Playboi Carti's 'Music' album review

After almost four and a half years of waiting, Playboi Carti has finally dropped a new album. The long-awaited I Am Music, which ended up being shortened to just Music, is Carti’s follow-up to 2020’s Whole Lotta Red — an album that has become an iconic staple in modern day trap and rage rap, heavily influencing the sound of other artists like Ken Carson and Destroy Lonely.

The hype surrounding Playboi Carti’s new album had never been higher than when it was officially announced to be coming out on March 14, just two days prior. And after multiple delays on release night, Music finally dropped to mark what is surely to be one of the biggest releases of 2025.

It is certainly no surprise that the album has been met with a polarizing response. Playboi Carti has been a polarizing artist throughout his career and his unique sound has been hard to connect with for a sizable group of hip-hop listeners. Nevertheless, the new album is exactly what Playboi Carti’s fanbase was hoping for.

Music clocks in at 1 hour and 16 minutes, spread out over a whopping 30 songs. It is Playboi Carti’s longest album to date, beating out Whole Lotta Red by about 13 minutes. In spite of the extended runtime, Music keeps the listener engaged throughout its entirety, never losing any of its highly energized excitement. To put it simply, the album makes you feel like you want to run through a wall.

By far the best part of the project is its fantastic production which carries many aspects of the listening experience. Almost every beat on Music is insanely infectious, bringing most of the songs to life before Playboi Carti’s performance even starts.

As far as Playboi Carti’s performance on the album goes, it is easily his most diverse effort in terms of the different rapping styles and genres he utilizes. Songs like “Pop Out” and “Cocaine Nose” showcase the rage rap sound that was present on a handful of tracks on Whole Lotta Red, while a song like “Trim” has a more traditional trap sound.

Playboi Carti’s deep voice rapping, which made its first appearance on the 2024 songs “Carnival” and “Type S**t,” returns for multiple tracks on Music. Carti uses the voice on “Walk,” “HBA,” and several other songs. Overall, Carti does well to blend together several different eras of his music on this album — a factor that will presumably broaden the album’s appeal among Carti fans.

The album also has a stacked feature list comprised of Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Future, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert,  Ty Dolla $ign, Skepta, and Jhené Aiko. Additionally, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Future, and Lil Uzi Vert each appear on multiple songs on the album.

Most of the features on the album are fantastic, with The Weeknd on “Rather Lie” and Kendrick Lamar on “Good Credit” being the two biggest standouts. Travis Scott, who appears on four different songs, has standout performances on the tracks “Philly” and “Wake Up F1lthy,” both of which are among the best songs on the album.

Even though his performance on the song “Charge Dem H**s a Fee” comes across as sleepy and boring, Future’s feature on “Trim” is a memorable moment on the album. He even goes as far to outperform Playboi Carti on the song. This trend happens again on the song “We Need All Da Vibes,” where Young Thug’s performance overshadows that of the lead artist.

Both of Lil Uzi Vert’s features feel underwhelming, primarily because the two songs that he’s on, “Jumpin’” and “Twin Trim,” are both under two minutes long, giving him virtually no chance to provide much value to either track. This will certainly come as a disappointment to those who are fans of Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert’s previous collaborations on songs such as “wokeuplikethis*” and “Shoota.”

As a complete product, Music has more positives than negatives. It is an endlessly fun listen that offers a very high ratio of strong tracks. Playboi Carti’s performance is at least up to the standard that we saw on Whole Lotta Red. The features on Music are debatably better than the features on any other Playboi Carti album.

With that being said, it’s safe to say that this album could have been trimmed down a bit. The 30-song tracklist could have easily been reduced to the 20 to 25 range without losing any real value. Most of the album’s filler is evident in the final third of the tracklist which features the least amount of noteworthy moments.

All things considered, Playboi Carti delivered an album that was (mostly) worth the excruciatingly long wait. And while Carti’s sound has not evolved that much from previous albums, he is undeniably giving fans what they have come to expect from him: high-energy bangers. In that regard, Music meets expectations.

Overall Rating: 8/10