Lil Uzi Vert surprised fans with a new EP just hours after a last-minute Lollapalooza cancellation over the weekend.

The Chicago event kicked off on Thursday July 30, with Olivia Dean, Charli XCX, Tate McRae, Lorde and The xx among those at the top of the bill, joined by John Summit, Jennie and The Smashing Pumpkins.

This year’s line-up spanned multiple genres, with some of the other big names including Geese, Wet Leg, Ethel Cain, Turnstile, CMAT, Little Simz, Zara Larsson, Clipse, The Neighbourhood, Yungblud, Beabadoobee, Sombr, Wolf Alice, and Lil Uzi Vert, with the Philadelphia rapper – who identifies as nonbinary – due to perform on Friday night (July 31) ahead of Charli XCX.

However, Uzi’s set was ultimately cancelled owing to severe weather issues that saw several other sets either shortened or scrapped throughout the weekend. The axed performance was set to be a major one, particularly given it coincided with the rapper’s 31st birthday.

Despite the setback, they still made an appearance at the Chicago festival, surprising fans by crashing Major Lazer‘s set on Perry’s Stage to perform 2022 track ‘Just Wanna Rock’, and were later treated to the crowd singing ‘Happy Birthday’.

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They also marked the occasion by surprise-releasing the EP Maverick ‘Almost Forever’, his first project since 2024’s ‘Eternal Atake 2’ – sharing the new EP 10 years to the day since he released ‘The Perfect LUV Tape’.

In a five-star review of ‘Eternal Atake’, NME said: “Lil Uzi Vert still has the game in a chokehold. He’s been making masterpieces for five years now; his body of work offers timestamps for different eras of rap music in that period, from mumble rap (which he pioneered with 2016’s ‘Luv Is Rage’ and ‘Lil Uzi Vert Vs The World’), or the commercial rap he pushed out on his debut ‘Luv Is Rage 2’.

“And here, again, he has made another record that will stay close to the hearts of a generation of rap fans. He is surely our generation’s Lil Wayne.”

As for Lollapalooza, the festival wrapped on Sunday (August 2), and saw a slew of surprise collaborations throughout, with Sombr bringing out 5 Seconds of Summer for his set, Smashing Pumpkins reuniting with Melissa Auf der Maur, Lorde bringing out Charli XCX for ‘Girl, So Confusing’, and Sam Fender joining Olivia Dean for the now-recording breaking track, ‘Rein Me In’.

The post Lil Uzi Vert misses Lollapalooza birthday set but joins Major Lazer and shares surprise EP appeared first on NME.