Playboi Carti – Music

Shortly following the release of Whole Lotta Red in 2021, Playboi Carti began hinting at a new project scheduled for release in September of the same year. To no one’s surprise, there was no album. Carti continued to hint at an album release throughout the next few years until finally, in March of 2025, his third album, titled Music, was released. Unfortunately, building hype for an album for 4 years sets very high standards, which for some, Carti was unable to meet. Similarly to Whole Lotta Red, this new release was met with many split opinions, and unlike Whole Lotta Red, this time I found myself disappointed.

With its 30-song track list, Music faces the task of keeping the listener engaged for its entire 76-minute playtime with little room for error. Unfortunately, there were only a handful of moments on this album that stood out as true highlights. The album opens with POP OUT, which almost seems like a self-parody of WLR-era Carti that could only be appreciated live. What follows is a very mediocre run of tracks, but where Carti fails in his delivery, his production or features often make up for it. It was not until the track Rather Lie, featuring The Weeknd, that there was a real glimpse of hope for this album. This hope starts to slip during the following track and only briefly comes back in BACKD00R through a very short Kendrick Lamar feature, then once again on the next track Toxic through a Skepta feature. Once again, the album slips back into mediocrity. Unfortunately, its song CHARGE DEM HOES A FEE, featuring Future and Travis Scott, would have likely broken the internet at any point in the mid-to-late 2010s, but now sounds stale as there is no shortage of songs released by either of the features that sounds exactly like the track. The album reaches its peak on the track I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI, through production from KP Beatz, who has no shortage of hits through numerous credits on various Carti and Ken Carson songs. However, the next 14 tracks on the album, were almost completely unremarkable, with the exception of two features from Lil Uzi Vert.

Throughout this album, Carti attempts to prove to the listener that he is “Music”, but fails in his efforts. What comes, as a result, is a more updated version of his unique style that he created on Whole Lotta Red that has since lost most of the creativity and overall artistic vision that made it special. This album is incredibly inconsistent and is neither top nor bottom-heavy in its track listing. The structure of the album as a whole, seems like a mix of tracks that did not make the cut for Whole Lotta Red and tracks recorded in one take at some point over the last five years, thrown together in no particular order as a sort of compilation. This likely being the case, it is upsetting that Carti did not instead release multiple albums since Whole Lotta Red, as the 30-song track list proves to be a daunting task to get through.

RATING: 4/10

BEST TRACKS: RATHER LIE, BACKD00R, I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI

WORST TRACKS: RADAR, MUNYUN, CRANK