Playboi Carti
Music
Release Date: Mar 14, 2025
Genre(s): Rap
Record label: AWGE / Interscope
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Music from Amazon
Album Review: Music by Playboi Carti
Acceptable, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 3
The Atlanta rapper delivers a lot of music on his third album, with Travis Scott, Skepta, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd along for the ride Suspicion, resentment, flickers of hope, waves of disappointment: life for Playboi Carti fans has been tough since Whole Lotta Red propelled the Atlanta rapper to a kind of superstardom some four years ago. Rumours have abounded about his creative process, including alleged use of AI (which he denies) and various leaks of questionable provenance, as the Ye co-produced single 2024 gave the distinct impression that this record was going to drop last year. Nonetheless, Music is now here and its size, combined with the high-profile features, suggests an attempt to make up for the lengthy wait.
Based on rating 2.3/5
That's too much, man. Playboi Carti's music is divisive, to put it mildly. It's brash, loud, psychedelic, and, crucially, it's very, very dumb. That's a feature, not a bug, and anyone who points out otherwise is kind of missing the point. I spend the majority of my workday having no less than three screens of varying importance in front of me, often throwing audio from a youtube video or podcast in for good measure.
Opinion: Very Good
It's taken over four years for Playboi Carti to produce the follow-up to his landscape-shifting album Whole Lotta Red. Titling its successor, Music, with devious opacity, the famously withholding rapper gives us something new for him: excess. Even though Whole Lotta Red and 2018's Die Lit were both an hour long, they still felt focused and of a piece.
Opinion: Fairly Good
It was nigh on impossible not to get a strong sense of déja vu when the promised release of Playboi Carti's long-anticipated third studio album, MUSIC, was pushed back by a few hours earlier this month, and then failed to surface on streaming platforms at said newly pledged time. After all, fans of the near-mythical Atlanta trap rapper had already experienced several false dawns with regards to its release since he first teased a follow-up project only three months after 2020's trailblazing rage-rap classic Whole Lotta Red came out. Having spent most of the night issuing updates to fans about sample clearances delaying the record's arrival, Carti finally dropped MUSIC - initially hurriedly posted without feature and songwriting credits - almost nine hours late.
'Music'
is available now