Influential and enigmatic trap artist Playboi Carti released his highly-teased album, pretentiously titled “MUSIC,” after a five year wait last month.
Carti delivers a varied, mixtape-style record as he adapts to the modern era of music ushered in by apps like TikTok and Instagram. On “MUSIC,” he showcases his arsenal of styles and flows, creating hits of all shapes and sizes that craft a soundtrack for life in 2025.
Since his last record, “Whole Lotta Red,” he’s become just short of a mythical figure in mainstream and underground rap circles. The 2020 record was released to widespread hate from new and old fans alike, with the play on words “Wholelottatrash” trending on Twitter the night of release.
However, as time went by, “Whole Lotta Red” quickly became the most lauded trap record of the 2020s due to its popularization of rage music and aesthetics. The songs were made specifically for festival mosh pits. With each show, his obsessive, teenage fanbase went crazier and crazier, building the mythos around his once in a lifetime performances.
For a lengthy 30 track-album, “MUSIC” leaves no room for listeners to be bored. There were so many impressive tracks it’s difficult to choose the true highlights, but the songs that stick out the most are “OLYMPIAN” and “OVERLY.”
On “OLYMPIAN,” Carti reflects on the unstable state of his life over a heavenly guitar sample, yet unlike classic guitar samples of the rage era, this one is meant to be meditative, droning and somber. With Carti’s mellow delivery, the listener wants to bow their head in thought rather than banging it up and down in a mosh pit. This subversion provides possibly the first “anti-rage” song being much more contemplative than anarchic.
“OVERLY” is a track with no structure. It begins with a basic piano beat by frequent Carti collaborator Maaly Raw. Carti immediately dives in with Future-esque vocals and the mindless bars Carti’s always been known for. He doesn’t stop for a chorus or bridge. Carti simply continues flowing, making the listener freeze in a perpetual “stank face.”
“OVERLY” is a simple track that may be shrugged off by many listeners, but the looping piano and persistent flow creates a hypnotic quality that isn’t replicated by any other track on “MUSIC” or, frankly, any Carti record.
To find the weakness of the record look no further than its features, especially the tracks “PHILLY” and “BACKD00R.” While not all of the features were weak, the addition of Kendrick Lamar on three tracks and Travis Scott on four felt unnecessary, with the former being the most out of place.
Aesthetically and stylistically, Carti and Lamar are anything but similar. Many fans suspected he was included on the album because of his record-breaking run in 2024. The inclusion of Scott was even more of a head-scratcher as he did not add anything more than what Carti already provides.
With the album’s variability in sounds, Carti provides an antidote to the TikTok era. Few people completely listen through full albums or focus on their narratives anymore, so Carti chose to make a playlist-styled album instead of a traditional one.
With “MUSIC,” Carti creates a record that mirrors a stream-of-consciousness for a time with the lowest attention spans ever. He ambitiously uses the broadest soundscape of his career to capture life in 2025.
The trials facing the average person in the postmodern dystopia of media bombardment and global crises are heard in the roaring guitar on “COCAINE NOSE” and the terrifying horns of “RADAR.” The pleasurable experiences available in 2025 through the relentless dopamine hits of social media are found in the soft angelic sample on “RATHER LIE” and the bare, bouncy beat on “FINE SHIT.”
“MUSIC” is chaotic, jarring, unpredictable, singular, loud, uneven, genre-bending and topical and that is why it can be looked at as the crowning achievement of Carti’s already decorated catalogue.
On the last track of “MUSIC,” its narrator DJ Swamp Izzo says, “That’s right, we can create our own genre. From now on, don’t box us into any category.” He’s right. Carti did create his own genre: life in 2025.
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