Popular rapper Playboi Carti dropped an album on Friday, March 14, and it’s a big deal to a lot of people. Now if you’re a parent, a teacher or just somebody who doesn’t care about rap, you might be asking: Why is every teenage boy I know yelling and screaming, “CARTI FINALLY DROPPED?” I’ll give you the answer.
In the spring and summer of 2021, the Atlanta rapper and label owner posted a series of fit-pics and cryptic captions until he finally posted the caption “NARCISSIST 09/13/21.”
It was clear this was an album title and a release date, and his rabid fans couldn’t wait. But when the day came, nothing dropped. He shared some screenshots to assure fans it would drop, but eventually confirmed that he abandoned the project and renamed it “MUSIC.”
Carti and his associates have been repeating the phrase “2024 MUSIC” throughout the last year, with fans hoping it would finally culminate in something. They got some unofficial singles, one official single on DSPs and 52 fit pics, but no album.
By the start of 2025, fans grew tired. Any mention or rumor of “MUSIC” by Carti or other sources were not taken seriously — until last week. Billboards in NYC displayed “STREETS READY” and “I AM MUSIC,” the official Spotify account posted a visual promo for the album and Carti himself tweeted “FRIDAY.”
While there were some difficulties getting it out at exactly midnight which led to some hilarious reactions and interactions with Carti himself from various streamers, “MUSIC” finally released on Friday at around 6:30 a.m. EST.
Getting into the content of the actual album, it is an intimidating length of 30 songs with no interludes. Playboi Carti is not one who usually disappoints when it comes to intros, but “POP OUT” is one of his weaker ones, even though it is a fine song by itself. Aggressive, distorted-beyond-recognition synths and 808s drive the beat while Carti delivers his lines with a raspy inflection that is very reminiscent of his work on “Whole Lotta Red.”
Carti is best-known musically for his odd and daring vocal inflections. He uses “baby voice,” where he is higher in pitch and mumbles through most words (i.e. EARFQUAKE), “rockstar voice,” where he yells more in a raspy tone (i.e. New Tank), “Cash Carti,” where he raps more coherently in an Atlanta style (i.e. Magnolia) and the newly unveiled “deep voice,” where he mumbles in a deeper voice akin to Future (i.e. EVIL J0RDAN). I mention this because on “MUSIC,” Carti utilizes almost all of these with varying degrees of success.
“EVIL J0RDAN” is one of the worst tracks on the project. Aside from the use of the deep voice, which is my least favorite Carti inflection, the track contains a corny 50-second intro that really does nothing for the song.
Over half the songs on this project contain this deep voice vocal inflection and it actually does work in a handful of tracks. For example, “CHARGE DEM HOES A FEE” is hands down one of the best songs on the album.
We get all-star production from trap legends Southside and Wheezy, verses and choruses by Future, Carti doing his best Yeat impression and an outro verse by Travis Scott. Future goes two for two on features on “TRIM” where he snaps on some relatively tame production for a Carti project.
Carti also brings back the baby voice on some of the biggest highlights of the project; most notably, on the three-track run of “RATHER LIE,” “FINE SHIT” and “BACKD00R.” “RATHER LIE” has a phenomenal chorus delivered by The Weeknd supported by some cloudy loops throughout the track, and when we get to Carti, we hear some of the most clean and coherent rapping we’ve heard in a while — it’s very solid and charming.
On “FINE SHIT,” we also get something out of the left field for Carti: a straight hook-verse-hook song with coherent baby voice rapping without any other crazy vocal inflections or production. “BACKD00R” is another calmer cut with tamer rapping by Carti and a chorus sung by Kendrick Lamar, ironically underscored by a beat that sounds like something Drake would rap on. As good as this three-track run is, all three tracks are rife with controversy.
Firstly, “RATHER LIE” and “FINE SHIT” are under allegations of AI use with some convincing evidence. Considering how tame and laid-back Carti sounds on these two tracks, I fully believe that AI was used to make another rapper sound more like Carti.
My opinions on AI use in music are simple: I think it’s bad, lazy and has little to no place in this space. Secondly, “BACKD00R” was produced by self-identifying Nazi and record maker Kanye West.
Regardless of whether this was recorded before any of his statements, I think it’s irresponsible for any artists to publish art in association with Ye in this climate. However, I don’t want his name to take the attention away from all the other talented artists and producers who helped create this project, so that’s all I’ll say.
Was “MUSIC” worth the wait? Yes and no. On one hand, I’m really glad this came out because it has a ton of Carti’s best songs to date and continues his avant-garde approach to rap when many others stick to the status quo.
On the other hand, the other aspects of this project, such as the sequencing of tracks, the mixing and the use of AI convince me that the time between albums was not actually spent trying to give fans the best product possible.
Rating 3.5/5