Playboi Carti

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  • Whole Lotta Red
    Whole Lotta Red
    Whole Lotta Red

    Anyone looking to be surprised by what a chart-topping “pop“ album can sound like in 2020 should listen to Whole Lotta Red. Playboi Carti had been a divisive force in rap since “Magnolia” came out in 2017, a visionary to progressive listeners and horseman of the apocalypse to more conservative ones—two horsemen if you wanna count his ”baby voice”. Where the arc of trap music as drawn by artists like Migos and Young Thug bent toward beats that were both increasingly stripped-down and increasingly weird and psychedelic, Whole Lotta Red—produced by moment-defining guys like F1lthy and Pi’erre Bourne—pushed the sound even further, making bright, menacing music that captured the high of a great slasher movie (“No Sl33p”, “Stop Breathing”) or binging viral videos on repeat. Picking Carti apart for his lyrical simplicity or the almost maniacal way he would get stuck on a single phrase like an engine backfiring in the mud—“Jump out the house! jump out the house! jump out the house!”—is beside the point: He’s not rapping here, he’s transmitting pure, instant energy. You could trace it back to stuff like Three 6 Mafia or the blown-out sound of old arcade games or the compressed violence of ’80s punk and hardcore. But the precedents didn’t matter, at least not really: Whole Lotta Red felt most of all like an album that reset the counter, ignoring the traditions of rap in favour of something that felt sometimes transcendently of-the-moment—and in it, too. It’s weird, it’s risky, it’s fashionable and ugly and childish and sophisticatedly minimal at the same time. It might make you feel dumb. And that’s part of what makes it brilliant.

  • Playboi Carti
    Playboi Carti
    Playboi Carti

    Playboi Carti arrived at a time when mumble rap was boosting hip-hop’s bottom line, making it a ubiquitous but captivating innovation in music. On later releases like 2018’s Die Lit, Carti would tip a hat to his humble beginnings, priding himself on his ability to build wealth and buy his mum a house “off that mumbling s**t”. This self-titled 2017 mixtape was the beginning of Carti laying that very foundation. Born Jordan Terrell Carter in Atlanta in 1996, the rapper and singer takes a wide-eyed, unconstrained approach to creating—not unlike the stylistic technique he employed with his breakthrough 2015 single, “Broke Boi”. After Carti sprinkled a smattering of official and unofficial songs across the internet in the mid-2010s, his star power grew exponentially, thanks to fans who couldn’t get enough of his creative appeal. Playboi Carti is propelled by Carti’s sheer charisma and trend-setting persona. The artist, known globally for his unique fashion sense and an affinity for all things divergent, uses this radical mixtape as a launchpad for his brand of unconventional self-expression. The project is buoyed by repetitive chants and earworm phrases that stretch themselves into trance-inducing anthems and mantras, custom made for a new generation of ragers and moshers. “Magnolia”, the smash single produced by frequent collaborator Pi’erre Bourne, was Carti’s moment of arrival in the mainstream, thanks in large part to his breezy rapping style. Playboi Carti’s songs, lyrics and ad libs have embedded themselves into the broader pop culture landscape, but don’t get confused: on “Half & Half”, he lets it be known that “This is not pop, this some rock.” Equally inspired by the unapologetic air of hip-hop and the irreverent attitude of rock ’n’ roll, he dedicates Playboi Carti to the merging of the two influential genres. The punk-inflected hit “Wokeuplikethis*” featuring Lil Uzi Vert shows the MCs directly addressing copycats and simultaneously flexing in their imitators’ faces. Lyrical minimalism is the ace up Playboi Carti’s sleeve, and he strategically plays his cards to bring us into his complex sonic universe.

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About Playboi Carti

Playboi Carti is one of those rappers who represent a creative line in the sand: either you’re with it or you ain’t. Punky, exhilarating and daringly simple, Carti’s music pushes the bright minimalism of 2010s trap to almost abstract extremes, combining twinkly synths with noisy bass and a flow that sounds like one long ad-lib, or—yeah, let’s get it out there—baby talk. The gambit is clear: like Cam’ron’s embrace of the colour pink or Young Thug’s trailblazing sing-song, Carti’s babble is a middle finger to preconceived notions of what it means to be a rapper, and to rap’s general tendency toward masculine tough talk—or, as a line on 2018’s “R.I.P.” went, “Fuck that mumblin’ shit, fuck that mumblin’ shit/Bought a crib for my momma off that mumblin’ shit.” Forget being a voice of authority—there are times it doesn’t even sound like Carti is saying words. Born Jordan Carter in 1996, Carti got his start in the Atlanta underground, connecting with A$AP Rocky at a festival in 2015—a relationship that vaulted him toward the mainstream and also put him at the emerging junction between streetwear and high fashion. (He may be one of the few people to have eaten nuggets from McDonald’s while being outfitted for a Louis Vuitton runway show.) If 2017’s Playboi Carti (which included the Lil Uzi Vert collaboration “Wokeuplikethis*” and the ubiquitous “Magnolia”) set the bar, 2018’s Die Lit ripped it out and knocked a wall down with it. Carti continued tearing down boundaries with Whole Lotta Red, a dystopian LP that pushed the limits of his vocal dexterity. A barrage of frenzied murmurs and pixelated soundscapes, the LP only reaffirmed Carti’s status as one of the most innovative stylists of his era.

HOMETOWN
us
BORN
13 September 1995
GENRE
Hip-Hop/Rap

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