{"id":939817,"date":"2025-01-08T19:05:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T16:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=939817"},"modified":"2025-01-08T19:05:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T16:05:35","slug":"every-little-thing-thats-happened-since-playboi-carti-first-announced-i-am-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=939817","title":{"rendered":"Every Little Thing That\u2019s Happened Since Playboi Carti First Announced *I Am Music*"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Columns<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Every Little Thing That\u2019s Happened Since Playboi Carti First Announced I Am Music<\/em><\/h1>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Since March of 2021, rap\u2019s most delayed and anticipated album has been subject to name-changes, empty promises, and surprise singles. Here is a four-year timeline of Instagram posts, leaks, snippets, and rumors that have kept fans hanging on.<\/div>\n
\n
\n
By <\/span>Olivier Lafontant<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
Photos via Getty Images. Graphic by Chris Panicker.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

At a time when parasocial behavior trumps religion, the kids no longer look to the sky for a deity; they scroll their phones for someone who looks like them. In the eyes of many, that godlike figure is Playboi Carti, rap\u2019s biggest young luminary. To the Atlanta native\u2019s diehard supporters, an arrest for alleged abuse is a call to action, his mugshot a symbol of solidarity. He\u2019s part-novelty, part-leader of men; a master of deceit, and a villain.<\/p>\n

Carti\u2019s tendency to shroud himself in mystery is both the key to his allure and his audience\u2019s biggest gripe. For them, the gap between his 2018 debut studio album Die Lit<\/em> and 2020\u2019s Whole Lotta Red<\/em> was a grueling exhibition of falsities and hearsay.<\/p>\n

Four years have now passed since the cultural reset of WLR<\/em> and the demand for the rapper\u2019s fourth full-length has reached biblical proportions. In a convoluted saga of name-changes, broken promises, and surprise singles, the album, now known as I Am Music,<\/em> may be the most anticipated rap release of the decade. Here\u2019s everything you need to know about what\u2019s happened so far.<\/p>\n

\n

March 13, 2021<\/h2>\n

Playboi Carti announces his Whole Lotta Red<\/em> follow-up record less than three months after its Christmas release. Under an Instagram dump of posh, snow-white \u2019fit pics, he types out this surprise announcement in his signature style: \u201cLeTs dr0p thiS new Album . w3 noT done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

August 23, 2021<\/h2>\n

In another bombshell Instagram post (there\u2019s a lot of these), Carti shares a photo dump captioned \u201cNARCISSIST 09\/13\/21,\u201d\u2014a project slated for his 25th birthday. This post (and two more that came days after) features a masked figure (presumably Carti) in a barren warehouse with sewing machines and naked mannequins. The pieces on display vary from dark cloaks to Rick Owens\u2013inspired lunar boots to one fat-ass matte black biker helmet. Carti\u2019s ambiguity creates speculation about an album, a clothing line, or both.<\/p>\n

\n

September 13, 2021<\/h2>\n

*nothing*<\/p>\n

\n

September 14, 2021<\/h2>\n

The store on playboicarti.com opens to the public with Narcissist<\/em>-themed masks, bomber jackets, motorcycle gloves, and the aforementioned helmet priced at a whopping $5,000. Allegedly, this same helmet could be purchased on Alibaba for just $29. And it wasn\u2019t just the helmet; everything<\/em> on the site looked like it could have been ripped from the Chinese marketplace. Plus, there were no signs of new music. Fans were sick.<\/p>\n

\n

September 15, 2021<\/h2>\n

Carti posts an iMessage screenshot on the platform then known as Twitter of a groupchat with members of his camp. A text he sent claims his website was hacked and the merch was never approved. About 12 hours later, he posts a screenshot of another text message that confirms the presence of an album: \u201cFORGET ABOUT SAMPLE CLEARANCES . DROP NARCISSIST.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nobody dropped Narcissist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

