If you try to find Drunken Babble on Spotify or Apple Music today, you’re basically chasing a ghost. It’s not there. Not officially, anyway. You might find a stray "podcast" upload or a sketchy playlist from a fan account, but Kali Uchis herself has spent years treating this project like a cringey high school yearbook photo she’d rather everyone just forget about.
Honestly, it’s kinda wild because this 17-track mixtape is exactly what put her on the map. Released on August 1, 2012, it wasn’t recorded in a fancy studio with a million-dollar budget. Far from it.
Kali was roughly 18 or 19 at the time. She had just graduated from T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. She was literally living out of her car—a Subaru, if you want to get specific—after being kicked out of her house. She was making beats on GarageBand and filming her own music videos with a lo-fi aesthetic that felt more like a fever dream than a marketing strategy.
The Raw Magic of the GarageBand Era
Most people discovered Kali through the polished, shimmering soul of Isolation or the TikTok-viral "Telepatía." But Drunken Babble is where the DNA of her sound actually started. It’s messy. It’s raw. The mixing is, frankly, all over the place.
But that’s why fans love it.
There’s a track called "Mucho Gusto" where she just spits bars over a gritty beat, showing a side of her artistry that feels way more hip-hop than the "dream-pop princess" label she eventually got stuck with. Then you have "Chimichanga" and "T.Y.W.I.G." (Take You Where I Go), which feel like they were pulled straight out of a 1960s doo-wop record that someone left out in the sun until it started to warp.
The mixtape was a massive "genre-defying" flex. She was pulling from reggae, soul, and early 2000s R&B. It caught the attention of heavy hitters like Snoop Dogg, Diplo, and Tyler, The Creator almost immediately. Imagine being a teenager in Virginia, living in your car, and suddenly Snoop Dogg is calling you up to collaborate because he heard your DIY mixtape on DatPiff.
Why Did Drunken Babble Disappear?
So, if it was so successful, why did she scrub it from the internet? There are basically two big reasons, and they aren't just about her "hating" the music.
- The Sampling Nightmare: This is the boring but real legal stuff. Since the mixtape was released for free on DatPiff, Kali used a ton of samples that were never cleared. We're talking about loops from Delegation ("Oh Honey") and other classic soul tracks. To put these on streaming services like Spotify, she’d have to pay a fortune or give away most of the royalties.
- The Personal Trauma: For Kali, this era represents a "dark time." Living in your car isn't some aesthetic choice when you're 18; it's survival. She’s mentioned in interviews and on Instagram Lives that she looks back at that period and sees a version of herself that was struggling.
She once tweeted that she wasn't exactly proud of the quality because she had never produced or recorded anything before. In her eyes, it was "just for play." To her fans, it was a masterpiece. That’s a gap that’s never really been bridged.
The Tracklist That Refuses to Die
Even though she deleted the videos and took down the official links, the Drunken Babble tracklist lives on in the digital underground.
- Never Be Yours: Probably the most famous song from this era. It’s so popular that she actually re-recorded a polished version of it years later because fans wouldn't stop asking for it.
- Table For Two: A total vibe. It’s dreamy, slow, and showcases that "lazy" vocal delivery that became her signature.
- Tiger Lily: A fan favorite that feels like a precursor to the Por Vida EP.
- Pay Day: A rare moment where she leans hard into a reggae rhythm without it feeling like a cheap imitation.
Is a Re-Release Actually Coming?
There’s been some back-and-forth on this. In 2023, during an Instagram Live, Kali actually hinted that she was thinking about re-recording the mixtape with a live band to get around the sample issues. She wanted to give the fans what they wanted without the legal headaches of the original GarageBand files.
But don’t hold your breath. She’s a perfectionist.
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She later walked some of that back, saying it might never happen because she’s moved so far past that sound. She’s a global superstar now. Going back to the "babble" of her 18-year-old self might feel like taking ten steps backward artistically, even if it would be a guaranteed streaming hit.
How to Actually Listen to It Today
If you’re dying to hear the original Drunken Babble, you’ve got to go to the places where the "old internet" still lives.
YouTube is your best bet. There are several "Full Album" uploads that have been sitting there for years, somehow dodging the copyright strike ninjas. SoundCloud is the other goldmine. Fans have uploaded "Deluxe" versions that include extra tracks like "Honey Baby" and "Pablo Escobar."
Just know that what you’re hearing is a snapshot of a moment. It’s the sound of a girl in a Subaru in Virginia who had no idea she was about to become one of the most important voices in Latin pop. It’s unpolished, it’s a little chaotic, and yeah, it’s basically "drunken babble"—but that’s exactly what makes it special.
What to do next:
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If you want the closest thing to an official high-quality version of this era, check out Kali Uchis's re-released version of "Never Be Yours" on streaming platforms. It’s the only piece of the mixtape she has fully "reclaimed" for the modern era. For the rest, head to YouTube or SoundCloud and look for the 2012 archives before they eventually get taken down for good.