In 2018, rapper Playboi Carti released his second studio album “Die Lit.” The energetic beats, catchy hooks, and pounding bass featured on the album made it an instant classic for clubs, parties, and locker rooms. Coming only one year after Carti’s highly successful self-titled debut, “Die Lit” launched Carti further into the spotlight than ever and left fans hungry for more. 

  Carti announced the name of his next album, “Whole Lotta Red,” soon after, but nearly two years later, almost no new information had been released. Conflicts with management, personal issues, and the accidental leak of many unfinished songs to the public prevented Carti from releasing a complete album for a long time. The leaks, however, were insanely popular online and only built anticipation for the album. 

  Finally, on Dec. 25, 2020, “Whole Lotta Red” was released. The album reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 within a week due to the sheer excitement. Featuring a completely new track list of unreleased and unleaked songs, it seemed that Carti was finally able to overcome the issues that had plagued him for so long. 

  Sadly, fans overall were disappointed with the new album. Instead of perfecting the leaked songs and professionally recording them, Carti decided to rush an entirely new project. None of the songs seem fully complete, and the repetitive lyrics make many of the songs almost unlistenable. Furthermore, it seems as though Carti’s production team has run out of creative direction too, as many of the beats sound painfully similar to his previous work. 

  It’s clear that Carti was intending this album to be full of party anthems, but instead fans were left with an album full of songs that sound good for about a minute before they need to be skipped. Hopefully, in the future, Carti will find a balance between his new and old sounds, but as for right now it’ll be hard to convince his fans that he is more than a one-trick pony.