April 12, 2022<\/h2>\n

In a rare cover feature for XXL<\/em>, months after silently abandoning the Narcissist<\/em> album, Carti reveals the name for his next record as Music,<\/em> \u201cbecause that\u2019s all it is at this point.\u201d Interviewer Vanessa Satten mentions how the unreleased music he played for her features a \u201cdeeper voice\u201d than any of his previous work, a tidbit fans quickly latched onto. When asked about Music<\/em>\u2019s lyrical themes, Carti responds, \u201cLove. Sex. Drugs. I\u2019ve been rapping about going to rehab. I want to go to rehab because I think I\u2019m bipolar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

December 25, 2022<\/h2>\n

By the second anniversary of Whole Lotta Red<\/em>, Carti fans were so thirsty for new music, they were making concept announcements for a new album. The day before WLR<\/em> turned two, the rapper posted a mirror selfie of an androgynous model dressed in all-black. There was no caption. Placed neatly in the bottom right corner of the photo is a Parental Advisory sticker: an indication of new music. That same night, hip-hop insider DJ Akademiks took to Twitter to post \u201cCarti OTW.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Christmas Day arrives, and Playboi Carti celebrates with his latest tweet to date: \u201clove all my supporters it\u2019s time.\u201d Jesus weeps, children rejoice, bells ring loud from sea to shining sea. Music<\/em> is near!<\/p>\n

\n

December 26, 2022<\/h2>\n

*nothing* *again*<\/p>\n

\n

May 10, 2023<\/h2>\n

An unedited video snippet leaks of Playboi Carti and Working on Dying producer F1lthy dancing, in the studio, to a then-unreleased track known as \u201cAll Red.\u201d A shorter snippet had been leaked a month prior, and the track is rumored to have been recorded in the wake of his lengthy Whole Lotta Red<\/em> tour run in 2022. Fans clamor over the major shift in Carti\u2019s vocal cadence to something deeper and more hoarse than his past work.<\/p>\n

\n

September 1, 2023<\/h2>\n

Another coveted snippet from the post\u2013Whole Lotta Red<\/em> sessions, known as \u201cKillers,\u201d leaks online after fans allegedly pool $10,000 for a leaker to release the song\u2019s complete, CDQ version to the public. Similar to \u201cAll Red,\u201d Carti raps here in a husk tone while also shifting in and out of the Auto-Tuned wail for which he\u2019s become known since 2018\u2019s Die Lit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

November 3, 2023<\/h2>\n

German fashion magazine Num\u00e9ro Berlin<\/em> features Carti on the cover. In an interview, he details where he\u2019s been making his upcoming album: \u201cI\u2019ve been recording in Paris, in a cave, for like three months, and all the music that came out of that is just chaotic and crazy. Then, I\u2019m in a glass house, somewhere in the hills\u2026 And then, I\u2019m in Atlanta and the tensions are just high and the music is biting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

December 7, 2023<\/h2>\n

On his main Instagram story, Carti posts artwork of the phrase \u201cI AM MUSIC\u201d stylized similarly to the infamous Parental Advisory sticker. (Weeks prior, this design motif was carried into his AW23 covershoot for Re-Edition Magazine<\/em> in which he\u2019s styled in Anna Bolina pieces inspired by the same logo.) Carti also posts the artwork on the feed of @opium_00pium, a secondary account he\u2019s used to spam bitcrushed tour content, Opium promo, and miscellaneous imagery. From this point onward, it\u2019s presumed that I Am Music<\/em> is the working title for the upcoming album. The I Am Music<\/em> artwork then becomes Carti\u2019s profile picture, and everyone in his camp responds by making it their profile pictures, too. Fans believe that artists outside of Opium who also made this their profile pic at the time\u2014like Pharrell Williams and underground beatmaker Goxan\u2014joined in on the album sessions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Akademiks pokes his head back out to stoke the flames online: \u201cPlayboi Carti… album coming JANUARY! will be the greatest thing you ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

December 8, 2023<\/h2>\n

Carti posts two snippets of the same song to his story, each one lasting no longer than a few seconds. The song features tags from DJ Swamp Izzo, a former DJ and mixtape host for Young Thug who\u2019s made his way into the Opium orbit.<\/p>\n

