April 14, 2017. That was the date that Atlanta based rapper Jordan Carter, aka Playboi Carti, released his first album. Following the release of the album, named after Playboi Carti himself, Carti dropped two different artistically sounding tracks: “Brokeboi” and “Crumbs”. On May 11, 2018, he added to his discography with his second official album Die Lit. Finally, 3 months later he announced the development and potential release of his third album Whole Lotta Red.

Fans didn’t hear much from Carti after the announcement in 2018. However, ever with no new music besides basic features on albums like Perfect Ten by Dj Mustard, Lil Boat 3.5 by Lil Yachty, Dark Lane Demo Tapes by Drake, and others including A$AP MOB and Lana Del Rey, fans were able to get their hands on dozens of unreleased songs by Playboi Carti and his management. Some fans speculated that the reason he wasn’t dropping Whole Lotta Red was because of the massive amounts of new music that Carti wasn’t able to drop himself because people decided to leak them. Others thought that the unreleased album had something to do with his newly founded relationship with Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, who earlier this year gave birth to their son Onyx kelly.

Besides the several announcements and delays of the album’s release over the last couple of years, the rapper took to Twitter Monday night, December 21st, sharing the release date, album cover, and a preorder link. The album announcement was accompanied by a sizable merch drop. Carti also took to Instagram and posted photos, videos, and stories of him with major rappers like Travis Scott, Kid Cudi, and Kanye West. But as Kanye and Cudi did both make appearances Travis did not. But maybe we’ll see him on the deluxe album as a day after Playboi Carti dropped WLR he shortly tweeted:

I think there were a few pretty good songs and after listening to the album for a couple of weeks I can confidently say I rate it around a 6.5/10. Mostly because of Carti’s obvious change, as he went from a hard trap sound to an alternative type sound not only that but his style in his personal life changed along with the way he produces his music. I also asked a few of my friends what they thought of the album and after careful consideration, I asked the opinion of my best friend Leighton. His exact words being: “I think that Kanye West’s production throughout the whole album was nearly flawless. Carti’s baby voice was great on so many tracks. I think the album will age like Kanye’s yeezus, not a great album but has some very, very good songs on it and in a couple of years the people who listened to it will see how great it is”.

Although I do wish I could’ve worded what he said a little better I do 100% agree with him and I know some people might call his claim a bit generous when it comes to the album itself, but I think what he said was the exact definition of the album’s presence after it’s release. One of the main reasons I chose his response was because most of the ones I received were very criticizing and weren’t focusing on the right aspects of the project and more on the change of Carti himself. Mainly with his recent merch drop for the album as a lot of it was very “satanist” with upside-down crosses and anti-biblical statements. As I understand why many were upset by the merch I do think it’s clouded people’s judgment of the music produced.

Besides the album drop, there have been quite a few interesting things happening in the young rapper’s life. Including major drama with his baby mama who took to Instagram live and ranted about Carti’s disappearance on their son Onyx. According to Iggy Azalea the day of her scheduled c-section, Playboi Carti was playing videogames with his friend and fellow rapper Lil Uzi Vert. He also reportedly did not spend his son’s first Christmas with him either, as he was on live celebrating the album’s official drop. As a carti fan myself in circumstances like this when I separate the music from the artists. He’s a deadbeat dad and a mid rapper but at least he’s made some fire song. Hopefully, we’ll see a deluxe coming soon and maybe even get that Travis Scott features we were teased. Until then keep bumping Sky and ILoveUIhateU because those are the best songs on the album.