After a five-year hiatus since his last album, rapper and fashion icon Jorden Terrell Carter, also known as Playboi Carti, would finally drop the long-awaited album “MUSIC” that has had fans in a chokehold.
The album, which was announced in 2021, shortly after his previous album, has gone through many changes and alterations, not leaving anything leaked. The most fans would hear before the album’s release was when Carti would play unreleased tracks during live performances.
Within that time span of making “MUSIC,” he would also be forming his own label called Opium, in which he would primarily promote the artist under the label, such as Ken Carson and Destroy Lonely. These artists would also gain their own cult-like following and helped mitigate the gap of no music from Carti, which he would often lie and say he would be releasing soon.
Lie after lie, outfit picture after outfit picture, fans – still delusional – had hope that he was going to release.
Fans left waiting
It wasn’t until Dec. 20, 2023 that Carti would release his first single, “H00dByAir,” on his Instagram story, promoting that a new album was on the way in 2024. The single would prove that Carti would be ahead of the curve with the unique production that sounded like a weird alien sound while Carti rapped about his fashionable life. Sadly, fans would have to wait till 2025, but throughout 2024 he would be posting new singles on his Instagram story, until he officially announced the title “MUSIC” on Sept. 12 of last year.
Still leaving the album as ambiguous and mysterious as to when it would officially release, fans would be hopeful or frustrated, stating that this wouldn’t be worth the wait.
Carti would even delay the release a few more times, leaving fans upset, all the while still posting his outfit pictures on Instagram. It got to a point where people really thought he was not releasing or maybe even outright scrapped the album.
Until the faithful day of March 14, the album would drop at three in the morning. The album would contain 30 songs and is an hour and seventeen minutes in length, so the fans had a lot of media to consume. This day would be like a national holiday for a lot of Opium fans; it was everywhere on social media and people were talking about it.
The real question was whether the album was any good and worth the wait. With a statement like “I AM MUSIC,” Carti would still be one of the few artists in the rage-genre to prove that, while he was a big contributor to the creation of the genre, he’s still got it.
songs on the album
The opening track, “POP OUT,” is a blasting disjointed beat that completely encapsulates the speakers while being aggressive on the mic stating that people get nervous when he shows up, also known as popping out.
“EVIL J0RDAN” is a single that was released in 2024 on his Instagram and would face some alteration since the original release. It now has this minute long before then transitioning to a slick, murderous beat. As the name of the song implies, it is about the evil alter ego of Carti.
The song “RATHER LIE” is a tamer track, featuring The Weeknd. The song proves that they are a dynamic duo, discussing topics about relationship issues. The production on the track is a big standout.
Then we get to the song “TOXIC” featuring Skepta, both bringing this slick ominous production with killer bars about moshing and pure narcissistic energy. Skepta goes even harder than Carti on his own song and stands out on the track. This track is, in my opinion, the best song of the album.
With the praise I am giving this album it sounds like this might be a revolutionary rap album. It is not a perfect record, and with a track list of 30 songs it is rather challenging to make every song amazing. If anything, the record is top-loaded while the second half really drags with some feature songs that are really good. It would prove to be detrimental to the record due to filler tracks.
Even certain songs, such as “OPM BABI,” are just soundboard heaven with nothing but over produced bass and consistent gunshot sound effects and producer tags screaming “Swamp Izzo.” “CRUSH,” though a well produced song, Carti and Travis Scott didn’t do much on it. “WALK” is just there as a song, nothing interesting to make it stand out.
This record is not bad by any means; it is quality listening. However, I would recommend listening to the album one time and finding the songs that stand out the most. This album picks and chooses when it wants to push the envelope of trap music, but when it does, it really shines in those areas.
I can see this record influence another set of rappers who will try and ride the style of this record. Some might be good, or some might be bad. But one thing is for sure – Carti still shows that everyone in the game gets nervous when he pops out.
