"Carti dropped."
Stumbling out of bed and seeing that text made the morning of March 14 a blur. After 1,540 days and a whole lotta lying, the ever-mysterious artist Playboi Carti finally released his third studio album, aptly titled "MUSIC."
As I pressed play and Carti's hyper-raspy voice blared over the industrial, rage-rap opener "POP OUT," I couldn't believe my ears. Maybe, just maybe, "MUSIC" could capture some of the magic my starry-eyed, high school sophomore self felt listening to Carti's preceding album "Whole Lotta Red" for the first time.
I wasn't exactly left disappointed.
There's nothing but raw energy replete through the 30-track, 77-minute album. Carti's verses are loud, gritty and in-your-face — effortlessly bolstering the grandiose, larger-than-life persona he's curated for himself.
It's apparent in the black-and-white wordmark making up the album cover. He is music, and the Atlanta native has no intention of making you forget it.
"MUSIC" is meant to be played on concert speakers, not headphones. Leading hits like "EVIL J0RDAN" and "HBA" will, without a shadow of a doubt, be mainstays in Carti's sets.
Travis Scott's autotune works its magic on "PHILLY" and "WAKE UP F1LTHY." Carti and The Weeknd continue their stretch as one of the more dynamic duos of the 2020s — "RATHER LIE" feels like the long-lost brother of their earlier collab in "Timeless," and will surely dominate the radio waves for who knows how long.
Getting Kendrick Lamar to feature on three songs was a welcome surprise. Juxtaposing the more traditional Kendrick — arguably the defining rapper of the 2010s — with the new-gen, experimentalist superstar in Carti helped bridge various ends of the hiphop spectrum (their sound also sounded great in "GOOD CREDIT").
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ATL legend Swamp Izzo's DJ tag that's sporadically strewn throughout the album is incredibly catchy, paying homage to the 2000s and 2010s mixtape era and functioning as an extension of Carti's distinctive ad-libs. That "SWAMP IZZO" on "CRANK" and "RADAR" shoots a burst of adrenaline right into your eardrums.
Carti put on a masterclass in versatility, running the gamut from video game OST type-beats in "OLYMPIAN" to chipmunk soul samples in "BACKD00R."
But where the album met expectations, it fell short in plenty of other regions.
This album was lengthy. 30 songs (with 4 more on the deluxe) made "MUSIC" a long listen. While more music isn't necessarily a bad thing, low-quality music is. "WALK," "DIS 1 GOT IT" and "MUNYUN" lacked substance beyond their production and felt like filler tracks.
Some songs felt out of place. "WE NEED ALL THE VIBES" was a fantastic Young Thug track and will be on my summer playlist, but the calm, mainstream approach didn't fit in with the chaotic, countercultural vibe innervating the rest of the album.
Other songs felt rushed; failing to live up to their potential. "CRUSH" had (literally) angelic production with a gospel choir singing some not particularly gospel-friendly lyrics, but you only get 30 seconds of an actual verse. The remaining two and a half minutes are purely ad-libs.
Lil Uzi Vert killed it on "TWIN TRIM," but Carti doesn't even show up on his own song. Nevertheless, "JUMPIN" helps satiate that nostalgia for the legendary late-2010s Carti and Uzi connection.
Some songs were just noise. For all the love I have for Swamp Izzo's soundboard, its overuse in "OPM BABI" alongside the Roblox-esque gunshot sound effect and the snare roll was some serious sensory overload.
Granted, the album was never going to be perfect. Carti's aura-farming routine that helped establish a cult of personality within his fanbase betrayed him. Having an almost half-decade gap between albums invariably raises public expectations to an unreasonable level.
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Even after two weeks, "MUSIC" has left an overall positive legacy. The experimentation demonstrated in the album signals to artists that changing up one's sound should be encouraged in the pursuit of something greater.
"MUSIC" will sell. It's already topping charts across the world. It's good to see established artists take a nontraditional approach to the mainstream and expose the public to new depths of art.
I'd love to see how Carti takes his sound even further, but I hope I don't need to wait another five years. He's recently hinted toward dropping a new project, "BABY BOI," soon. Nevertheless, getting lied to by Carti is a canon event for any fan of his, so who's to say?
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Editor's note: The opinions presented in this review are the author's and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
Edited by Andrew Dirst, Abigail Beck and Katrina Michalak.
Reach the reporter at stroeste@asu.edu and follow @samtroester on X.
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Sam is a sophomore studying political science with a minor in business. This is his first semester with The State Press.
