Review | Playboi Carti finally drops new album, ‘Music,’ after five years

Carti finally dropped, which means the longest-running joke in rap music is over. 

Playboi Carti put out his new studio album, “‘Music,” on March 14, five years after his last release. Carti, along with rappers like Lil Uzi Vert and Travis Scott, popularized the SoundCloud rap style, which had a chokehold on the rap game from 2015 to 2019. After dropping “Playboi Carti,” his self-titled mixtape, and “Die Lit,” Carti began to transition his sound to his current “opium” style, switching from a light bubblegum trap mumble to a deeper, raspier voice. 

“Whole Lotta Red,” released in 2020, received mixed reactions and did not quite take off like Carti’s other albums. Since “WLR,” Carti has bounced in and out of mainstream music — he dropped a song here and a snippet there, but no large body of work. Many people, including myself, didn’t believe the album was coming out until we heard it ourselves — Carti has done the same song and dance before, getting the entire Internet ramped up for an album that never dropped. However, Carti surprised us all by dropping “‘Music” with 30 tracks and a star-studded feature list.

The Opium sound is taking over rap. Carti’s Opium label has built a large collection of up-and-coming artists, similar to J. Cole’s Dreamville — Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely and Homixide Gang highlight the list of Carti’s spawn. However, “‘Music” features none of Opium. The list of guest appearances is relatively mainstream. Kendrick Lamar, Future and Lil Uzi Vert all contributed verses to multiple songs — Travis Scott features 4 times on the project. Young Thug, The Weeknd, Jhené Aiko, Skepta and Ty Dolla $ign also appear on “‘Music.” 

While these high-level artists aren’t into the Opium style on their own, many leaned into Carti’s image and style for their verses on the album. Lamar, known for more socially and politically aware lyrics, raps, “Carti, my evil twin!” on “Good Credit” — an ad-lib that has become a bit of a meme following the album’s release.

Carti’s albums are famously known for aging well. “Whole Lotta Red” ignited a fire across the Internet on Christmas Day 2020 — those same haters were later defending “WLR” and “glazing” Carti. I think “‘Music” will have the same effect, despite its good immediate reception, and I believe this for one reason: the production. “‘Music” is the best-produced rap album of 2025 so far, largely because Carti had access to any producer he could ever want. 

The production catalog has a lengthy resume — Kanye West, Mike Dean, Metro Boomin, F1lthy, Cash Cobain, Wheezy and many more contributed beats and production. The foundation of the opium sound is the dense electronic drums and hefty autotune, heavily popularized by Carti and done very well on this album. “‘Music” and its production have finally pushed opium into the mainstream.

Ad-libs are a defining aspect of the Opium sound and are used throughout “Music.” DJ Swamp Izzo, who worked on songs like “Rather Lie” and “Evil Jordan,”  found notoriety for his ad-libs, loudly proclaiming “Swamp Izzo!” at some pretty random points throughout the song. On “Radar,” another song produced by Swamp Izzo, he ad-libs “Carti!” and “Swamp!” continuously for one of Carti’s verses. Many fans especially clowned on the Swamp Izzo ad-libs from the album, making memes out of the constant outbursts of “Swamp Izzo!” On songs like “Rather Lie,” the ad-libs are extremely well done — they mesh with the production, they enter at proper breaks in the song and they help to accentuate the various beat drops and switches. And they’re hard. Argue with a wall.

The question remains — old Carti or new Carti? For me, it’s not a difficult question. Carti’s new sound, which incorporates elements from rage, punk and “vamp” music, can sometimes be rather off-putting. “Pop Out,” the opening song of the album, was a shock to start off with — the beat is loud and heavy and Carti is screaming. This Opium sound is not all bad. I love the experimental production and combination of sounds Carti has been toying with. Rage music is just not my favorite genre, as I see little musicality in screaming into the mic. 

There is admittedly a bit of nostalgia and sentiment tied to Carti’s old bubblegum sound — the humming electronic beat on “Long Time (Intro)” or the mumbling lyrics on “Location.” He even taps into this older sound on “‘Music” with the track “Fine Shit,” reminiscent of 2017 Soundcloud bubblegum trap. This is the era of rap music that I, and many of my peers, were first introduced to way back in middle school. I remember bumping “Wokeuplikethis” in the hallways of my middle school, a song that is still consistently in my play queue. I’m not bashing Carti’s new sound — I just like his old sound better.

If I had to rank Playboi Carti albums, “‘Music” would fall decisively into the #3 spot, behind the self-titled “Playboi Carti” and above “Whole Lotta Red.” “Die Lit” is my favorite Carti album because of the production style and overall sound. I see flashes of the “Die Lit” sound throughout “‘Music.” I like the experimental trap sound on songs like “Toxic” and “Trim.” This is Carti at his best, pushing the boundaries of mainstream music and trying something different. The album is fluid throughout — a deathly beat on “Cocaine Nose” transitions into a poppy and exuberant Young Thug hook on “We Need All da Vibes” before going back to rage with “Olympian.” It’s hard not to bop your head to most of “‘Music” as long as you keep an open mind.