Playboi Carti - MUSIC ALBUM REVIEW

hi everyone chony top Tano here the

internet's busiest music nerd and it's

time for a review of this new Playboy

cardi album music here we have a brand

new LP from rapper songwriter in demand

artist Hip Hop's current it booy Mr

Playboy cardi coming through with a

project that is almost 5 years in the

making music really one of the most

highly anticipated releases in recent

memory and you know you do have to give

it to those cardi fans their Devotion to

him May borderline on disturbing

sometimes but they're at least patient

enough to have stuck with him while this

record came together certainly many fan

bases would have moved on at this point

having waited uh so many years

especially with so many copycat artists

these days flooding The Zone with their

own mid to respectable takes on Cardi's

trademark sound the aggressive distorted

cycling trippy beats he tends to favor

his experimental approach to flows and

vocal inflections the dark Elusive and

mysterious ways in which he presents

himself too all of which he slowly

developed after having blown up off of

his self-titled mixtape back in 2017 but

even with card's last official

fulllength album being almost 5 years

old at this point his many imitators

haven't even come close to lapping him

in terms of relevancy and that is

despite a very frustrated fan basee uh

being subjected to countless leaks

teases album title changes singles

pushbacks weak features and for some

reason fit picks but then all of a

sudden we got music here which was just

announced in a Flash last week dropped

the following Friday and now it's here

and despite there having been so much

time for this project to incubate

effectively it still sounds so rushed

and in consistent and I mean in some

ways not much has really changed since

the release of card's last record whole

lot of red in 2020 because and I know

many would disagree with this that album

in its own right was a pretty

inconsistent disjointed project I mean

among its 24 songs there really was no

through line uh guiding all of the

tracks overall I mean a majority of the

tracks on this thing didn't even sound

mixed and mastered the same as quite a

few were actually kind of quite painful

to listen to by comparison I will say

the overall mix job on a music here is

slightly better even cocaine nose which

sounds like an ultra distorted throwback

to the whole lot of red ERA with looped

metal guitar licks and all the track OPM

baby I would say sort of feels like it

could have come from that same album too

to an extent and yeah throughout the

rest of the album there are some

familiar cisms here and there like the

track Olympian sounds like something uh

that could have been one of the cynth

Year cuts to land on his 2017 dilit

album that is if it were sort of updated

with his uh throatier Frogger delivery

style that he's been kind of favoring as

of

late but honestly tracks like these are

more the exception than the rule in this

uh very Hefty 30 song track list whose

worst moments sound near effortless and

uh pretty thrown together and look I

know there are some hype standouts and

uh singles and big features in this

album that have been a huge point of

discussion around this album for sure

but we cannot allow those flashes in the

pan to 100% dictate all the discourse

around this album because again there

are 30 songs on this project and they

all collectively contribute to this

album's overall quality and looking at

this project as a whole I feel like I'm

pulling up the floorboards on a house

and just like seeing termites just

devastating all of the wood that the

entire house is built on because once

again like with whole lot of red and

that album was like packed with all that

Vamp [ __ ] and so on and so forth with

music I just don't really feel like

there's a lot of vision pulling these

songs together because they're either so

short and directionless and

underdeveloped that their inclusion on

this album is insulting or I'm just left

feeling like cardi and Company could

have just done more with the track we

need all the Vibes for example is a

track that just kind of sounds like an

old stale Young Thug Summer Jam that was

sitting in the vault and Playboy cardi

just like contributed a couple bars to

the second half of it and that's it

there's also rather Li featuring The

Weekend which kind of sounds like the

other side of a coin we already caught

wind of from Timeless on ael's recent

fulllength album it's kind of like they

came up with two variations on the same

song idea and I I think cardi got the

weaker of the two variations here

there's twin trim featuring Lil Uzi ver

as well which this track doesn't even

have a cardi ver on it it just kind of

seems like a bunch of synths and grooves

from the L Uzi vert versus the world era