Hours later, Carti releases a surprise music video, for a different song, on his @opium_00pium account. The caption reads, \u201cYou can\u2019t judge something if there is no .. criteria.\u201d This becomes the first single he\u2019s released since \u201c@ MEH\u201d in 2020, despite there being no official title or upload to digital streaming platforms. Fans have dubbed the track \u201cUr the Moon\u201d or \u201cDifferent Day,\u201d named after the first two words at the start of his verse. Here, he raps in a snakelike whisper over cascading synth pulses, repeatedly hissing, \u201cSeeyuh!,\u201d in between bars. The canine snarl and hellacious production of Whole Lotta Red<\/em> has dissipated for something sleeker, more vaporous. In the video, he struts and jigs in front of a Lambo truck, wearing an acid green jacket and headpiece instead of his signature all-black.<\/p>\n

\n

December 13, 2023<\/h2>\n

A music video snippet posted to @opium_00pium features a mink-coated Playboi Carti with his arms around Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, and Homixide Meechie while several other Opium acolytes jump around nearby. This immediately prompts rumors of the first-ever Opium posse cut, a notable feat considering Carti has not released music with any of his label signees up to this point.<\/p>\n

\n

December 14, 2023<\/h2>\n

In a video posted to @opium_00pium, a bald white man yells, \u201cNew! *******! Carti! TONIIIGHT!\u201d with a gravelly British accent. This man is known as Blackhaine, an experimental choreographer and musician based in Manchester who\u2019s appeared onstage with Carti at Rolling Loud. Shot in pitch black under street lights, his face is nearly consumed by the shadows. The Parental Advisory sticker plastered onto the video is edited to have a timestamp of 9:30 at the top, indicating when the music was set to drop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

That night, Playboi Carti releases the music video to \u201c2024\u201d on his official YouTube, a victory lap co-produced by Kanye West. The video quickly gets made into an array of you-just-had-to-be-there screencaps: YVL hand-signs, gas station dance circles, the oft-repeated \u201c2024 music\u201d catchphrase. This is Carti\u2019s first released solo track featuring the deep-voice cadence mentioned in the 2022 XXL<\/em> interview, making him sound damn near like a new artist by verse two.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

December 19, 2023<\/h2>\n

Blackhaine returns to @opium_00pium with another song announcement using the same format. This time, it\u2019s for the highly-anticipated \u201cH00dByAir,\u201d a blistering solo cut initially thought to be the first Opium assembly on wax. The bassline on this Cardo\u2013produced beat could turn a subwoofer into an atom bomb. Like \u201cDifferent Day,\u201d the video for this track has been posted only to Instagram, depicting Carti\u2019s Opium mob gathering at night under floodlights. \u201cHBA\u201d features some of the most pointed, straightforward rapping of his career, his strained rasp making each bar more sadistic than the last. \u201cI can\u2019t believe I can die,\u201d Carti spits incredulously.<\/p>\n

\n

January 1, 2024<\/h2>\n

In what\u2019s become the official calling card for new Carti music, Blackhaine announces the first collaborative drop in this singles run: \u201cBackr00ms\u201d with Travis Scott. This track is posted to Carti\u2019s official YouTube. Also credited are Sex Is Death and Indiana420Bitch, two creative directors who worked together for the video. Sex Is Death, also a tattoo artist, has worked closely with Carti as a creative consultant since the I Am Music<\/em> rollout entered full swing. The tactile warbles and pulsating drum rolls of \u201cBackr00ms\u201d lay groundwork for more menacing vocal textures from Carti, his venomous cadence pitter-pattering across the beat. In an empty office space with an armored SUV parked out front, Carti makes bomb threats and plays with wads of cash while Travis does his best No Stylist<\/em> impersonation.<\/p>\n

