Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcRc2DHHhoM&pp=ygUNcGxheWJvaSBjYXJ0aQ%3D%3D
It's a whole lotta music, and some of it's not the best music.
More rap reviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP4CSgl7K7ormBIO138tYonB949PHnNcP
===================================
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/1pBqGCN
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theneedledrop
Official site: http://theneedledrop.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/theneedledrop
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afantano
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theneedletok
TND Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theneedledrop
Videos edited by Jeremy and Anthony / posted by Austen
===================================
FAV TRACKS: POP OUT, CRUSH, CRANK, COCAINE NOSE, OLYMPIAN, HBA
LEAST FAV TRACK: CHARGE DEM HOES A FEE
PLAYBOI CARTI - MUSIC / 2025 / AWGE / TRAP, RAGE
4/10
Y'all know this is just my opinion, right?
It's a whole lotta music, and some of it's not the best music.
More rap reviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP4CSgl7K7ormBIO138tYonB949PHnNcP
===================================
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/1pBqGCN
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theneedledrop
Official site: http://theneedledrop.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/theneedledrop
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afantano
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theneedletok
TND Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theneedledrop
Videos edited by Jeremy and Anthony / posted by Austen
===================================
FAV TRACKS: POP OUT, CRUSH, CRANK, COCAINE NOSE, OLYMPIAN, HBA
LEAST FAV TRACK: CHARGE DEM HOES A FEE
PLAYBOI CARTI - MUSIC / 2025 / AWGE / TRAP, RAGE
4/10
Y'all know this is just my opinion, right?
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Hi everyone, Chart the New Top Tanno here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's
00:05time for a review of this new Playboi Carti album, Music.
00:10Here we have a brand new LP from rapper, songwriter, in-demand artist, hip-hop's current it-boy,
00:20Mr. Playboi Carti.
00:21Coming through with a project that is almost five years in the making, Music, really one
00:27of the most highly-anticipated releases in recent memory.
00:31And, you know, you do have to give it to those Carti fans, their devotion to him may borderline
00:38on disturbing sometimes, but they're at least patient enough to have stuck with him
00:43while this record came together.
00:46Certainly many fanbases would have moved on at this point, having waited so many years,
00:51especially with so many copycat artists these days flooding the zone with their own mid-to-late
00:57to respectable takes on Carti's trademark sound, the aggressive, distorted, cycling,
01:02trippy beats he tends to favor, his experimental approach to flows and vocal inflections, the
01:09dark, elusive, and mysterious ways in which he presents himself, too.
01:13All of which he slowly developed after having blown up off of his self-titled mixtape back
01:18in 2017.
01:19But even with Carti's last official full-length album being almost five years old at this
01:23point, his many imitators haven't even come close to lapping him in terms of relevancy.
01:29And that is despite a very frustrated fanbase being subjected to countless leaks, teases,
01:35album title changes, singles, pushbacks, weak features, and, for some reason, fit pics.
01:42But then all of a sudden we got Music Here, which was just announced in a flash last week,
01:48dropped the following Friday, and now it's here, and despite there having been so much
01:53time for this project to incubate effectively, it still sounds so rushed and inconsistent.
02:01And I mean, in some ways, not much has really changed since the release of Carti's last
02:05record Whole Lotta Red in 2020, because, and I know many would disagree with this, that
02:10album in its own right was a pretty inconsistent, disjointed project.
02:15I mean, among its 24 songs, there really was no through-line guiding all of the tracks
02:20overall.
02:21The vast majority of the tracks on this thing didn't even sound mixed and mastered the
02:24same as quite a few were actually kind of quite painful to listen to.
02:28By comparison, I will say the overall mix job on Music Here is slightly better.
02:34Even Cocaine Nose, which sounds like an ultra-distorted throwback to the Whole Lotta Red era, with
02:39a looped metal guitar licks and all, the track OPM Baby, I would say, sort of feels like
02:45it could have come from that same album, too, to an extent.
