Combining the vamp-industrial rage-trap aesthetics of “Whole Lotta Red,” with the minimalist, baby-voiced and psychedelic world imagined in “Die Lit,” Playboi Carti’s “MUSIC” is the latest and greatest summer anthem for a new generation of Hip Hop listeners. Carti’s album is detailed, disjointed and slightly bloated, creating something that is inherently flawed but impressive nevertheless.
Despite being held back by a few uninteresting and out-of-place features and production choices, “MUSIC” features some of Carti’s most exciting and attention-capturing vocal performances to date, on a set of beats perfectly representative of his influence on the genre.
The album comes to fans after over 5 years of snippet leaks, feature performances, album announcements, title changes and much more. The original rollout for the album that became “MUSIC” began in early 2024 with the release of “Different Day” and “2024” on Instagram.
The project includes 30 songs, with a total run time of just over one hour, featuring other modern titans of hip-hop, trap and R&B like The Weeknd, Future, Travis Scott, Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert.
“MUSIC,” is not another exercise in creative subgenre crafting. It is, rather, a celebration of the many sounds and styles owing their origin to Carti’s detailed history and the various influences that enabled such history. The always entertaining and often deceptively detailed production, coupled with the Gen-Z coded “SWAMP IZZO” announcements and sound effects, cement Playboi Carti as one of the most eclectic and in-demand artists today. Despite the size of the project and the disjointed nature of the track list, the LP has plenty more hits than misses
The album begins with the screeching, raspy, and in-your-face “POP OUT,” over which Carti finds an off-the-wall but remarkably catchy flow. Expanding on the industrial punk influences of “Whole Lotta Red,” the track is certainly attention-grabbing and has proven to be polarizing among fans and mainstream listeners alike.
“RADAR” finds a similarly disorienting vibe. Featuring a ghostly, horn-laden piece of production from Metro Boomin, the track sees some of Carti’s most interesting vocal variations, uniting the various tones and vibes crafted over his career in the same track.
Much later in the track list, “OPM BABI” brings quite possibly the most obscure and experimental sound, both the production and vocals, in Carti’s entire discography. On its surface, the combination of laughable sing-songy vocalizations, rapid snares, buzzy synth leads and video game gunshot sound effects should never work. Somehow, though, it does, and the track is already becoming a cult-classic among Carti’s most devoted fans.
The irony-draped “FINE SH*T” brings a sobering yet humorous tone lyrically, with Carti exploring themes of loyalty and commitment, directly commenting on the trials and tribulations of having an attractive girlfriend. With his characteristic baby voice from “Die Lit,” and a repetitive, and vocal-snippet-heavy beat from Cash Cobain and Keanu Beats, the track is a fun, summer-y banger that does not overstay its welcome.
Featuring a similarly cheerful beat, “LIKE WEEZY” is an instantly infectious – short-and-sweet – rage-trap ballad with an amazing Rich Kidz sample. The song’s energy is almost joyous, over which Carti unseriously flexes his status in the music industry at large.
Similarly braggadocious is the track “OLYMPIAN.” The track’s cycling, low-pitched, and synth-heavy production from Clif Shayne and DJ Moon, coupled with Carti’s lyrics detailing his drug-laden, luxurious lifestyle, is again, reminiscent of the “Die Lit” days.
The album is not without its weak points, however. The record is certainly bloated, with various tracks overlapping thematically. The back half of the record is also noticeably more interesting than the front half. Most of the singles that were teased on social media in the months leading up to “MUSIC’s” release land towards the front of the album, if they were included in the project all together.
Given their much earlier release, tracks like “K POP” and “EVILJORDAN” lack the novelty and originality characteristic of the album’s brightest spots.
Furthermore, the features on “MUSIC” are somewhat disappointing, often distracting from or negating the overall vibe of the project. “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES,” featuring guest performances from Young Thug and Ty Dolla $ign, is a painfully mediocre attempt at a pop-rap anthem. Even a smooth and confidently sung hook from Young Thug can’t help the track blend in stylistically with the rest of the album.
“MOJO JOJO” finds a similar fate. With ad lib inclusions from Kendrick Lamar, the track features an extremely stripped-back, skeletal instrumental, over which Carti raps rather incoherently. Carti has never been the most lyrical and intellectual of rappers, but the mixing of the track makes it difficult to follow his flow when compared to other tracks
Playboi Carti broke onto the trap scene during its SoundCloud era from 2014 to 2017, finding both mainstream and underground success with popularity from records like the 2016 self-titled project and 2018’s “Die Lit.”
Carti originally struck gold with a simple, stripped-backed and repetitive style of trap, over which he rapped in his signature “baby-voice” vocals. The album draws on a variety of influences – Young Thug’s nasally and wild delivery, Future’s buttery smooth flow and A$AP Rocky’s druggy, colorful vibe – and over bright and synth-led production from Pierre Borne. Carti’s releases greatly influenced the contemporary Hip Hop subgenres of psychedelic trap and rage in this era.
Carti’s infamous and continually polarizing 2020 release, “Whole Lotta Red,” saw the rapper forego many of the previous elements that fans loved about his music in favor of a novel and rather experimental style of trap draped in vampiric, punk aesthetics. Carti ditched his simple, hypnotic and high-pitched sound for a heavily distorted, hyper-aggressive, almost smokey combination of production and vocals, splitting his fan base in the process.
Despite the variety of opinions and perspectives on “Whole Lotta Red,” the album’s influence is unquestionable. Carti’s work here birthed an entire field of new underground artists, emulating the same aggressive, distorted and disorienting sound he introduced.
Playboi Carti’s “MUSIC” is an exciting and, at times, puzzling celebration of the aesthetics that made him so beloved and popular in the first place. The album’s long tracklist affords it song-clustering that are representative of some of the most notable ideas of Carti’s career but also lends to somewhat of an inconsistent overall listening experience. Despite this and the general lack of notable features, “MUSIC” features some of Carti’s most catchy vocal performances, with some of the best and most diverse production he has ever worked over, all in one, not-so-small package.
FAVORITE TRACKS:
POP OUT, CRUSH, RADAR, FINE SH*T, I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI, TRIM, OLYMPIAN, OPM BABI, LIKE WEEZY, HBA, OVERLY, SOUTH ATLANTA BABY, FOMDJ
LEAST FAVORITE TRACKS:
K POP, MOJO JOJO, JUMPIN, WE NEED ALL DA VIBES
RATING:
Light to Decent 7
