Playboi Carti’s highly anticipated album Whole Lotta Red released on December 25th, 2020, and is one of my favorite albums to ever release. After releasing his first studio album called Die Lit, in April of 2018, fans have been craving for new music. When Whole Lotta Red finally dropped on Christmas morning, fans were very confused and social media instantly went crazy. 

Jordan Carter AKA Playboi Carti is a rapper from Flatbush, Atlanta. Carti has a cult fan base and is known for being a rapper that uses simplicity to make his music. Carti is definitely not your traditional rapper who spits crazy lyrics and flows. Carti has had top tier producers especially Pierre Bourne who helped Carti rise to fame with their hit song titled Magnolia on Carti’s first mixtape which he produced the majority of. Carti’s producers give him one of a kind beats which he raps on with his very unique flow and cadence. This is what Carti fans were expecting with this new album but instead they received something totally different. With his new lineup of elite producers like F1lthy, Starboy, Kanye West, Wheezy, Richie Souf, Ken Carson, Lil 88, Art Dealer, Outtatown and Pierre Bourne, Playboi Carti dropped a Punk Rock album which was a lengthy 26 tracks. This was a new and very experimental sound that caused many mixed reviews from his fanbase and rap fans in general. 

Many people loved how Carti experimented with this new sound but a majority of his older fans and others in the community were very disappointed and were asking for the “Old Carti” to return. They are referring to the older type of sound which made him rise to fame in the first place. When the album dropped at 12:00AM on Christmas night, fans were immediately going to Twitter to start clowning the album and even made the words, “Whole Lotta Mid” and “Trash” with a picture of the album as the header, were the two most trending hashtags on Twitter for that day. That shows a lot, that on arguably the biggest holiday of the year, the hatred for his album was still the highest trending topic. However, the die hard Carti fans were defending the album's greatness and were saying that the album would have to grow on people, similarly to how his previous album Die Lit did. Die Lit received many harsh reviews when it dropped but is now known as one of the most legendary and iconic trap albums of all time. 

I personally loved the album the first time I ever listened to it and it was one of the most unique pieces of music I ever listened to. There were songs that I could not wait to be performed live with a more exciting screaming punk/rock sound such as Rockstar Made, New Tank, On That Time and Stop Breathing which is one of my personal favorites off the album. And there were also slower tracks similar to his older style on Die Lit such as Place, Beno, ILoveUIHateU, and Over. I appreciated the album so much on my first listen because I thought it was amazing how much of a risk he was taking after not dropping any music in 3 years. Also I realized how great some of these songs would be if they were performed live because of all the screaming, hard hitting bass, and punk feel that they give the audience. Also there is nothing close in the mainstream that is even similar to music that sounds like it. 

Carti received his first Billboard number 1 album from Whole Lotta Red despite what the critics said about it. It sold 105,000 units in the first week which is an amazing improvement from his last album which sold 61,000 units in its first week. Any album that sells over 100k units is a major success for any artist/label and only a handful of rapers can achieve this feat. 

When I first listened to the album I rated it a 8/10 and I am very strict about my album ratings so that is an amazing score. However, fast forward 11 months later, I give this album a 10/10 and I listen to it almost everyday. The album has aged beautifully and on October 29th I was able to see Carti perform the album live. It was probably the greatest day of my life. There was rain pouring from the sky and I have never seen a crowd so invested in an artist. I thought I was gonna die with mosh pits constantly forming around me every time there was a beat drop. Also the added transition intros from a live guitarist to each song made the experience even more memorable. There were people passing out all over the place and getting carried out as well as fights from elbows flying all over the place. I was stepping on phones and other belongings but no one seemed to care. I am honored to have been able to experience what felt like history and what many consider to be Carti’s greatest performance ever. This easily made the album 10x more valuable to me and I have been waiting for that day since I first heard the album almost a year ago.

Now looking back to last Christmas, all those people hating and following the trend before even listening to the album have been proved wrong. The album keeps getting better as time goes on and has recently been added to possible grammy nominations for rap album of the year. Today the album has very few haters and people are appreciating the creativeness and experimental sound which Carti was going for.