02:48And yeah, throughout the rest of the album there are some familiar Carti-isms here and
02:51there, like the track Olympian sounds like something that could have been one of the
02:55synthier cuts to land on his 2017 Die Lit album, that is, if it were sort of updated
03:00with his throatier, froggier delivery style that he's been kind of favoring as of late.
03:05But honestly, tracks like these are more the exception than the rule in this very hefty
03:1330-song track list whose worst moments sound near effortless and pretty thrown together.
03:21And look, I know there are some hype standouts and singles and big features in this album
03:26that have been a huge point of discussion around this album for sure, but we cannot
03:32allow those flashes in the pan to 100% dictate all the discourse around this album.
03:40Because again, there are 30 songs on this project and they all collectively contribute
03:45to this album's overall quality.
03:47And looking at this project as a whole, I feel like I'm pulling up the floorboards on
03:53a house and just, like, seeing termites just devastating all of the wood that the entire
03:58house is built on.
03:59Because once again, like with Whole Lotta Red, and that album was, like, packed with
04:03all that vamp shit and so on and so forth, with music I just don't really feel like there's
04:08a lot of vision pulling these songs together.
04:11Because they're either so short and directionless and underdeveloped that their inclusion on
04:16this album is insulting, or I'm just left feeling like Cardi and company could have
04:22just done more with a track.
04:24We Need All The Vibes, for example, is a track that just kind of sounds like an old, stale,
04:29young thug summer jam that was sitting in the vault, and Playboi Carti just, like, contributed
04:34a couple bars to the second half of it, and that's it.
04:37There's also Rather Lie featuring The Weeknd, which kind of sounds like the other side of
04:41a coin we already caught wind of from Timeless on Abel's recent full-length album.
04:46It's kind of like they came up with two variations on the same song idea, and I think Cardi got
04:52the weaker of the two variations here.
04:54There's Twin Trim featuring Lil Uzi Vert as well, which, this track doesn't even have
04:58a Cardi verse on it.
05:00It just kind of seems like a bunch of synths and grooves from the Lil Uzi Vert vs. The
05:05World era, but it's somehow landing on this album for some reason.
05:09I've seen it described as an interlude, but, like, an interlude from what to what?
05:14Because it just kind of sounds like one more un-groomed random song in a sea of other un-groomed
05:19random songs.
05:20And this isn't even the worst Uzi Vert track on the record.
05:23There's also the song Jumpin', which feels like one of those tracks that you get on a
05:27posthumous record after a rapper has passed away and a label tasks two or three producers
05:33with, like, assembling a track out of a leftover verse or something that was just, like, in
05:39the vault.
05:40So, swap a few lines together, get them all punched in, and then, after that, just repeat
05:46a few so that it kind of makes a refrain or a chorus, and just extend it out so it feels
05:51like a song.
05:52It's like I'm hearing a Frankenstein monster being assembled of a bunch of different random
05:56lines rather than a full and complete verse, and, of course, filling in the gaps here and
06:03there, we have Swamp Izzo, who is screaming all over this record, and I will mention again
06:09a little bit later into the review.
06:11But yeah, from here, we have more tracks on the record that sound rushed and short-winded
06:16but just shouldn't be, like Toxic featuring Skepta, who is obviously a very interesting
06:22feature inclusion for this record, but the song that he's on just kind of trails right
06:27off as soon as he appears.
06:28The songs Walk, Overly, and Dis One Got It sound like short, incomplete future demos.
06:34Meanwhile, the track Charge Them Hose-A-Fee actually does have future on it, and I don't
06:39think I've ever heard a song with this much star power, because it does have future, it
06:44does have Cardi, it has Travis Scott on it as well.
06:47Yeah, all those names, and yet the whole thing sounds like it was produced and assembled
06:51on a moldy potato.
