One of the most exciting musical figures in American pop culture at the moment has finally delivered his mission statement in album form, I AM MUSIC.
Indeed, after years of edging fans, both with scrapped tour plans and (more recently) a shrewdly tradition-bucking release strategy for a string of well-received loosies, Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red follow-up is here to crash the proverbial gates and presumably land a massive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Skepta, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Uzi Vert, Ty Dolla Sign, and Young Thug make appearances across the 30-track album. As of this writing, the album is available on Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube. You can expect it on Apple Music any minute now. Interestingly, the album is listed under the title MUSIC—not I AM MUSIC, though that declaration appears in overlayed fonts on the cover—which actually shouldn’t be a surprise given remarks Carti made about the then-in-progress project back in 2022.
In the days leading up to the album’s arrival, Carti once again employed the shouted announcement stylings of Blackhaine, who let fans know MUSIC was finally, actually imminent. Spotify also got in on the hype, sharing a video fittingly captioned, “Have faith.”
The release marks a rare moment of bliss for fans in an increasingly dystopia-tinged world, with Carti again taking the drop-a-new-album-whenever-I-feel-like-it path he took with WLR back in 2020. Notably, the album will be followed by Carti’s headlining set at Rolling Loud California this weekend.
If you’re among those who’ve misguidedly tried to write Carti off, just know that you’re doing yourself a massive disservice. This guy is a superstar, has been for several years now, and his shapeshifting take not only on rap but music at large has been something to behold in the years since WLR significantly raised his profile.
Carti’s current stature in the industry makes the new album’s title both a say-it-with-your-whole-chest declaration and a matter-of-fact statement slyly nodding at the impact he’s had on a generation of listeners. Carti seems to be asserting that he himself is a genre, a sentiment he also touched on during his Rolling Loud Miami set last year.
“Every song I’m on is my song,” he told the crowd before launching into “Carnival,” a Carti-featuring (and Grammy-nominated) Hot 100 chart-topper off Ye and Ty Dolla Sign’s initial Vultures volume.
With his latest chapter, Carti is driving that point home harder than ever.
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/tracewilliamcowen/playboi-carti-i-am-music
