Grimes Makes The Outlandish Claim That Lil Uzi Vert Has Purchased A Planet Larger Than Jupiter

Space has long been a fascination for rapper Lil Uzi Vert, who has used the nickname Baby Pluto and alien motifs throughout his career, most recently in the artwork and promotional materials for his 2020 album Eternal Atake. He’s also fond of making outrageous purchases, such as the pink diamond he wore in the middle of his forehead for a time earlier this year. Finally, he’s seemingly quite friendly with experimental musician Grimes, who is herself quite cozy with Space X founder Elon Musk, with whom she shares a child, X Æ A-Xii.

So as apparently nonsensical as a statement like “Grimes says Lil Uzi Vert has purchased a planet larger than Jupiter” might read, there is a certain kind of logic behind it — and that’s exactly what happened on Twitter last night, as Grimes retweeted an artist’s depiction of WASP-127b, a gas giant exoplanet in a neighboring solar system, and told her followers, “Apparently Lil Uzi Vert owns this planet.”

Uzi shot down the claim, but not because it was so outlandish — it just wasn’t true… yet. “I tried 2 surprise everyone,” he admitted in a reply. “Still working on it.”

https://twitter.com/LILUZIVERT/status/1418065544239108098

Meanwhile, Grimes made the amendment on her own timeline for her followers, telling them, “Documentation almost complete for Lil Uzi Vert to legally claim wasp-127b — This is huge! First human to legally own a planet.”

Listen, not to rain on anyone’s parade here, but it seems unlikely that such a thing could be true. I suppose it’s a little like NFTs, the other big “advancement” in tech that Uzi and Grimes both seem all-in on. You can buy a certificate that says you “own” a thing, but functionally, that’s pretty much meaningless other than as a flex, so you can say that you had the money to waste.

For one thing, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty states no individual or government can have sovereignty over any body in space. For instance, several private entities have claimed ownership over Earth’s moon over the years, but no one actually takes them seriously. Whoever Uzi is “buying” WASP-127b from, let’s hope they give him a receipt… and a long lead on the return policy.