Playboi Carti (Jordan Terell Carter); can be the most controversial artist of the Soundcloud era. Best known for lyrics like “She tryna be cray!” (Kid Cudi leak, 2018) and “Got me mad as sh*t, so I slapped a b*tch!” (R.I.P, Die Lit, 2018), rose to fame during the early 2015s with his previous moniker: $ir Cartier from his break-out single “Broke Boi” (2017) and his appearances in popular fashion events like Yeezy Season 5 (Kanye West, 2017) and the Raf Simons event (HYPEBEAST, 2017) . But I’m not here to give you a history lesson on the baby-voiced, mumble rapper/trapper. I’m here to show you what makes Carti different than other rappers in the game.
It’s not easy to determine the specific reason as to why Playboi Carti has as much hype as he does; his bars aren’t clever, his voice can be annoying and the songs could all blend into each other without noticing much difference between sounds. However, I believe that that’s the entire point. Carti’s minimalistic take on the rap genre shows its flexibility and diversity; there’s a sound for everyone interested in the genre. Whether you listen to the Wu-Tang Clan for their political and black history statements; often putting the white man as the reason behind their oppression (which is very true), or you listen to Kid Cudi for his trippy, harmonized humming backed by Kanye West’s manic, sometimes boom-bap style instrumentals.
One of the main reasons people bump Carti is for his producer: Pi’erre Bourne. He’s the man behind the hypnotic, viral hit song “Magnolia” that dropped in 2017 on Carti’s self-titled album: “Playboi Carti” (2017). His usage of 808s, bass heavy synths, and splashing hi-hats makes every song sound floaty and undefined. For example; on Die Lit (2018) the album starts off with “Long Time- Intro”, which is a calm, psychedelic song about finally achieving your goals and attaining what you’ve been hustling every day for over a long time, but it immediately switches to “R.I.P” which is a song cluttered with heavy 808s, speaker-destroying bass, and a very simple backing melody to lighten up the song. However, this transition is very clever, showing the different sides of Carti and Bourne by totally flipping the initial vibe of the album from a calm approach to a thrash-trap, explosive, up-in-your-face banger.
In addition to his producer, his entire music label pushes his material to the masses by aligning itself with Carti’s style. AWGE Label (A$AP Mob, 2019) and Interscope Records (Universal Music Group, 1990) have seen drastic changes in their market size due to the overwhelming hype-train caused songs like “*wokeuplikethis!” (Playboi Carti, 2017), which featured huge Soundcloud artist Lil Uzi Vert, and “Flatbed Freestyle” (Die Lit, 2018) which paved the way for so many other artists that wanted to perform under Carti’s musical guidance. While there is a lot of controversy surrounding the privacy and copyright control under Interscope Records due to the numerous leaks that have surfaced over time (which we are all grateful for), they gave him the boost and advertising needed for his music to see the light of day. Furthermore, A$AP Rocky’s AWGE label is known to produce some real fire; whether it’s singling out artists within the A$AP Mob like A$AP Ferg and his infamous “Trap Lord” album (2013) or gathering the whole gang and mashing up their sounds within a collaborative album like on the incredibly successful “Cozy Tapes Vol.2: Too Cozy” (2017) which also has a Playboi Carti feature. It’s no stretch to the imagination how big Carti can and will get from his connections alone, aside from his banging music.
I listen to Playboi Carti for his innovative, simple approach to the rap game; from his released songs like “NO.9” off “Playboi Carti” to his multiple leaks like “Molly (No Stylist)” and “Buffy the Body”. Carti truly embodies the confusion, deliriousness, and deviance that prides itself on not conforming to the majority. It’s the new punk; a direct opposition to the norm.
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