Playboi Carti’s Album Rollout Is the Most Exciting Thing in Rap Right Now

Burak Cingi

Much has already been made of 2023 being a relatively middling year in mainstream rap; thankfully one of the genre’s brightest (or, given his overall vibe, darkest) stars is gearing up to make sure 2024 kicks off in a more interesting fashion. In a surprising strategic pivot, Playboi Carti—the avant-garde mumbler who's one of contemporary hip-hop culture’s most elusive artists this side of Frank Ocean—is going old school with the release of his anticipated third studio album, by doing a full-fledged rollout.

When it comes to a supremely-online, Soundcloud-era artist like Carti, whose leaks, loosies and rumored stop-start projects are a whole Subreddit enterprise unto themselves, it’s almost a given that when the album is indeed finally ready, it’ll just be a surprise release. Or rather, like his previous project Whole Lotta Red, one of those in-between compromises where the title and release date are announced a week or two ahead but the entirety of the project has a lid on it until midnight on drop day. The signs are usually portended by a few industry rumblings, maybe a conspicuously wiped Instagram, confirmation from a close, trustworthy associate etc. But for this new project (which may be called I Am Music, or might still go by its original title teased all the way back in 2021, Narcissist) Carti is going for full flair and pomp—with a twist.

On Dec 7, Carti posted “I am music” on his Instagram story; the next day a full-length video for a new song, “Ur the Moon” was released on the app. Each following week (sans the holiday dead week) has seen the drop of a new full-length video for a new song. There’s a couple of reasons why this is a bold, albeit nutty strategy. For one, it completely flies in the face of contemporary streaming-algorithm best practices. Only two of the new tracks, “2024” (which boasts co-production from Kanye West) and “Backrooms” (which features Travis Scott) have been released on YouTube. “Ur the Moon” and “HoodbyAir” live on the ‘gram, where the metrics have no way of being measured to count against his total album sales and streams whenever it drops in full. And for that matter, these songs aren’t even on Carti’s personal page—you have to go to the page for his label, Opium, which the casual listener likely isn’t very conscious of (the page has 940,000 followers to Carti’s 11.5 million.)

But Carti’s been enlisting some famous friends to help with the signal boost. The latest song, “backrooms,” got a push from featured artist Travis Scott as well as Ice Spice, who gets a shoutout on the record (which makes Carti resposting Ice’s alluring birthday pics a day earlier less random and weird). “Ur the Moon” was heralded by Pharrell warning “prepare” on his Instagram. And both “Backroooms” and “HoodbyAir” were announced by British artist and Carti affiliate Blackhaine in in-your-face, TRL-esque fashion. Beyond the actual song releases, Carti’s fanned more hype flames by posting screenshots of texts and DMs with the likes of Kanye and Drake (offering mutual praise), Frank Ocean (seemingly challenging him for also appearing to come out of hiding at the same time*), and, uh, God. (*A perennially optimistic corner of the internet also swears tea leaves indicate Frank is gearing to drop soon.)

All of this would be immaterial if the songs weren’t heaters. Your rankings may vary, but general consensus is that Carti’s four for four. (For me, it’s probably “Hood,” “2024,” “Backrooms” and “Ur the Moon” in that order; “Backrooms” has that bounce but “2024” has lodged the “Put em in the news or something” refrain permanently in my head.) Whole Lotta Red almost instantly became a new manual for rising rappers looking to follow in Carti’s stead, aesthetically and sonically. One-upping it was always going to be a tall order, but succeeding could entrench him even more deeply in the rap A-list beyond the Gen-Z’ers who already adore him. As he told German magazine Numéro Berlin two months ago, “I feel like I have something to prove. This is my moment, this is the one for me.”

And so far, he’s proving that despite a growing legion of proteges and copycats, there can only be one Playboi Carti. The baby-voice innovations on his delivery that preceded WLR have been swapped with a haunting contrast, a booming baritone that he first showcased on Travis Scott’s “Fe!n.” Adopt his all black, high-fashion Interview With a Vampire fits? Well, Carti sees that and raises you multiple different face piercings, an exquisite durag and fur coat combo in “HoodbyAir”, or the mesmerizing Junya drawstring dress in “Backrooms.” Lording on a platform in a nondescript field surrounded by gothically clad acolytes (and ascendant proteges Ken Carson and Destroy Lonely), he looks and sounds like he could be the Big Bad on the best season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The songs and accompanying clips are filled with little stylistic and technical zigzags that all add up to one thing: in a sea of freaks and goons, there is only one King Vamp. Now let’s hope the whole album delivers on that promise.

Originally Appeared on GQ