Lil Uzi Vert Says He’ll Bleach His Skin, Changes Avatar To Vybz Kartel

By Akeelia Richards Thu, February 3 2022, 02:00 PM EST

It’s Black History Month in the US and Canada and Philadelphia rapper Lil Uzi Vert has found an unconventional way to kickstart the month-long celebration.

Before his first tweet of 2022, the XO Tour Llif3 rapper, born Symere Bysil Woods, changed his Twitter profile to a photo of Dancehall star Vybz Kartel. He then announced that he will be bleaching his skin.

“Bleaching my skin need umbrella,” he wrote with a big eye emoji.

https://twitter.com/LILUZIVERT/status/1488926726566592512

He then changed his avatar to Michael Jackson and then back to Vybz Kartel again, before another strange tweet. “Oh yea announce I don’t know a person on earth @ all brain been itchy … so if you know me and I reintroduce myself don’t get offended Thank you so much signed Boop,” he added.

Uzi is no stranger to Dancehall and, in particular, has shown a fondness for the Worl’ Boss when, for his birthday last year, he was seen celebrating and rocking out to Kartel’s Fever.

However, his tweet about bleaching coupled at the start of Black History Month did not sit well with fans who questioned the timeliness of his post. One user quoted his tweet with concern as to whether Uzi was being serious or just trolling.

“Lil Uzi Vert announced that may bleach his skin in his first tweet of 2022… Considering it is Black History Month and he has Vybz Kartel as his avi it is hard to tell whether his trolling or not,” the fan noted.

Skin bleaching wouldn’t be Lil Uzi’s first controversial body mod.

Last year February, he shocked the internet when he implanted a dollar pink diamond, said to be worth $24 million, in his forehead. In September, Insider reported that the diamond was ripped from his head by fans.

Vybz Kartel, who is currently sentenced to life for murder, had launched his own line of skin bleaching products before he was arrested in 2011. Kartel had indicated that his use of skin lightening products was purely for style and that it was not different from women who straighten their hair.

“I have said in a statement that when everyone stops doing all of that shit, we can all live naturally ever after. But until then, f-ck you all,” the Worl’ Boss told the Rolling Stone magazine, in a June 2011 interview.

In February 2020, during a panel discussion titled “The Business of Bob Marley” at a symposium at the Bob Marley Museum Sean Paul’s former manager Zachary Harding, revealed that Kartel once asked whether Paul’s international success was due to him being light-skinned.

“He (Kartel) and I had a long conversation, and he started to ask what role Sean’s ‘brownness’ played in his success. And this was right at the time when Kartel started bleaching,” Harding had said, according to an article published by Loop Jamaica.

“I just found it fascinating because he was fascinated with the question of ‘was Sean’s brownness an influential factor in his success’ versus Kartel’s success,” Harding said, before pointing out that another Jamaican superstar, track legend Usain Bolt, has achieved significant financial success away from the sport “while visibly black” and that “at the end of the day, it’s the product that wins”.