but it's somehow landing on this album

for some reason I've seen it described

as an interlude but like an interlude

from what to what because it just kind

of sounds like one more ungroomed random

song in a sea of other ungroomed random

songs and this isn't even the worst Uzi

vert track on the record there's also

the song jumping which feels like one of

those tracks that you get on AP posrus

record after a rapper has passed away

and a label tasks two or three producers

with like assembling a track out of a

leftover verse or something that was

just like in the vault just chop a few

lines together get them all punched in

and then after that just a repeat a few

so that it kind of makes a refrain or a

chorus and just extend it out so it

feels like a song it's like I'm hearing

a Frankenstein monster being assembled

of a bunch of different random lines

rather than a full and complete verse

and uh of course filling in the gaps

here and there we have swamp ISO who is

screaming all over this record and I

will uh mention again a little bit later

into the review but yeah from here we

have more tracks on the record that

sound rushed and short- winded but just

shouldn't be like toxic featuring skepta

who is obviously a very interesting

feature inclusion for this record but

the song that he's on just kind of

trails right off as soon as he appears

the songs walk overly and this one got

it sound like short incomplete future

demos meanwhile the track charg them

hosei actually does have future on it

and I don't think I've ever heard a song

with this much star power because it

does have future it does have cardi it

has Travis Scott on it as well yeah all

those names and yet the whole thing

sounds like it was produced and

assembled on a moldy potato we also have

other tracks like f [ __ ] as well as

Philly which also features Travis Scott

and these are more tracks that feel less

like songs and more like rough sketches

of songs because I mean as much as

Travis and future and Thugger and Kanye

may obviously be uh very big influences

on his sound and his style he very much

lacks the follow through to uh really

pull together a sound and a song and a

vision in the way that they have in the

past like we are not talking about

Utopia or DS2 or uh Jeffrey levels of

focus here like if anything were more in

like that Dawn to two ballpark which

mind you I do think there is a certain

appeal in that in some of the most weird

wild and exciting tracks this album has

to offer like on the opening track pop

out where cardi sounds absolutely insane

with production that features all of

these hyper distorted ringing

synthesizers splotchy pieces of

percussion and also card's raspy

screamed verses and choruses

to he's absolutely control on this track

and does a great job of channeling this

pure visceral energy when he wants to

the following track Crush I thought was

also a highlight and while this one may

not necessarily be like a genius feat of

songwriting it does feature a crazy

combination of disperate sounds that

make for a pretty unique experience with

Cardi's whispery flows these sliding

Game Boy type lead synth Melodies Grand

gospel style choruses very rigid almost

industrial type hip-hop beats some very

aggressive 808s too it's total dystopian

chaos now compare that to K-pop which

the album flows into immediately after

and with that tracks more skeletal

layers the atmospheric synthesizers

Cardi's squeaky vocal delivery I mean

the song is passably eerie but it just

doesn't really feel like it's bringing

that much to the table especially on

this very abrupt ending compare that to

the following evil Jordan which I do

think on some level is a step up sure as

card's performance on the mic actually

does sound organic rather than piece

together his Illusions to being in like

his rockar and emo phase right now are

cute the beat actually builds up some

kind of momentum On the Groove side the

hype swamp ISO ad libs are very

aggressive and detention grabbing and

there's something about that stuttering

repeating shrill little synth line that

stands out among all the other beats

here too but beyond that I feel like

once again with this cut we are just

overselling what is actually being

delivered to us here because while yes

it is slightly weirder than the average

track you'll get out there in the

mainstream these days is it

substantively interesting not really and

is it detailed and layered enough to

Warrant repeating all that many times no

absolutely not however I forgot in this

section of the review I think I'm

supposed to be talking about the

highlights on the album uh there is Mojo

Jojo which is a kind of Kendrick Lamar

highlight where Kenny mostly provides ad

libs on the track in a very odd intro

where he's like almost worshiping cardi

in a weird way oh yeah I need that cardi

my favorite kind of cardi that alien

