The enigmatic Atlanta rapper Jordan Carter, known as Playboi Carti, recently released the brazenly titled MUSIC, his first album in more than four years. His last album Whole Lotta Red was a revolutionary record and is now revered as one of the blueprints for modern hip hop in the 2020s. His influence is seen in many artists such as Don Toliver, Jane Remover, Ken Carson, Yeat, OsamaSon, 454, among many more. However, many of the artists inspired by Whole Lotta Red took the torch and ran with it by releasing stellar projects that stand out on their own merit. While this was great for fans of the genre rage music, it complicated Carti’s standing at the forefront of an oversaturated genre during his seemingly eternal musical hiatus.
With a behemoth 30 song track list typical of the modern day streaming error, MUSIC suffers from a lack of quality control and cohesion. This can be seen on similar sounding tracks such as “OVERLY” and “DIS 1 GOT IT”. The song “TOXIC” sounds like a cheap rehash of the previous single “BACKROOMS”. For an album that has been in the works for so long, MUSIC surprisingly has lackluster mixing. It shows with things like the bizarre extended intro sequence that sounds like it could’ve been ripped off of YouTube video outro on what’s currently the album’s most popular track “EVIL J0RDAN”.
Additionally, outside of a few guest appearances, most of the features on the record are middling or drag down the project at times. An A-list artist such as Playboi Carti should be capable of producing a more diverse and creative set of collaborations than three Travis Scott features, two Lil Uzi Vert features, three Kendrick Lamar features, two Future features and a repetitive feature from The Weeknd. Even though Carti is not known for being a profound lyricist, MUSIC lacks those sparing moments of introspection that added more depth to his previous projects.
Despite being a very flawed project, MUSIC has some highlights when it focuses on expanding the sounds of Whole Lotta Red. “POP OUT” is raw, sonically unhinged, and one of the most explosive and thrilling tracks to open an album. The songs “CRANK” and “COCAINE NOSE” feel like the evolved final form of the punk-rap sound. Kendrick Lamar makes an unexpectedly fun appearance as a hypeman on “MOJO JOJO”. However, another Kendrick Lamar collab “GOOD CREDIT” pales in comparison to his collaborations with Baby Keem and is slightly underwhelming due to a dull production choice and Carti’s lethargic vocal delivery.
Out of all the various genre forays on the album, Playboi Carti is at his best when tapping into electronic and sample based sounds. The spacey production on “OLYMPIAN” and “I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI” is hypnotic and serves as a perfect medium for his raspy melodies. Playboi Carti delivers his finest performance on “OPM BABI” by using an eclectic vocal delivery and surrounding himself with thrilling, unrelenting gunshot effects and hype producer tags courtesy of Atlanta legend DJ Swamp Izzo. Another stellar performance on the album comes over a fun creative sample of the Rich Kidz song “Bend Over” on “LIKE WEEZY”. These sounds suit Playboi Carti well and one can only hope he continues to explore these lanes on future projects instead of rehashing cheap thrills that have already run their course in mainstream music.
Official Maurice Crawford Score: 6.8/10
