Carti’s New Album – Worth the Wait?

Five years. That’s how long fans were waiting for Playboi Carti’s anticipated album. Playboi Carti has been an iconic figure in recent pop culture, and he and his brand OPIUM have influenced trends in social media and fashion. With that being said, his new music has been absent for years. When he did drop, a host of expectations were layered on to the album. In some ways it met and even exceeded them, but in others it fell short.
What started out as hype for Carti’s third album transformed into contempt as time went on. All of a sudden, in early March, social media was taken by storm by the arrival of I AM MUSIC – SORRY 4 DA WAIT. In comparison to previous projects, I AM MUSIC – SORRY 4 DA WAIT is less polished, despite the fact that Carti had half a decade to work on it. In exchange for that polish is a level of experimentation which Carti hadn’t truly ventured into before.
His formula remains the same, as well as the things which have made him so iconic (like the voice switches, adlibs and the production quality), but he pushes that formula in interesting ways. That doesn’t always mean interesting, as tracks like “OPM BABI” are among his absolute worst due to the excess of adlibs, but for the most part Carti’s efforts pay off. “RADAR” and “FINE S**T” demonstrate this, and even songs with some overdone elements like the beat in “EVIL J0RDAN” remain entertaining because of how well they capitalize on Carti’s strengths.
Probably the best highlight of the project were the features. Both Carti and the artists featured seem to give some of, if not their best performances on the album when in tandem with one another. “RATHER LIE,” “CHARGE THEM H**S A FEE” and “TRIM” are some of his best songs ever. Future stands out as the definite MVP on the feature list, but Travis Scott, Jhene Aiko and the Weeknd aren’t far behind. Kendrick Lamar was definitely a unique addition, but his style seems to mesh with Carti’s better than it initially seemed.
Other great features include Young Thug and TY Dolla $ign on “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” and Skepta in “TOXIC”. The only poor performance was Lil Uzi, who wasn’t particularly good or bad. His place in the album speaks more to Carti’s song selection than it does to Uzi’s abilities as a rapper.
Despite all the praise Carti has earned, it’s necessary to acknowledge that I AM MUSIC – SORRY 4 DA WAIT suffers from a volume issue, and while it serves as a great demonstration of Carti’s style, it gets tiring at times. 34 songs is a lot, and towards the end it feels exhausting to digest in one sitting. The ending is definitely strong with songs like “BACKRooMS”, “SOUTH ATLANTA BABY” and 2024, but that ending stretch would hit better if there wasn’t so much fluff preceding it.
Overall, I AM MUSIC – SORRY 4 DA WAIT is an entertaining album. It isn’t perfect, but it displays what Carti excels at and is coupled with some of the best collaborations of the past six months.