cardi I need that cardi you know woo the

chemistry between both of them on the

track is very odd and forced it's like

Kendrick is trying to uh create that

weird baby Keem kooky crossover type of

energy but I just don't really feel like

creatively speaking he has that sort of

rapport with cardi it it doesn't work in

the same way on this track especially

with cardi taking himself as seriously

as he does back door is another track on

the record that features Kendrick Lamar

a more Kendrick Lamar frankly and it's

kind of like we're being subjected to

one of his uh smoother ballad type Cuts

over a beat that sounds lifted straight

out of the Drake Nothing was the Same

era which I think card's very spotty

inconsistent flows failed to dominate

the space of but yeah as far as

Kendrick's contribution on this track

goes it's less than Stellar I feel like

he's dropped uh at least several very

key and uh impressive tracks in a

similar style as of late uh be it Luther

or 30 for30 and I feel like those tracks

would have had to have been just

absolutely disappointing crud for me to

think of this track more than twice

after I'm done recording this review

there's also good credit too as far as

Kendrick Lamar features are concerned on

this project on this one Kendrick is at

least more in his rap bag actually

delivering a verse uh it's the most

impressive of the three tracks here that

I'm mentioning there's a great key

change in the cut as well uh but I feel

like once again Kendrick is operating at

a lower gear than usual and almost

trying to match card's super

inconsistent flow style allowing for the

beat and the ad libs to kind of take

over and interrupt him at points the

whole thing sort of feels like a you

know straight up Flex maybe an extension

uh to one degree or another of the

recent Victory lap he's been on post his

Drake beef uh that is until he starts

kind of going on about Playboy cardi

being his evil twin which not only feels

weird because on some level it is kind

of odd and hypocritical of Kendrick

Lamar posturing morally as much as he

has in recent months uh to be kind of

collaborating with cardi this deeply and

unabashedly on these tracks I don't

think he's calling him his evil twin for

no reason but uh even that I feel like

he's giving cardi too much credit

because I feel like even an evil twin

version of Kendrick Lamar uh could give

us a solid 16 on a track like this and

we're not even getting that and look not

to single out Kendrick Lamar obviously I

expected more from him going into this

project but honestly I don't think any

guest on this record brings a

particularly uh great feature

performance I mean Travis Scott brings

quite a few guest performances to this

record and even what he offers I feel

like is um pretty averag by his usual

standards I mean all things considered

it truly is swamp ISO who sounds the

most excited to be on this album every

other appearance from every other person

even cardi much of the time just comes

across as repetitive casual low stakes

low energy which yeah when those are the

standards cardi is setting for his own

record why why wouldn't everybody else

kind of follow suit okay uh I I swear

there are some highlights on this record

um there's uh there's crank which I feel

like is a prime example of cardi uh when

he is at his best here and giving us

tracks that essentially sound like like

the rap equivalent to a chaotic horror

movie soundtrack and there's like Wheezy

which I enjoyed quite a bit as well and

features this very prominent sample of

rich kids bend over with its very bright

cheery super sweet lead Melodies which

let cardi come at the track with a a

kind of happy go-lucky almost silly type

of energy especially with bars on here

where he's going on about a spitting on

a [ __ ] like Pock he sounds absolutely

just out of his mind on this song

There's also HB which is another moment

in the track list where I feel like uh

cardi is most definitely channeling some

kind of high otherworldly energy over a

hype instrumental where he's just uh

purely operating off of intuition a gut

feeling and that's it and again moments

like these are where this album truly

feels locked into its greatest strengths

the issue is though that is not where

most of the album is at as much of this

record is uh unfocused is sloppy is

inconsist

rushed thrown together messily pieced

together yeah cardi really managed to

give us an album on this one that makes

a record as bloated and as all over the

place as whole lot of red uh sound like

it actually really truly had a point to

it which is why I'm feeling a strong

three to a light four on this one

transition have you given this album a

listen did you love it did you hate it

what would you rate it you're the best

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cardi forever