On March 14th, 2025, Playboi Carti’s highly anticipated album finally dropped, grabbing attention in a rap industry that had seen few notable releases earlier in the year. Fans spent months ignoring other albums, all waiting for the one Friday when Carti’s album “MUSIC” would arrive.
The last time Carti released a full album was on Christmas Day 2020. In the following years, artists like Travis Scott, Metro Boomin, and Kanye West featured Carti on their own albums. Fans began speculating about a new Carti album in early April 2022, when he teased “I AM MUSIC.” Hopes rose again in December 2023 after he played new songs at a Rolling Loud concert, but the release was still delayed. Later, in 2024, Carti announced the album would arrive on a Friday, again building anticipation. As weeks passed, skepticism grew until March 13th, when Carti confirmed the album’s midnight release. That night, fans awaited the album, but instead, an announcement delayed it to 3:00 a.m.
When the time finally came, fans rushed to listen to and buy the album. The CDs, vinyls, and attire sold out within minutes. Despite the excitement, questions about the album’s quality surfaced. The intro, “Pop Out,” wasn’t well-received and caused debate because of the sudden and crashy-sounding instrumental, but “Crush,” featuring Travis Scott, improved the mood. The album, with 34 tracks and numerous features including Travis Scott, Swamp Izzo, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign, Kendrick Lamar, and Mike Dean, offered several stand-out songs like “Good Credit” (with Kendrick Lamar), “Munyun,” “Rather Lie” (with The Weeknd), “Philly” (with Travis Scott), “Evil Jordan,” and “2024.” These tracks trended quickly on social media, and the album maintained #1 on the “US Billboard Top 200” and “US Hip Hop/R&B Albums” charts for two weeks. Overall, fans were extremely pleased, and some considered it Carti’s best release yet.
Personally, I enjoyed this album. The production was great, especially with a production feature from Mike Dean, who I find to be very talented and special to me because of his synth ability. Not only that, but having features from Travis Scott to The Weeknd really expanded on how diverse this album was meant to be. For an overall rating, I would give this album an 8/10. For the songs that stood out for me, it was fabulous, but there are 34 songs in total, and managing to have every one be perfect for a listener is basically impossible. For the song that stood out the most, I would grant that to “Rather Lie” (Featuring The Weeknd). This song, in my opinion, was something that I would have never expected on a Playboi Carti album, especially with Carti being the rager that he is.
In all, the release of “MUSIC” by Playboi Carti was a fantastic experience, not only listening to but also reviewing. Though it did take some time, the wait was totally worth it, and fans like me are more than excited to see what Carti has to offer next, whether it’s a single or a full album. I can’t wait for what happens next.
