Ever since Playboi Carti’s self-titled mixtape debut, he has been an extremely polarizing figure in the rap world. He has carved space for other artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, an artist he has frequently collaborated with. Following his debut album, “Die Lit,” he achieved more clout and a cult following he gained with his mixtape and his single “Magnolia.” However, with a bigger following comes more criticism. His music falls under the “love it or hate it” spectrum of music, with many people listening to “Die Lit” on repeat, and those who don’t accredit Carti as an incredible artist.
Carti’s sophomore release “Whole Lotta Red” has been one more anticipated project in rap since its announcement. It has followed the same release of Travis Scott’s “Astroworld” and Lil Uzi Vert’s “Eternal Atake,” all being delayed several times, fraught with reworks and track list edits. For the cult following, they anticipated “Whole Lotta Red” as another chapter of Playboi Carti’s career. It was a final “Aha!” moment for Carti to show that he was deserving of this cult following that he garnered for himself.
“Whole Lotta Red” is arguably more polarizing than “Die Lit.” Being better than Carti’s debut was well worth the wait and for his detractors, it’s just another piece to Playboi Carti’s fame.
The first thing to talk about regarding the content of the album is Carti’s growth as a musical artist. “Whole Lotta Red” is not like “Die Lit” or his self-titled mixtape. On “Whole Lotta Red,” Carti got darker with his production and his lyrics. Despite Carti occupying punk rock genre of the music world, Carti has only occasionally dipped into darker tones and stylings for his music. He has typically relied on mostly bangers in his projects, but on his sophomore album, he hits the reset Carti is self-aware enough to grow and develop as an artist. This is something a lot of artists from the SoundCloud era have a difficult time doing so it’s refreshing to see Carti not fall into that trap.
Like any other Carti project, the production is incredible and undoubtedly the strongest feature of this album. Carti’s choices of instrumentals include layered, articulate and flow that blends seamlessly. It’s been his strongest musical feature, and despite switching his tones with his latest release, that has not changed.
Carti’s choices of features in his two previous releases varied. In his mixtape, he only has three features from Lil Uzi Vert (twice) and A$AP Rocky, two of his most well-known associates in the rap world. On “Die Lit,” the longer project of the two by over ten minutes, Carti had a plethora of features including Uzi Young Thug, Nicki Minaj, Young Thug and Young Nudy.
“Whole Lotta Red” is the longest album of the three and in contrast to “Die Lit,” it has only three total features including artists such as Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Future. This is a long album for any artist to put out over an hour of music with hardly any features, and the album becomes grating after a bit.
Carti’s lyrical content on this album isn’t great, speaking similarly to any other new-generation rapper. Although Carti isn’t known for his lyrics, his music flows and is wildly entertaining.
I personally think the album is entertaining, if not unspectacular. I’m lying in between, I don’t think he is any revolutionary musical artist that his most avid fans think he is. If I was heavily anticipating this album, I might be more disappointed, but I’ve learned to curb my enthusiasm and anticipation following Childish Gambino’s last album. “Whole Lotta Red” will not curve the opinions of any Carti haters, but for people who are fans or indifferent towards his music, “Whole Lotta Red” is an entertaining project and listeners won’t pull tracks from for their respective playlists.
“Whole Lotta Red” gets a 6.5/10
Teren Kowatsch can be reached at [email protected]u