Article Summary: Die-hard vampette Correspondent Wilhelmina Ampomah-Sraha realizes that her beloved Carti isn’t washed, he just doesn’t want to make music anymore.
Throughout his career, rapper Playboi Carti has worked in eras, making sure to take his time mastering his craft. In his third studio album “Music,” Carti reverts to his South Atlanta origins, debuting a new deep voice over a variety of trap style beats in contrast to his previous baby-like sound from his second studio album “Whole Lotta Red.” He trades in his famous “what?” adlib for a newer “schyeah.”
Dubbed “the worst rollout of all time” by fans, the “Music” era was defined by disappointment.
Carti’s Antagonist Tour, featuring labelmates Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely and Homixide Gang, set the scene for the hype of an album. After being rescheduled from its original fall dates, each label member released an album around the same time except for Carti, fueling speculation that he would soon follow suit as the tour’s start came closer.
The tour was abruptly canceled in March 2024, but only after Carti teased six singles throughout his social media, feeding into hype. Three tracks — “K POP,” “EVIL J0RDAN” and “HBA” — appeared on the final tracklist, while “2024” and “BACKR00MS” were released as webstore-exclusive tracks.
On March 12, Spotify tweeted alluding to a release date of March 14. After even more delays and the rapper’s reassurance that the album would be out “any minute now” around 3 a.m., the album reached streaming around 7:30 a.m. in the morning, ending the wait.
He introduces the album with “POP OUT,” a raspy-voiced Carti reviving his signature rage sound over an electronic beat — a long-awaited grail for many after being debuted during his Wireless Festival set in 2023. He carries this electronic sound over into his second track “CRUSH” featuring Travis Scott and a gospel choir, repeating the phrase “shawty gon’ let me crush” — a common aspect of his songs as he freestyles lyrics instead of writing beforehand, crafting earworms.
The production sets the stage for collaborators on the album to make their presence known through adlibs like DJ Swamp Izzo’s own name and Travis Scott’s “Straight up!”
Carti prefers doing things his own way, abandoning song structure on tracks “K POP” and “EVIL J0RDAN.” Two songs that went triple platinum in my car last summer, both ditching the need for a hook, got the job done with memorable puns such as “I found Jesus, Christian Dior” over sinister yet striking beats.
Despite having four years to perfect “Music,” it manages to somehow sound off. The songs tend to lack real purpose as we hear constantly about wealth and drugs in contrast to “Whole Lotta Red” which carried context behind lyrics, like “Stop Breathing,” a diss track aimed at Henchmen gang following the murder of Carti’s close friend Bigg Sosa.
The beats and flow of the album provide where lyrics lack. Songs “RADAR” and “WALK” sample Lil Wayne’s “John” and Bankroll Fresh’s “Sydney” respectively. Effortless bars paired with the album’s obligatory snare rolls will have you feeling like hot stuff.
Unfortunately, the songs with catchy instrumentals and focused lyrics sound marketed. Particularly his three track run, including the introspective love song “RATHER LIE” — which sparked claims of AI vocals as he revealed a new range of vocals — and “BACKD00R.” The songs came off as attempted summer hits replicating sounds of songs like SZA’s “30 For 30” with features from artists like Kendrick Lamar.
Other songs come off as throwaways, as if he tried to quickly put something together so that the fans could stop whining about being neglected and mistreated by the artist they watched emerge from the Atlanta underground.
“PHILLY” carries heavy Travis Scott influence from its guitar-led instrumental to the fact that the song is balanced 75-25 between the two. The same thing happens on “CHARGE DEM HOES A FEE” as Future takes lead, making Carti a feature on his own song. “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” is the worst case of all, as he raps only six lines on Young Thug and Gunna leak “Vibing” recorded sometime in 2021, a song that sounds nothing like him.
On “TWIN TRIM,” he doesn’t show up at all, leaving Lil Uzi Vert to do all the work.
Unnecessary appearances had no place on “Whole Lotta Red,” which only included three features.
The inauthenticity of “Music” damaged its cohesion, making it sound like a mixtape rather than an album. It seems that Carti lacks regard for the music he makes, but why should he when there’s an entourage to do it for him?
It’s particularly upsetting for trusting fans to see when the album features songs like “OPM BABI,” an authentic approach to his experimental sound. Sampling Slipknot’s “742617000027,” it serves as evidence of his ability to do it all alone, which makes his refusal immensely disappointing.
Carti has most definitely solidified his spot as one of the greatest rappers of our generation, making sure to get the job done regardless of creative direction. “Music” is by no means a bad album, but still falls short of what Carti could have delivered. The forced collaborations and lack of thematic cohesion make it feel more like a collection of industry-pleasing singles rather than a fully realized artistic statement.
Maybe he will reach whatever he’s trying to achieve and “Music” will be “Brat” for boys who unironically ask if you know Nettspend, but it was simply not worth all the maltreatment he caused his fans.
Voltaire was right that perfection requires the hand of time, but the simple truth of “it’s not ready yet” or “I don’t want to focus on music right now” could have kept transparency within his fanbase, preventing the bridges burning along the way and lowered the expectations Carti refused to meet.
Maybe he’ll make up for it with the next album in eight years.
