2023 repress - The Atlanta rapper’s third record is both wildly innovative and strikingly consistent. It’s hard, melodic, experimental, and unlike anything else happening in mainstream rap. Whole Lotta Red functions like a pressure cooker. Playboi Carti takes an endless supply of bright and serrated beats and packs them together, end on end, so that the album seems to careen wildly toward an unknown destination. Those beats are then populated by the 24-year-old’s most outré, expressive vocals yet, a string of barks, ad-libbed shards, and crooned melodies that compound the mania. The effect is to make Whole Lotta Red’s predecessor, 2018’s already intense Die Lit, sound nearly staid by comparison––and Carti’s slightly cloudy, self-titled debut from 2017 seem positively tranquilized.
| A1 | Rockstar Made |
| A2 | Go2DaMoon |
| A3 | Stop Breathing |
| A4 | Beno! |
| A5 | JumpOutTheHouse |
| A6 | M3tamorphosis |
| B1 | Slay3r |
| B2 | No Sl33p |
| B3 | New Tank |
| B4 | Teen X |
| B5 | Meh |
| B6 | Vamp Anthem |
| C1 | New N3on |
| C2 | Control |
| C3 | Punk Monk |
| C4 | On That Time |
| C5 | King Vamp |
| C6 | Place |
| D1 | Sky |
| D2 | Over |
| D3 | ILoveUIHateU |
| D4 | Die4Guy |
| D5 | Not Playing |
| D6 | F33l Lik3 Dyin |
