the main headline, but they did appear in headlines to varying degree since the ‘70s)- thus, it may not be infamous to you. If you were not already familiar with the U.F.O cult and their imagery, Uzi’s artwork would have passed right by you, unawares: it’s an image that is so very ‘90s it could easily resemble anything that anyone is doing these days, with the current resurgence of the era. Before that happens (undoubtedly they are already being hypothesized/written in someone’s mom’s basement), let us ask, or let us at least wonder, why Uzi is using imagery and ideas from a cult that committed mass murder-suicide in 1997? It’s almost precisely a year later, and we are bound to have new conspiracy theories popping up thanks to the latest cult-driven images and ideas Uzi is perpetuating on social media. Daylyt pushed the viral theory that the Philly native was Satan last year. Weird and conspiratorial territory is not unfamiliar for Uzi. Taken at face value, this image, which was released on Uzi’s Instagram, did one job, and it did it well: it created hype that an album is upon us.
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Uzi wrote: “As was promised - the keys to Eternal Atake are here again in Luv and Rage (The UFO Two) as Lil Uzi Vert and His Father 2000 yrs. It read: “As was promised - the keys to Heaven’s Gate are here again in Ti and Do (The UFO Two) as they were in Jesus and His Father 2000 yrs. The cult’s original message laid underneath a ‘90s rainbow font and an outer space background. The other day, Uzi revealed new imagery, possibly artwork (the Parental Advisory sticker is all we need) - it was a near replica of Heaven’s Gate cult imagery, with words replaced to fit Uzi’s message. His music is driven by his acute sense of style: melodies and production become the most important elements these are the components that hit you first, the surface-level (which, ultimately, is what happens when someone has style ), before you are even ready to think about the lyrics or the message. He cycles through a specific set of emojis, never veering to far away from them. He will tweet with what seems like a purposeful design of his words: haphazardly placed capital letters, unnecessary spacing, “drawings” created out of punctuation. When he wore baggy, flared and chain-linked black jeans to the Grammys, it was with such aplomb that he pulled it off, where others would have not have even dared to think of such a ‘fit. Whether it’s rock, heavy metal, rap-driven - it’s not like we don’t believe his interests also lie therein, but he seems to place special importance on the look of things, and the scope of that goes beyond his fashion sense. Lil Uzi Vert places a distinct value on style, above all else. Is Lil Uzi Vert's latest artwork reveal all about style, or is he actually into Heaven's Gate cult ideology?