\n

January 15, 2024<\/h2>\n

Each passing Blackhaine video on @opium_00pium gets louder and more abrasive. I\u2019d bet money his vocal cords were cooked by the time he announced the IG-exclusive, \u201cEvilJ0rdan,\u201d the previously snippeted track that kicked off the I Am Music<\/em> loosie marathon. By now, Playboi Carti\u2019s coarse hiss has crystallized into the defining factor of this run, another breakthrough in his evolution of vocal gymnastics. The production on \u201cEvilJ0rdan,\u201d is heavy and grimy, but ultimately a simple four-bar loop co-produced, again, by Cardo. Wearing Hood by Air and wielding a G-Wagon wheel cover like a shield, Carti posts up in the kitchen with his cousin Kee and Atlanta\u2019s revered dancer-turned-rapper, SheLovesMeechie.<\/p>\n

\n

March 12, 2024<\/h2>\n

The end of the loosie parade arrives with a bit of a delay and a change in form. Instead of Blackhaine yelling into a selfie camera in near-darkness, we see a brunette with long braids running to the knocking sound at the start of \u201cKetamine.\u201d It comes with a sinister music video posted to Carti\u2019s spam account (again), and his cadence on the track is more deranged than ever, bending and squawking like a villain at his wit\u2019s end. Chilling open hats and Ojivolta guitar licks soundtrack a hooded, sedated Carti moping around in a house similar to where Renton would buy heroin in Trainspotting<\/em>. He waves a gun in a room with a barren mattress and a knife swinging from the ceiling, every bar sounding like a threat: \u201cThis bitch ain\u2019t got no vision\/I\u2019ma go ahead and give it to her\/I just been feelin\u2019 myself\/I found Jesus, Christian Dior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

June 15, 2024<\/h2>\n

Playboi Carti headlines Cole Bennett\u2019s annual Summer Smash festival, in Chicago, and debuts new music, including the first-ever performance of \u201cAll Red.\u201d He also performs the loosely titled unreleased track, \u201cFuck on My DJ,\u201d another coveted gem for Reddit and Discord lurkers.<\/p>\n

\n

June 17, 2024<\/h2>\n

A short music video snippet of Carti walking in the park with a girl is posted to X by his longtime photographer Gunner Stahl. It\u2019s concise and simple, but it notably kicks off a new crop of Carti raps over soulful sample loops.<\/p>\n

\n

September 1, 2024<\/h2>\n

Carti posts a photo dump wearing a Penny Hardaway Orlando Magic jersey backwards and goes viral for it, prompting the official Magic X account to post a photo of it, telling him to drop the album. For more than a week, he continues to wear backward NBA jerseys and each team (from his hometown Atlanta Hawks, to the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets) responds by also asking for the album.<\/p>\n

\n

September 12, 2024<\/h2>\n

Carti posts on his main Instagram for the first time since the Narcissist<\/em> album cover that never was. This time, it\u2019s a collection of various I Am Music<\/em>\u2013themed vinyl and CD scans with respective graphic overlays on them. The post has the caption:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\u201cI AM MUSIC<\/p>\n

THE ALBUM<\/p>\n

LINK IN BIO\u201d<\/p>\n

The link to Carti\u2019s online store features merch box sets with hats, hoodies, and vinyl copies of I Am Music<\/em>, despite there still not being an official release date. The site makes note that all items will ship on April 18, 2025.<\/p>\n

\n

September 13, 2024<\/h2>\n

\u201cAll Red\u201d is formally released on Carti\u2019s birthday, the first \u201cofficial\u201d solo release in his catalog since Whole Lotta Red<\/em>. Expectedly, fans go crazy online while also wearing backward NBA jerseys. It\u2019s been said a million times before, but, on this track, his delivery strikingly resembles Future over F1lthy\u2019s calamitous instrumental. I had a friend earnestly ask me if the line \u201cUpside down cross tat on my neck, shut \u2019em up\u201d was recorded through an AI voice filter.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the \u201cAll Red\u201d release, Carti posts an unofficial I Am Music<\/em> album cover in homage to Lil Wayne\u2019s Dedication<\/em> mixtape series.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