06:53We also have other tracks like Find Shit as well as Philly, which also features Travis
06:57Scott, and these are more tracks that feel less like songs and more like rough sketches
07:03of songs, because, I mean, as much as Travis and Future and Thugger and Kanye may obviously
07:09be very big influences on his sound and his style, he very much lacks the follow-through
07:15to really pull together a sound and a song and a vision in the way that they have in
07:21the past.
07:22Like, we are not talking about Utopia or DS2 or Jeffree levels of focus here, like if anything
07:29we're more in like that Dawn of Doom ballpark, which, mind you, I do think there is a certain
07:34appeal in that in some of the most weird, wild, and exciting tracks this album has to
07:40offer.
07:41Like on the opening track, Pop Out, where Cardi sounds absolutely insane.
07:45With production that features all of these hyper-distorted ringing synthesizers, splotchy
07:50pieces of percussion, and also Cardi's raspy, screamed verses and choruses to POP OUT, POP
07:57OUT!
07:58He's absolutely out of control on this track and does a great job of channeling this pure,
08:02visceral energy when he wants to.
08:04The following track, Crush, I thought was also a highlight, and while this one may not
08:08necessarily be like a genius feat of songwriting, it does feature a crazy combination of disparate
08:13sounds that make for a pretty unique experience, with Cardi's whispery flows, these sliding
08:19Gameboy-type lead synth melodies, grand gospel-style choruses, very rigid, almost industrial-type
08:26hip-hop beats, some very aggressive 808s too, it's total dystopian chaos.
08:31Now compare that to K-Pop, which the album flows into immediately after, and with that
08:36track's more skeletal layers, the atmospheric synthesizers, Cardi's squeaky vocal delivery,
08:42I mean the song is passably eerie, but it just doesn't really feel like it's bringing
08:46that much to the table, especially on this very abrupt ending.
08:50Compare that to the following Evil Jordan, which I do think on some level is a step up,
08:55sure, as Cardi's performance on the mic actually does sound organic rather than pieced
09:00together, his allusions to being in like his rock star and emo phase right now are cute.
09:06The beat actually builds up some kind of momentum on the groove side, the hype Swamp Izzo ad-libs
09:13are very aggressive and attention-grabbing, and there's something about that stuttering,
09:18repeating, shrill little synth line that stands out among all the other beats here too.
09:23But beyond that, I feel like once again with this cut we are just overselling what is actually
09:28being delivered to us here, because while yes it is slightly weirder than the average
09:33track you'll get out there in the mainstream these days, is it substantively interesting?
09:38Not really.
09:39And is it detailed and layered enough to warrant repeating all that many times?
09:43No, absolutely not.
09:44However, I forgot, in this section of the review, I think I'm supposed to be talking
09:48about the highlights on the album.
09:50There is Mojo Jojo, which is a kind of Kendrick Lamar highlight, where Kenny mostly provides
09:56ad-libs on the track in a very odd intro, where he's like almost worshipping Cardi
10:01in a weird way.
10:02Oh yeah, I need that Cardi, my favorite kind of Cardi, that alien Cardi, I need that Cardi,
10:08you know, ooh.
10:10The chemistry between both of them on the track is very odd and forced, it's like Kendrick
10:15is trying to create that weird, baby, keem, kooky, crossover type of energy, but I just
10:21don't really feel like, creatively speaking, he has that sort of rapport with Cardi.
10:26It doesn't work in the same way on this track, especially with Cardi taking himself as seriously
10:31as he does.
10:32Back Door is another track on the record that features Kendrick Lamar, more Kendrick Lamar,
10:36frankly.
10:37And it's kind of like we're being subjected to one of his smoother ballad type cuts, over
10:42a beat that sounds lifted straight out of the Drake Nothing Was The Same era, which
10:46I think Cardi's very spotty, inconsistent flows fail to dominate the space of.
10:51But yeah, as far as Kendrick's contribution on this track goes, it's less than stellar.
