Playboi Carti is back.
After going five years without an album, Playboi Carti has finally given his fans what they have been craving for, a new album. The album, which is called I AM MUSIC, is 30 songs and one hour and 16 minutes long.
It marks Playboi Carti’s fourth album and is filled with features from Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Skepta, Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign and Jhene Aiko.
The album launch started off, to say the least, with a chaotic rollout. When fans opened their streaming services at 9 p.m. Thursday, which was when the album was supposed to drop, they were left disappointed once again as they saw no album on Carti’s.
Then he would announce it would drop at midnight on Friday so the album could correlate with the blood moon which would be happening later that night. Yet when fans opened their streaming services they were left disappointed once again. The album would finally drop at around 4:45 a.m.
The album which pushes the boundaries of rap is filled with heavily distorted 808’s, ambient synth layers and some very chaotic drum patterns, all typical of Playboi Carti. These types of instrumentals can be seen more clearly on songs like “Evil J0rdan”, “Munyun”, “Cocaine Nose”, “HBA” and on the opening track “Pop Out”.
The album also features some more minimalistic melodies, with more organized beats and drum patterns. These can be found in tracks like “Rather Lie”, “Good Credit” and “We Need All Da Vibes”.
Carti also shows the range of his voice switching between multiple different voices and flows on each track. In this project he does use his deep voice more instead of the signature baby voice that he has used throughout all his other projects. He also shows love and pays homage to his roots in Atlanta. On some tracks like “Walk” and “Toxic” his voice almost mimics that of Future’s, a legendary Atlanta rapper.
Although you could say that the biggest influence for this album is not an Atlanta rapper but New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne has a tattoo on his forehead that reads I Am Music and also has an album titled I Am Music which was released in 2023, Carti also has a song on the album called “Like Wheezy”, Wheezy being Lil Wayne’s nickname.
The album has received mixed reviews by critics, some stating that Playboi Carti went 30/30 and did not miss on a single song, while others state that it was not worth the five-year wait. Other Playboi Carti fans are just happy that he dropped and they will keep on streaming on the album because they know that with Carti it is never clear when another one will drop.
