1540 days. 220 weeks. 50 months. 4 years.
This was how long the wait was for Playboi Carti’s album Music. The time in between releases was confusing— between songs released on Instagram, a canceled tour, leaks, and a broken promise to drop during 2024, it was hard for fans to believe the wait was ending when Carti himself, Spotify, and a multitude of billboards across the US announced an official March 14 release date.
After such a drawn-out release, expectations were bound to be higher than normal. With a 30-track record with features from pop and R&B heavyweights like The Weeknd and Jhené Aiko to trap legends like Future and Travis Scott, not only met them but exceeded them.
One of the most impressive parts of Music is the range of sounds. The album opens with “Pop Out,” an industrial, aggressive song where Carti’s voice is closer to yelling than rapping, with other songs like “Opm Babi,” “Crank,” and especially “C****** Nose,” with an electric guitar instrumental, all using this loud, in-your-face sound extremely well.
And yet, the same album has songs like “Backd00r” or “South Atlanta Baby” with lighter tones and samples from classic soul songs that have an infectious melody. There are more traditional trap songs like “TRIM,” with Future, “GOOD CREDIT”, with Kendrick Lamar or “RADAR,” that have more mainstream style production with simpler flows from both Carti and his all-star features.
Perhaps the best side of MUSIC is its tracks with more ethereal, near EDM style production and melodic vocals from Carti. “Olympian” and “I See You Baby Boi” are great tracks with near surreal instrumentals that give Carti the opportunity to push the boundaries of rap, something he’s been fond of his whole career. On “Rather Lie” Carti teams with the Weeknd to deliver untraditionally emotional lyrics, even more surprising for an album that started with the bar, “I can’t come to your party / I might come just to hurt you.”
The length of the album isn’t without its drawbacks– tracks like “Munyun” or “Dis 1 Got It” are nearly impossible to understand with so many layers of autotune on Carti’s voice and are hurt by boring production. “Toxic” is perhaps the worst offender, wasting a great verse from UK rapper Skepta on both a repetitive instrumental and vocal performance from Carti.
There are also some baffling tracklist decisions– the intro track has a 30 second outro that is supposed to transition it to “EvilJ0rdan.” However, this track somehow ends up as the fourth track, two songs after it’s intended transition. “Twin Trim” is a bizarre track as well– half of the song is an instrumental, followed by 40 seconds of Lil Uzi Vert rapping, with no vocal appearance from Carti. Considering the anticipation of the album, choices like these are flawed.
The four-year buildup of hype, however, has no doubt paid off for Carti, who has been dominating the charts with all 30 songs from the album appearing on the Billboard Hot 100, earning him the most streamed album and artist of the week. Additionally, “Music” sold 298,000 copies in its first week, which is the biggest debut week for an album since Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” in April of 2024, and the album earned the fourth-largest hip hop opening week ever.
Carti is showing no signs of slowing down either. He released the “Sorry 4 Da Wait” edition of his latest album, adding 4 tracks of material previously released onto streaming platforms on March 25th. He has also already been teasing a new project called “Baby Boi” via social media.
Playboi Carti has always been a divisive name in hip hop. His polarizing style makes some see him as an innovator and others as overhyped. And while it has its flaws, Music is another piece of work from him that pushes not only hip hop’s boundaries but his own, showing off his impressively solid range of sounds and delivering an overall great album, a reminder to the world that Carti is above all else, a gifted creator.
