By ELLIOT AVE-LALLEMANT and THEO BJORNSTAD
The day of reckoning has arrived. It has finally happened after years of leaks, promised release dates, and silence from the man himself. On March 14, 2025, Playboi Carti dropped his long-awaited album – titled “MUSIC”– stylized as “I AM MUSIC.” Carti has been largely silent since his last project, “Whole Lotta Red,” and while Carti has stated that he had another project in the works, as the years dragged on, the project gained a reputation as something that would probably never end up seeing the light of day. While promising and then not delivering on projects is something he’s known to do, this has been the longest wait for any of his work to this point. Even his most die-hard fans, losing hope, began spiraling into insanity, jaded by fake leaks and starved for even the slightest hint that he might be working on new material.
So, when Carti finally remembered his Twitter password after two entire years of absence, sending out a single message: “FRIDAY,” reactions were mixed. Some were hopeful, desperately wanting to believe this meant an incoming drop, while others, burned by his previous unfulfilled promises, rejected it as another play for attention. Only time would tell. As the wait rolled over into the early hours of Friday, passing the release window, it began to look like another one broken. That was until around 6:00 a.m. when he finally dropped. Expectations were impossibly high. After nearly half a decade of waiting, almost everyone thought that this album was going to be truly revolutionary, maybe even rivaling the heights of his earlier work like “Die Lit” or his self-titled mixtape. After such a long wait, it had to be. But is it?
For all the waiting, all of secrecy, and resources, I AM MUSIC manages to be kind of okay at its best sections, and almost unlistenable at it’s worst. For an album that spent so long in the oven, some things feel shockingly half-baked. Vocals were oddly robotic, to the point of sounding AI-generated on some tracks. The production feels wacky, and the overall vibe of the album overwhelmingly comes across like a work-in-progress. So much so that some are even calling it Carti’s worst album to date.
Let’s start with what worked, which, admittedly, isn’t too much. A few songs manage to deliver on their premise, such as “LIKE WEEZY” and “RATHER LIE,” where the production and mixing are some high points, and while they aren’t exactly new, Carti also added three of his previous releases, “HBA,” “K POP,” and “EVILJ0RDAN” to the album, finally providing a legitimate way to listen to them. Well done Carti! The features were more of a mixed bag but still had some good performances. Travis Scott, Future, and The Weeknd all contributed some great sections to their respective tracks, but some others still felt a little odd, their verses not doing much to help the incomplete feeling of the song, like Kendrick Lamar and Skepta (who apparently still makes music).
But with regards to the rest of the album, there’s a lot that doesn’t deliver on the 4-5 year wait. Most of all, the tracklist itself. “I AM MUSIC” is long– even longer than “Whole Lotta Red,” which many people thought wore out its welcome on release. As a result, “I AM MUSIC” feels incredibly bloated, with more than a few songs, especially in the back half, dragging on for what feels like far too long. The tone isn’t consistent either. One minute, Carti is back in his pitched-up voice from “Whole Lotta Red,” and the next, he’s bringing it down to a level reminiscent of his earlier years. While it does demonstrate his range as a vocalist, there’s not enough connecting the tracks stylistically to make “I AM MUSIC” feel like a cohesive work.
“I AM MUSIC” was, in our opinion, not worth the over four-year wait, despite the high moments that occasionally make an appearance. A majority of the songs can’t help but sound cobbled-together, with stock sound effects, static-y vocals, and confusing production. The most obvious example of which being “FINE SHIT,” which sounds generic and lazy. If your performance is so similar across all of your songs that people think it was done by an AI model, there’s something that needs to be fixed. There’s stuff to like about “I AM MUSIC” for all of its shortcomings. The front half is solid. Future, Travis Scott, and The Weeknd are great features. Carti brings the same high-energy vibe he brings to the rest of his work, and if you like that, this album is worth a listen. But if you’re looking for something new, something different from the Carti you listened to 4-5 years ago, you’re out of luck. Maybe “I AM MUSIC” is another “Whole Lotta Red,” and it just needs a few years before everyone starts pretending they always loved it, but as of right now, it fails to amount to anything greater than just “more Carti.”
Elliot’s picks: LIKE WEEZY, WAKE UP F1LTHY, HBA, OPM BABI (for comedic value)
Theo’s picks: CRUSH, EVIL J0RDAN, COCAINE NOSE, GOOD CREDIT
Featured Image: Reddit
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