After years of waiting, multiple aimless singles, and countless lies, rapper Playboi Carti has released his highly anticipated album, MUSIC.
Carti’s breakout occurred in 2017 with his self-titled mixtape and single “Magnolia,” showcasing his style of repetitive beats and catchy flows. The two albums that he has released since, Die Lit and Whole Lotta Red, have led him further into a more aggressive, rage style. While leading to exciting highlights, this style also led to messy and harsh-sounding tracks.
With singles leading up to MUSIC showcasing a new style of dark production and extended verses, the overall sound of the album seemed largely up in the air. With a total of 30 songs, MUSIC seemed like it could explore many different sounds, and it does in some moments.
The first track, “POP OUT,” immediately dives back into the rage sound. The heavy, distorted beat and Carti’s crazed delivery on this song elevate it to an instant stand-out. “MOJO JOJO” displays unexpected chemistry between Carti and Kendrick Lamar, creating a fun atmosphere. “RATHER LIE” has a catchy chorus from The Weeknd and great verses from Carti.
The energy of “CRANK” makes the song exciting, but it becomes repetitive. While Carti delivers a standard performance on the first half of “GOOD CREDIT,” Kendrick Lamar elevates the song with a solid feature.
The rage style returns later in the tracklist. The dark production on “COCAINE NOSE” and Carti’s unique delivery create a memorable track. Though it was one of the messiest songs on the album, the repeated gun sound effects on “OPM BABY” border on comical and make the track entertaining.
The solid production and fun Carti performance make “LIKE WEEZY” a late standout on the album.
Several prior singles appear on MUSIC, with updated production. While the extended intro on “EVIL J0RDAN” drags on too long, Carti delivers one of his best verses of the album, with quick, catchy flows and standout bars. Along with the beat drop, this song is one of the best on the album. “HBA” has an amazing beat and a great performance by Carti.
The main problem this album faces is that many songs are boring, predictable, and uninspired. The first leg of the tracklist is the strongest, but songs like “K POP,” “PHILLY,” and “FINE SH*T” bring it down. These songs have relatively basic instrumentals, and Carti does little with his performances to elevate them.
The second third of MUSIC dips greatly in quality. “TOXIC” and “MUNYUN” have boring beats and standard Carti performances. While “CHARGE DEM H*ES A FEE” starts explosively and has great production, the song drags immensely and does not justify its almost four-minute run time.
The next section of the album contains more filler songs. The four songs “I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI,” “WAKE UP F1LTHY,” “JUMPIN,” and “TRIM” make one of the least interesting sections of the album.
The last third of the album also suffers from many forgettable songs, including “OLYMPIAN,” “TWIN TRIM,” “WALK,” and “OVERLY.”
The features on this album are another low point, rarely adding to these songs. Kendrick Lamar has solid features on “MOJO JOJO” and “GOOD CREDIT,” but does little to stand out on “BACKD00R.” On the same song, Jhené Aiko only harmonizes with Lamar and doesn’t have much of a presence herself.
Travis Scott has four features on the album, yet it feels like he contributes very little. His only vocals on “CRUSH” are adlibs. His three verses on “PHILLY,” “CHARGE DEM H*ES A FEE,” and “WAKE UP F1LTHY” are some of the most forgettable of his career.
Fellow rapper Future has two features of relatively low quality. He brings little energy to “CHARGE DEM H*ES A FEE” and drags down the instrumental. His verse on “TRIM” starts out solid, but decreases in quality after about a minute.
The two Lil Uzi Vert features on MUSIC create such boring and forgettable tracks that mentioning them by name doesn’t seem necessary. Young Thug and Ty Dolla $ign add features to “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” that border on just being annoying. The so-called vibe of this song does not match the rest of the album at all.
This album has one main problem, and that is its length. At 30 songs long, sitting through this album in its entirety is almost impossible. With the amount of boring and bad songs, the ones worth listening to are few and far between.
With that being said, though, there are still quite a few highlights. If MUSIC were only 10 songs long, it would match the quality of Playboi Carti’s other albums very well. While listening to just my favorite songs off the album, I even forgot about the mediocrity of the rest of the album. Unfortunately, MUSIC as a whole ranks as Carti’s worst album to date.
If you found this review interesting, check out my review of Chromakopia by Tyler, the Creator.
