It’s insane how long Atlanta’s Playboi Carti took to release his third studio album MUSIC. Just after his 2020 experimental album Whole Lotta Red, the teasing of new content from Carti began, from scrapped projects to an indefinitely postponed Opium tour to Instagram-only singles on the MC’s burner account. The rollout peaked last year, when Carti started being active on social media, dropping merch and new music videos. He claimed the “I AM MUSIC” record would drop in 2024, but as the year flew by, no album was presented. As the Earth turned to the new year, hype slowed down but hope was still in the air. And finally, on the morning of March 14th, 2025, MUSIC was released.
Playboi Carti’s MUSIC is a 30 song (4 more songs were added this past week) flex-fest inflated with hooks and verses about Carti’s fame, money, violence, sex, etc. Carti took a mainstream approach this time around, and I think that was the best for his career. After the hype-train for MUSIC hit the TikTok stop, everyone knew about the anticipation of the album’s release. Even though he was a very well established musician at this point, the memes propelled his career, and I think making a project that the general public will enjoy will start the conversation of putting him up there with the greats, namely Drake, Kendrick Lamar, or Kanye West (Pre-Vultures, obviously.)
The feature list on MUSIC is nothing short of stacked. It includes Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Jhené Aiko, Kendrick Lamar, Skepta, Future, Young Thug and Ty Dolla $ign. It’s nice that we see some frequent collaborators like Uzi, Travis, Pluto and Thugger, and having some new guests like Kendrick and Ty Dolla $ign keeps you wondering what the song is gonna sound like. Skepta, a UK rapper who first featured on a Carti album in 2018’s Die Lit, really takes the medal for best appearance. His verse on “TOXIC” about his international bankroll and references to horror movies is very energetic and it flipped my perspective on first listen.
Sound-wise, MUSIC is an amalgamation of the current mainstream trap sound and Carti’s own style, equalling basic instruments with basic trap drum patterns. The beats on the whole album are usually pretty boring, but there are some highlights, namely “I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI,” “OLYMPIAN” or “OPM BABI” which definitely are inspired by the current underground kings like OsamaSon or Che. A lot of the beat’s bass samples sound the same (Listen to “HBA” then “TOXIC” then “GOOD CREDIT”) and if you have a trained ear, it might be noticeable. It’s not too much of a problem, but I just wish the producers behind the project weren’t as lazy. Matter of fact, where is Pi’erre Bourne or Art Dealer on this album?
Carti’s vocal performance on the record is alright. There are moments where he is really locked in, spitting a verse with no trouble, but sometimes he will just trail off and make the track awkward. In 2023, he debuted his deep cadence on Travis Scott’s “FE!N,” which I can’t go a week without hearing still, and Carti uses that voice almost more than the baby voice he’s known for. The deep voice usually works on the beats presented, but it can get out of control quickly. The songs, especially the ones with features, just sound like loosie open-verse tracks that gathered the feature at the last minute. “JUMPIN” with Uzi, for example, just brings a lazy 8-bar hook and an even shorter verse from Carti and a mediocre Uzi verse. The 92-second runtime of the track just proves how lazy Carti and his team were when making MUSIC.