# XO Tour Llif3
**"XO Tour Llif3"** (stylized "XO TOUR Llif3" and pronounced "XO Tour Life") is a 2017 single by the American rapper [Lil Uzi Vert](https://www.edgepedia.org/lil-uzi-vert), produced by TM88 and JW Lucas, that became one of the defining songs of the emo rap movement.[1](https://music.apple.com/us/song/1799996580) • [2](https://time.com/5804342/lil-uzi-vert-eternal-atake/) It circulated on [SoundCloud](https://www.edgepedia.org/soundcloud) before its commercial release, appeared on the EP *Luv Is Rage 1.5* and as the closing track of the debut album *[Luv Is Rage 2](https://www.edgepedia.org/luv-is-rage-2)*, and reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/18818-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/) • [4](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/song/1162-xo-tour-llif3/9/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist / release | Lil Uzi Vert; released to streaming February 26, 2017; commercial single release March 24, 2017[1](https://music.apple.com/us/song/1799996580) • [5](https://www.allmusic.com/album/xo-tour-llif3-mw0003035129) |
| Production | Produced by TM88 and JW Lucas; written by Bryan Simmons, John Wesley Lucas, and Symere Woods (Lil Uzi Vert)[1](https://music.apple.com/us/song/1799996580) |
| Signature beat | TM88 built the beat in FL Studio using a Beats Pill portable speaker as his only monitor[6](https://djbooth.net/features/2017-03-30-tm88-used-beats-pill/) |
| Chart peak | Debuted at No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 2017 and rose to No. 8 two weeks later; Pitchfork reports a No. 7 peak[7](https://www.xxlmag.com/tm88-interview-producing-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-life/) • [8](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lil-uzi-vert-luv-is-rage-2/) |
| Certifications and streams | Certified Platinum three times over; later accrued a billion streams[8](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lil-uzi-vert-luv-is-rage-2/) • [2](https://time.com/5804342/lil-uzi-vert-eternal-atake/) |
| Signature hook | "Push me to the edge / All my friends are dead"[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/18818-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/) |
## Background and release
The song originated during Lil Uzi Vert's run opening for [The Weeknd](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-weeknd) on the Starboy: Legend of the Fall 2017 world tour, where he premiered the track in London; the title pays homage to The Weeknd's label XO.[9](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH5ROxbKig4) A version uploaded to SoundCloud built a large following before the song was officially issued, and Apple Music dates its streaming release to February 26, 2017.[1](https://music.apple.com/us/song/1799996580) • [10](https://music.apple.com/us/album/luv-is-rage-2/1274150514) Pitchfork reviewed it as a self-released single on February 28, 2017, and the commercial single followed on Atlantic on March 24, 2017.[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/18818-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/) • [5](https://www.allmusic.com/album/xo-tour-llif3-mw0003035129)
The track appears on the EP *Luv Is Rage 1.5* and was later included as track 16 on *Luv Is Rage 2*, closing the album.[4](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/song/1162-xo-tour-llif3/9/) Critics noted the placement: the song that had carried the album's hype was tucked away as its final track, ending *Luv Is Rage 2* on a high note.[11](https://poly.rpi.edu/features/2017/09/2017-09-20-lil-uzi-vert-refines-sound-grows-fanbase)
## Production
**The beat** came from TM88, an Atlanta producer with 808 Mafia who had worked with Drake, Travis Scott, and [Wiz Khalifa](https://www.edgepedia.org/wiz-khalifa). He initially said on Twitter that he had made the beat on a Beats Pill, a portable [Bluetooth](https://www.edgepedia.org/bluetooth) speaker; after skepticism that a speaker could not function as a production tool, he confirmed the beat was produced in [FL Studio](https://www.edgepedia.org/fl-studio), then clarified that he had no connections for his speakers and really did make it on the Pill.[6](https://djbooth.net/features/2017-03-30-tm88-used-beats-pill/) In a Genius "Deconstructed" video he explained that the beat began as a three-year-old idea, which he sampled and reshaped by changing the tempo slightly and focusing on percussion.[12](https://www.thefader.com/2017/06/09/tm88-explains-xo-tour-llif3-beat) • [13](https://onsmash.com/music/deconstructed-with-tm88-the-making-of-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3/)
The result is a minor-key trap production built on a wiry synth lead over deep bass and skittering drums, with the 808 drums also carrying a melodic bass line.[14](https://rantingaboutmusic.com/2017/05/09/radio-rant-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/) • [15](https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/33/3/125/118552/Soundcloud-Rap-and-Alien-CreativityTransforming) TM88 predicted in mid-2017 that it would be played for the next 15 or 20 years.[12](https://www.thefader.com/2017/06/09/tm88-explains-xo-tour-llif3-beat)