10:56I feel like he's dropped at least several very key and impressive tracks in a similar
11:02style as of late, be it Luther or 30 for 30, and I feel like those tracks would have had
11:08to have been just absolutely disappointing crud for me to think of this track more than
11:14twice after I'm done recording this review.
11:17There's also good credit, too, as far as Kendrick Lamar features are concerned on this project.
11:22On this one, Kendrick is at least more in his rat bag, actually delivering a verse.
11:27It's the most impressive of the three tracks here that I'm mentioning.
11:31There's a great key change in the cut as well, but I feel like, once again, Kendrick is operating
11:38at a lower gear than usual and almost trying to match Cardi's super inconsistent flow style,
11:44allowing for the beat and the ad-libs to kind of take over and interrupt him at points.
11:49The whole thing sort of feels like a straight-up flex, maybe an extension to one degree or
11:54another of the recent victory lap he's been on post his Drake beef.
11:58That is, until he starts kind of going on about Playboy Cardi being his evil twin, which
12:02not only feels weird, because on some level it is kind of odd and hypocritical of Kendrick
12:07Lamar posturing morally as much as he has in recent months to be kind of collaborating
12:12with Cardi this deeply and unabashedly on these tracks.
12:17I don't think he's calling him his evil twin for no reason, but even that I feel like he's
12:21giving Cardi too much credit, because I feel like even an evil twin version of Kendrick
12:26Lamar could give us a solid 16 on a track like this, and we're not even getting that.
12:31And look, not to single out Kendrick Lamar, obviously I expected more from him going into
12:36this project, but honestly I don't think any guest on this record brings a particularly
12:42great feature performance.
12:44I mean, Travis Scott brings quite a few guest performances to this record, and even what
12:49he offers I feel like is pretty average by his usual standards.
12:54I mean, all things considered, it truly is Swamp Izzo who sounds the most excited to
12:59be on this album.
13:00Every other appearance from every other person, even Cardi much of the time, just comes across
13:05as repetitive, casual, low stakes, low energy.
13:09Which, yeah, when those are the standards Cardi is setting for his own record, why wouldn't
13:14everybody else kind of follow suit?
13:16Okay, I swear, there are some highlights on this record.
13:20There's Crank, which I feel like is a prime example of Cardi when he is at his best here,
13:26and giving us tracks that essentially sound like the rap equivalent to a chaotic horror
13:31movie soundtrack.
13:32And there's Like Wheezy, which I enjoyed quite a bit as well and features this very
13:36prominent sample of Rich Kid's bend over with its very bright, cheery, super sweet
13:42lead melodies, which let Cardi come at the track with a kind of happy-go-lucky, almost
13:48silly type of energy.
13:50Especially with bars on here where he's going on about spitting on a bitch like pock,
13:54he sounds absolutely just out of his mind on this song.
13:58There's also HBA, which is another moment in the tracklist where I feel like Cardi is
14:03most definitely channeling some kind of high, otherworldly energy over a hype instrumental
14:08where he's just purely operating off of intuition, a gut feeling, and that's it.
14:13And again, moments like these are where this album truly feels locked into its greatest
14:18strengths.
14:19The issue is, though, that is not where most of the album is at.
14:23As much of this record is unfocused, is sloppy, is inconsistent, rushed, thrown together,
14:31messily pieced together.
14:33Yeah, Cardi really managed to give us an album on this one that makes a record as bloated
14:38and as all over the place as Whole Lotta Red sound like it actually really, truly had a
14:44point to it.
14:44Which is why I'm feeling a strong three to a light four on this one.
14:51Transition.
14:52Have you given this album a listen?
14:54Did you love it?
14:54Did you hate it?
14:55What would you rate it?
14:56You're the best, you're the best.
14:57What should I review next?
14:58Hit the like if you like.
14:59Please subscribe and please don't cry.
15:00Hit the bell as well.
15:02Over here next to my head is another video that you can check out.
15:05Hit that up or the link to subscribe to the channel.
15:07Anthony Fantano, Playboi Carti, forever.