Playboi Carti’s “MUSIC” is a whole lotta meh

By Arman Saxena     3/25/25 10:33pm

Score: ★★★

Key track: “I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI”

After nearly five years of canceled release dates, cryptic livestreams and scattered singles that never quite materialized into anything more than music videos, Playboi Carti’s “MUSIC” is finally here. The album, stuffed to the brim with 30 tracks, is both proof of Carti’s magnetic presence and a stark reminder that bigger is not always better. 

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“MUSIC” opens on a promising note with “POP OUT,” an industrial-infused banger that seizes its audience by the collar and refuses to let go. It’s raw, aggressive and signals a record that should be bursting with energy and reckless fun. Unfortunately, this track’s sheer ferocity throws the rest of the album’s disjointed nature into sharper relief. Coming in at an unwieldy 30 songs, “MUSIC” spends more time meandering than delivering on the brutal brilliance of its opener. 

After “POP OUT,” the album struggles to maintain focus. “CRUSH” (the first of multiple Travis Scott appearances) is serviceable, but it doesn’t offer anything we haven’t already heard, feeling like an echo of their earlier collaborations rather than a fresh evolution. 

That sense of repetition becomes a persistent issue: cuts like “PHILLY” and “RADAR” fail to carve out any notable identity in Carti’s discography. With so many filler tracks, it’s tough not to wonder if a more tightly curated tracklist — half the length, perhaps — would’ve produced a sharper statement. 

But for all its muddled excess, the album’s highlights do remind us why Carti’s fandom remains so devoted. “EVIL J0RDAN” marries horror-movie synths, a The Weeknd sample and Carti’s frenetic flow into one of the project’s most ominously catchy moments. 

Another Weeknd collaboration, “RATHER LIE,” might be the album’s biggest hit in the making, fueled by Abel’s trademark brand of dark R&B theatrics and Carti’s impressively varied vocal approach. Mid-verse, Carti toggles between his more familiar cadences and a jarringly deep register, a creative choice that underscores the track’s central theme: he’d rather “lie” or switch personas than be vulnerable. 

Unfortunately, the album can’t keep up that level of momentum. Songs like “FINE SHIT” and “MUNYUN” slip back into a repetitive formula and never ascend to the bombast that might justify their inclusion. 

“GOOD CREDIT” offers a much-needed shot in the arm, partly thanks to Kendrick Lamar’s spirited cameo. While Lamar pops up on multiple tracks here, his verse on “GOOD CREDIT” hits hardest, revealing just how seamlessly he can adapt to seemingly any beat thrown at him. 

“I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI” emerges as the album’s peak moment — which says a lot, considering it doesn’t quite match the top-tier highlights of Carti’s past works (“Die Lit” or “Whole Lotta Red,” for example). Still, it stands out among the uneven spread, capturing a triumphant energy reminiscent of “Whole Lotta Red”’s “Control” and even tipping its hat to Bladee’s melodic aesthetic. Carti’s opener line, “Started from the bottom / ain’t hard to tell,” feels both boastful and introspective, straddling a line between cockiness and honesty. 

The second half of the album is a rollercoaster of hits and misses. “WAKE UP F1LTHY” re-teams Carti with Travis Scott for a highlight that nails the industrial-trap sweet spot, while tracks like “JUMPIN,” “DIS 1 GOT IT” and “WALK” feel more like placeholders than essential listening. The best toward the back end belongs to “COCAINE NOSE,” “OLYMPIAN” and “HBA,” where Carti’s love for moody, ominous production resonates most convincingly. 

In many ways, “MUSIC” feels like a darker, more foreboding cousin to Carti’s prior output. There’s a deliberate shift toward ominous vibes and industrial soundscapes — a risk that sometimes pays off, but not often enough to overshadow the project’s lack of cohesion. If half the tracks were cut, “MUSIC” might have held together more tightly, allowing Carti to refine the dark aesthetic he was clearly aiming for. 

At the end of the day, “MUSIC” remains a mixed bag: it’s overstuffed, occasionally brilliant and ultimately outshined by the innovations of Carti’s earlier albums. There are certainly flashes of the genius that once shook the hip-hop world, but they’re buried under too many half-baked ideas and a tracklist that never quite justifies its length. 

Playboi Carti has always been about pushing boundaries — sometimes controversially so — and that willingness to experiment keeps things interesting even when the final product falters. Still, the question looms: was “MUSIC” really worth five years of anticipation? 

If you’re a longtime Carti fan, you’ll undoubtedly find moments to revel in. But as a cohesive piece of work, “MUSIC” ultimately lives up to its name a little too literally — it’s just “music,” and not quite the revolution many of us had hoped for.

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