## Music and lyrics
Lil Uzi Vert sings rather than raps for most of it, in an Auto-Tuned, emo-influenced nasal whine; TIME described it as "barely a rap song at all."[2](https://time.com/5804342/lil-uzi-vert-eternal-atake/) The hook moves from the taunt "I don't really care if you cry" into the refrain "Push me to the edge / All my friends are dead," which Pitchfork called a stretch of masterful songwriting that few artists could mimic without tipping into self-parody.[8](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lil-uzi-vert-luv-is-rage-2/)
The lyrics concern a failed relationship and suicidal thoughts; the "Brittany" of the song is generally read as Uzi's ex-girlfriend Brittany Byrd.[16](https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-asked-emo-bands-to-review-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3-1/) TM88 offered a different reading of the famous line, saying that in his understanding "all my friends are dead" referred to dead presidents, that is, money.[12](https://www.thefader.com/2017/06/09/tm88-explains-xo-tour-llif3-beat) Commentators repeatedly heard pop-punk in the song's construction: its verse-chorus soft-loud dynamic, its rhyming of "cry," "lied," "eyes," and "die," and its flat-footed adolescent melodrama sit closer to [Warped Tour](https://www.edgepedia.org/warped-tour) emo than to conventional rap.[14](https://rantingaboutmusic.com/2017/05/09/radio-rant-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/)
## Commercial performance
The song debuted at No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, news TM88 woke to on his 30th birthday in 2017, and reached No. 8 two weeks later, his first top-ten credit.[7](https://www.xxlmag.com/tm88-interview-producing-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-life/) Its highest position is reported differently: Pitchfork gives a No. 7 peak,[8](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lil-uzi-vert-luv-is-rage-2/) while DJcity and XXL give No. 8.[17](https://news.djcity.com/the-making-of-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3/) By early July 2017 it had earned 390 million on-demand streams in the United States, according to Nielsen Music.[18](https://device.report/m/47bc762add9767acda77cb6f1e36ab01dee099aeb27bbc0bafc234a7acbfae13.pdf) Spotify ranked it the second-most-streamed song of summer 2017 in the United States.[19](https://time.com/4923177/spotify-song-of-summer-2017/) After *Luv Is Rage 2* was released in August 2017, the single bounced back up the Hot 100 to No. 15 as the album's streams flooded the chart.[20](https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/look-what-streaming-made-the-billboard-charts-do-1513305369)
It was certified Platinum three times over, and by 2020 had accrued a billion streams.[8](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lil-uzi-vert-luv-is-rage-2/) • [2](https://time.com/5804342/lil-uzi-vert-eternal-atake/) The song's success was central to Lil Uzi Vert's rise: by early 2018, on the strength of "XO Tour Llif3" and a series of streaming-only mixtapes, he had passed a billion Spotify streams and received a Best New Artist Grammy nomination.[21](https://time.com/5118041/rap-music-mainstream/)
## Reception and influence
Critics treated the song as an event. Pitchfork's track review located it between "dire circumstances and party boy antics," with TM88's psychedelic minor-key production giving Uzi's nonchalance the feel of a daydream.[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/18818-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/) Vice called it "the year's most universal song," able to convey both recklessness and deep depression, and emo bands solicited for comment accepted it into their genre's canon.[22](https://www.vice.com/en/article/weep-to-this-piano-cover-of-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3/) • [16](https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-asked-emo-bands-to-review-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3-1/) In year-end aggregation it ranked first at outlets including Complex, Vulture, and Noisey, and fourth in Album of the Year's critic year-end rank.[4](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/song/1162-xo-tour-llif3/9/)
