Just as Taylor Swift thought she solidified her place for no. 1 album for the remainder of 2020 with her second surprise drop of the year, evermore, Playboi Carti slid down the chimney to release Whole Lotta Red on Christmas day, pushing Swift to the no. 2 spot. Whole Lotta Red is the second studio album by the Atlanta rapper, following his highly acclaimed record, Die Lit.
With only a few featured appearances sprinkled throughout the gap in between both projects such as Tyler, the Creator’s “Earthquake” and Solange’s “Almeda,” Whole Lotta Red is Carti’s most anticipated body of work to date due to its constant release delays and hype amongst his fans. Standing at over an hour in length and a beefy 24-song tracklist, Carti fans will not be going hungry anytime soon. Whole Lotta Red has a short, yet impressive feature list including Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and Future.
As with any Playboi Carti project, there is expected to be plenty of booming trap production paired with Carti’s “baby voice” and sometimes incomprehensible flow — and Whole Lotta Red provides plenty of both of these staples in addition to a handful of new and fresh musical elements. The reason why Die Lit cemented Carti to be such an interesting figure in hip hop was the amount of punk energy he brought to his performance and music that allowed fans to simply go nuts when listening.
Whole Lotta Red provides that same rockstar mentality, but cranked all the way to 11. Pi’erre Bourne, Matthew Williams, and Wheezy all have a hand in the production on the album constructing each Carti instrumental with plenty of distorted bass, muffled drums, and melodic synths.
The album starts out with party anthem “Rockstar Made” with Carti rapping in his signature braggadocious style about how he has gold money and plenty of ladies. Throughout the track is a gracious amount of “what” ad-libs and many opportunities to learn the hook “never too much” as Carti repeats it almost too many times.
Listen To Whole Lotta Red Below:
Every song on Whole Lotta Red that includes a feature really lets the artist shine and uses them to their fullest potential. The next song in the lineup, “Go2DaMoon” featuring Kanye West, is definitely one of the highlights on the album. Kanye opens the song with a verse rapping about a woman only going after a guy because he says he has money, but in reality got his Gucci hat from off-price franchise department store Marshalls. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Kanye verse without a Christian bar, “Ye Jesus gang, you correct.” Carti rounds off the song with a string of “what’s” and a half-written verse that mentions riding in a car with his son and how his vibe is tough.
“Beno!” is another highlight placed towards the top of the tracklist. The instrumental is upbeat with a plucky synth melody hoovering throughout while Carti’s flow complements it perfectly. Lyrical wise, Carti spits the typical content, such as riding in a Rolls Royce and having both a main and side chick, but the vocal melody is catchy enough to keep this track in rotation.
As mentioned earlier, the features on this album are fantastic. “M3tamorphosis” with Kid Cudi is absolutely infectious with Cudi’s signature humming lingering in the instrumental and a tasty verse towards the backend of the track. Carti brings plenty of charisma to the track, almost trying to match Cudi’s performance. It’s moments like this on the album when Carti truly shines as an artist. Kid Cudi is one of those artists in hip hop that everyone looks up to, so out of respect, it is necessary that anyone who works with him to bring their best penmanship in the studio.
For the most part, this album has a consistent sound all the way through with heavy trap instrumentals, Carti’s repetitive hooks, and high energy bangers. The best way to listen to Whole Lotta Red is to test drive the entire album and pick and choose which songs stand out the most, and then make a playlist with just those songs — cutting out the fatty unnecessary ones. It would be just as effective to just throw some darts randomly and see which tracks hit, which will most likely result in the same amount of enjoyment.
The only major flaw of this album is that it overstays its welcome. If Whole Lotta Red was simply spliced in half, there would still be 12 tracks and most likely a solid project with a wealth of energy left over. Cutting down the tracklist would not only provide the album with a bit more focus, but it would help with highlighting which tracks truly standout and deserve the most attention.
Personally, the tracks that stand out are the ones in which Carti’s vocal melody works hand-in-hand with the instrumental melody — in comparison to other tracks where he just disregards the instrumental entirely and attempts to bring pure aggression and energy to the track. A handful of songs that are deemed noteworthy are “Slay3r,” “Control,” “On That Time,” and “F33l Lik3 Dyin.”
“F33l Lik3 Dyin” might be my favorite track off the entire album despite it being placed at the very end. The instrumental includes a Bon Iver sample, giving off major flashbacks to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy production when Justin Vernon was featured on pretty much every track. Carti gives off a very different vibe on this song sounding sincere when he talks about how he “feel like dyin if you not mine,” placing his affection for this woman as top tier to the point where he wouldn’t know what to do if she was not his girl. This is definitely on the more sentimental side, but it would’ve been magical if Carti explored and experimented a bit more in this realm because he pulls it off quite nicely here.
Overall, Whole Lotta Red is filled with headbanging bops, more muffled bass than anyone can possibly need, and Carti hooks so catchy you’ll be singing them at the top of your lungs after just one listen. Although the album is a bit on the lengthy side, Whole Lotta Red has plenty of gems that are worth exploring, whether you are already a fan of Playboi Carti or just discovering his music for the first time.
Whole Lotta Red is available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else you listen to music.
