MUSIC Album Review: Playboi Carti Becomes The Torch Bearer of The Atlanta Sound

 Playboi Carti Becomes The Torchbearer of The Atlanta Sound

By Dylan Barbee

Courtesy of @playboicarti on Instagram 

Release date: March 14th, 2025

After four and a half long years of waiting, Playboi Carti’s highly anticipated album MUSIC is finally here. Yes, for real this time. No more delayed release dates and no more disappointed listeners. 

The Atlanta rapper’s album consists of 30 songs that span across an exhilarating but long 77-minute listen. On MUSIC, Carti pays homage to Atlanta, boasts a dream team lineup of surprise features and most importantly displays his creative versatility stylistically, making the album well worth the wait. 

MUSIC is Carti’s most accessible album yet as it serves as a canvas for Carti to blend all of his styles together in one project. Carti effectively combines his baby voice simplistic approach from his 2017 self-titled album with the mainstream but brash sound of past projects like Die Lit and Whole Lotta Red to tote the persona of an emo thug. As a result, I think there is at least one song on MUSIC that any type of music listener can enjoy.

Throughout the album, Playboi Carti celebrates his current status in the music industry through a self-indulgent tone and an expected display of toxic masculinity from the rapper. “She’s a different breed, made her my favorite h**, I got a house everywhere, but I ain’t got a favorite home,” Playboi Carti raps on “MOJO JOJO” that features annoying ad-libs from Kendrick Lamar throughout.

It’s clear that Carti wants to be known as the torch bearer of the modern Atlanta rap sound. Although Lil Wayne’s 2010 release I Am Not A Human Being and fashion style during this era distinctively spills through MUSIC, at times Carti’s cadences, lyrics and flows are akin to Atlanta trap artists like Future, Young Thug and Gucci Mane. You can hear these styles closely imbued in songs like “K POP,” “CRANK,” and “DIS 1 GOT IT.” Carti’s use of his deep voice on “HBA,” and the blatant presence of Atlanta DJ Swamp Izzo throughout the tracklist is just the finishing touches to Carti’s effort to pay homage to his city. 

Carti also pays homage to his roots as an artist, collaborating with Lil Uzi Vert for the first time since Die Lit on “JUMPIN,” which serves as a rambunctious but addicting listen. Uzi even has his own song on MUSIC called “TWIN TRIM,” where he raps over a playful synth beat. Even though its been years since they last collaborated and their rumoured album 16*29 never came into fruition, I think Carti displaying this long lasting friendship with Lil Uzi Vert is worth celebrating. 

The best songs on MUSIC are the most formulaic ones with catchy choruses and memorable lyrics within their verses. Songs like “RATHER LIE,” featuring The Weeknd, “FINE SHIT” and “LIKE WEEZY,” are the ones I find myself revisiting most as they show Carti’s artistic versatility and storytelling growth since his debut in 2017. “You already know I’d lie to you than lose and break your heart, I’d rather tell you a lie than tell you the truth and leave you stuck,” Playboi Carti raps on “RATHER LIE. 

Although there are a lot of songs on this tracklist that I saved, there are also a decent amount of skips in MUSIC’s inflated 30-song tracklist. For instance, “CHARGE DEM H**S A FEE,” consists of weak verses from Carti, Future and Travis Scott where they all sound half asleep in the studio. It serves as a disappointing listen considering its all-star lineup of rap features. “OPM BABI” tries too hard to be a song for TikTok where users can post comedic slideshows with DJ Swamp Izzo’s overbearing sound bar serving as its background music. 

Other than its long and played-out tracklist, the most questionable aspect to MUSIC is the overbearing presence of rapper Kendrick Lamar on songs “MOJO JOJO,” the impressive “BACKDOOR,” and “GOOD CREDIT.” After a long hiatus since Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers, it seems Kendrick is willing to go to extreme lengths to continue to ride the high of his beef battle with Drake that began almost a year ago — even if it means collaborating with the type of people he’s claimed to be against on diss songs like "meet the grahams." In his quest to stay relevant, it’s clear that Kendrick is a hypocrite, picking and choosing when to instill his morals.

MUSIC is already breaking records, becoming the most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify in 2025, and all 30 tracks are being set to debut in Billboard's Hot 100. Despite the long runtime and the four-year wait, I truly believe that Playboi Carti has delivered a strong album that will be revisited for years to come. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait as long as we did for the rapper’s next project. 

Rating: 7.5/10