**Influence on emo rap** was immediate and durable. TIME wrote that the rap-emo crossover the song embodied spread and became commonplace over the following year, with [XXXTentacion](https://www.edgepedia.org/xxxtentacion), Juice WRLD, and [Lil Peep](https://www.edgepedia.org/lil-peep) all going mainstream.[2](https://time.com/5804342/lil-uzi-vert-eternal-atake/) Later retrospectives credit it with ushering emo rap into the mainstream, and a book history of the genre frames it as the moment Uzi Vert "codified misery in the mainstream."[23](https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/769211-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3-emo-rap-hip-hop-news) • [24](https://books.google.com/books?id=FGgiEQAAQBAJ) Its melodic use of the 808 bass line and voice-as-instrument delivery became a template for later trap and emo-rap production.[15](https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/33/3/125/118552/Soundcloud-Rap-and-Alien-CreativityTransforming)
The song also generated a behind-the-scenes dispute: in January 2018 TM88 said publicly that [Atlantic Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/atlantic-records) had never paid him for his work on one of 2017's biggest songs.[25](https://www.thefader.com/2018/01/05/tm88-xo-tour-llif3-producer-never-paid-atlantic) • [26](https://pitchfork.com/news/xo-tour-llif3-producer-tm88-says-he-never-got-paid-for-the-song/)
## References
1. [XO Tour Llif3 – Lil Uzi Vert, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/song/1799996580)
2. [How Lil Uzi Vert Became an Unlikely Superstar of the Streaming Era, TIME](https://time.com/5804342/lil-uzi-vert-eternal-atake/)
3. [Lil Uzi Vert: "XO TOUR Llif3" Track Review, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/18818-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/)
4. [XO Tour Llif3 – Song Ratings, Album of the Year](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/song/1162-xo-tour-llif3/9/)
5. [XO TOUR Llif3 – Lil Uzi Vert, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/xo-tour-llif3-mw0003035129)
6. [TM88 Made Lil Uzi Vert's "XO TOUR Llif3" on a Beats Pill?, DJBooth](https://djbooth.net/features/2017-03-30-tm88-used-beats-pill/)
7. [TM88 Explains How He Produced Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3" on a Beats Pill, XXL](https://www.xxlmag.com/tm88-interview-producing-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-life/)
8. [Lil Uzi Vert: Luv Is Rage 2 Album Review, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lil-uzi-vert-luv-is-rage-2/)
9. [The Making Of Lil Uzi Vert's "XO TOUR Llif3" With TM88 | Deconstructed, Genius (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH5ROxbKig4)
10. [Luv Is Rage 2 – Lil Uzi Vert, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/luv-is-rage-2/1274150514)
11. [Lil Uzi Vert refines sound, grows fanbase, The Polytechnic](https://poly.rpi.edu/features/2017/09/2017-09-20-lil-uzi-vert-refines-sound-grows-fanbase)
12. [Watch TM88 Explain How He Made The "XO Tour Llif3" Beat, The FADER](https://www.thefader.com/2017/06/09/tm88-explains-xo-tour-llif3-beat)
13. [Deconstructed with TM88: The Making of Lil Uzi Vert's "XO TOUR Llif3", OnSMASH](https://onsmash.com/music/deconstructed-with-tm88-the-making-of-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3/)
14. [Radio Rant: Lil Uzi Vert – "XO Tour Llif3", Ranting About Music](https://rantingaboutmusic.com/2017/05/09/radio-rant-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3/)
15. [Soundcloud Rap and Alien Creativity, Journal of Popular Music Studies](https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/33/3/125/118552/Soundcloud-Rap-and-Alien-CreativityTransforming)
16. [We Asked Emo Bands to Review Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3", Noisey/VICE](https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-asked-emo-bands-to-review-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3-1/)
17. [Watch TM88 Explain How He Produced Lil Uzi Vert's 'XO TOUR Llif3', DJcity](https://news.djcity.com/the-making-of-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3/)
18. [Billboard magazine archive, July 2017 (Nielsen Music stream data)](https://device.report/m/47bc762add9767acda77cb6f1e36ab01dee099aeb27bbc0bafc234a7acbfae13.pdf)
19. [These Are Spotify's Most Streamed Songs of Summer 2017, TIME](https://time.com/4923177/spotify-song-of-summer-2017/)
20. [Look what streaming made the Billboard charts do, Axios](https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/look-what-streaming-made-the-billboard-charts-do-1513305369)
21. [How Rap Became the Sound of the Mainstream, TIME](https://time.com/5118041/rap-music-mainstream/)
22. [Weep to This Piano Cover of Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3", Noisey/VICE](https://www.vice.com/en/article/weep-to-this-piano-cover-of-lil-uzi-verts-xo-tour-llif3/)
23. [How Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3" Ushered Emo Rap Into The Mainstream, HotNewHipHop](https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/769211-lil-uzi-vert-xo-tour-llif3-emo-rap-hip-hop-news)
24. [Crybaby: The Artists Who Shaped Emo Rap, Donna-Claire Chesman, Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=FGgiEQAAQBAJ)
25. [TM88, producer of "XO Tour Llif3," says he was never paid for the song, The FADER](https://www.thefader.com/2018/01/05/tm88-xo-tour-llif3-producer-never-paid-atlantic)
26. [Lil Uzi Vert's "XO TOUR Llif3" Producer TM88 Says He "Never Got Paid" For the Song, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/news/xo-tour-llif3-producer-tm88-says-he-never-got-paid-for-the-song/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › Hip-hop songs › 2010s hip-hop songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license