Pink Tape

The album was first teased by Uzi in December 2020, (later revealed to be the songs Pluto to Mars, Aye, and I Gotta) during a two-hour-long Instagram Live in which they previewed unreleased music and revealed they would be dropping a mixtape exclusively on SoundCloud. Uzi announced the album's title in an Instagram post on July 16, 2021. The title might be a reference to the $24 million pink diamond they had pierced into their forehead in February 2021. On October 9, 2021, while attending a friend's wedding, Uzi revealed to a fan that the tape would be released before Halloween. They later went back on those statements on October 22, explaining to some fans on the street: No, it's not . Then it drop next week, and then it sounds like shit, and I gotta hear from like one-hundred-thousand people on the Internet, "This sucks!" So you gotta let me take my time… I'm taking my time so it won't suck. Months later, on December 2, 2021, Uzi appeared on a live stream with Kai Cenat in which they confirmed that the album would be completed the same night. Following the release of the lead and only single of the album, "Just Wanna Rock", on October 17, 2022, Uzi's manager, DJ Drama, suggested that the album is in its final stages while noting over 680 songs were considered for the album's tracklist. In June 2023, Uzi noted that the album would be released the same month. On June 17, Uzi had taken to Instagram to post an alternate cover art to the project. Through an Instagram live on June 18 with Cenat, Uzi shared updates regarding the rollout and tracklist of the album as they noted that the tracklist would include twenty-six songs consisting of "Just Wanna Rock", and two bonus songs which they described as: special to me, that some people love that didn't really get to reach the day of light. They also announced that the cover art would release in "a couple of days" and that the tracklist would release "this week," while confirming the release date of June 30. When asked by Kai about the features on the awaited album, Uzi stated: Not that many features, but it's the features that everybody think I should have…where I started is where imma finish. On June 26, 2023, Uzi revealed the cover art and the release date on their website and simultaneously released the Gibson Hazard directed trailer for the album to build anticipation leading up to it.