September 15, 2024<\/h2>\n

Carti posts another snippet to his IG story. This time it\u2019s a video of him playing an unreleased song to a baby in a stroller who dances along, waving his little arms like a traffic guard. Carti mimics him as his icy shards of Auto-Tune plead \u201cHow do I know that you down for me?\u201d The beat kinda resembles Ken Carson\u2019s bubbly 2023 sleeper \u201cPots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

November 16, 2024<\/h2>\n

In a joint-headlining event with Travis Scott, at ComplexCon, Carti debuts another new song, this one paying homage to Jay-Z\u2019s \u201cJigga My Nigga\u201d by proclaiming, \u201cWhat\u2019s my mothafuckin\u2019 name?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

November 17, 2024<\/h2>\n

Carti alludes to Ye working on the production for I Am Music<\/em> at a club performance. \u201cShoutout to my nigga Kanye,\u201d he says into the mic. \u201cBig bro been making beats and shit, that album gon\u2019 be crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

November 18, 2024<\/h2>\n

Following a performance at Camp Flog Gnaw, Carti tells a group of fans \u201cI\u2019m tryna do that shit by myself\u201d when asked if the new album will have any features. Just before then, Carti asks them if they want the album to drop in 2024 or in January, to which one dude replies \u201cWhenever you want bro!\u201d Safe to say fans online weren\u2019t rocking with that.<\/p>\n

\n

November 20, 2024<\/h2>\n

Another music video snippet goes up on Carti\u2019s Instagram story with Kanye\u2019s account tagged in the post. Behind studio footage that looks like it was ripped from Nokia phone, Carti\u2019s raw vocals lilt over buoyant sub bass and another soul sample. Between the tied dreads, white tank, and black shades he has on, the Lil Wayne method acting reaches a new level.<\/p>\n

\n

November 21, 2024<\/h2>\n

Playboi Carti drops another single on his spam IG with the caption, \u201cPLAY THIS.\u201d Here, he reverts to Die Lit<\/em>\u2013era melodies over flowery plucks of synth. There’s no music video, but the thumbnail features a photo of Babyxsosa, the Virginia-born singer\/rapper whom he once shouted out on a 2022 loosie with A$AP Rocky called \u201cSights \/ Our De$tiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

December 12, 2024<\/h2>\n

Carti posts a music video snippet at the end of a photo dump full of studio session fit pics and money-filled Goyard bags. In the video, he cleans jewelry with a toothbrush and watches Mike Dean do bong rips on Facetime. There are no lyrics in the snippet, only a Kanye-like instrumental passage in which a choir repeats a refrain of \u201cDrugs got me numb\/Love got me numb.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

December 15, 2024<\/h2>\n

For Rolling Loud\u2019s 10-year anniversary (crazy, right?), Carti serves as the headliner for the final night. The build-up to his performance is compounded by RL co-founder Tariq Cherif affirming that I Am Music<\/em> will be played live. For the performance, Carti pulls out the classics (\u201cSky,\u201d \u201cStop Breathing,\u201d \u201cShoota\u201d) and recent solo highlights (\u201cH00dByAir,\u201d \u201c2024\u201d) and splices them with five unreleased tracks. Two of the unreleased tracks respectively feature Travis Scott and the Weeknd. After the show, Carti posted a snippet to his spam of \u201cCrush,\u201d the unreleased Travis collab. In it you can hear Travis Scott\u2019s trademark \u201cStraight up!\u201d adlib followed by a spiraling synth lead.<\/p>\n

\n

December 20, 2024<\/h2>\n

Like he\u2019s trying to convince himself it\u2019s still happening, Akademiks makes an announcement for the third consecutive December that, \u201cCarti is on the WAY! Relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

December 27, 2024<\/h2>\n

The final Friday of 2024 comes along with no album in sight, and Carti fans start to accept the fact that they\u2019ll have to wait until the new year. Subsequently, #IAMLIAR begins to trend in the community with the most egregious memes and AI mockups you\u2019ll see online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/every-little-thing-thats-happened-since-playboi-carti-first-announced-i-am-music\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columns Every Little Thing That\u2019s Happened Since Playboi Carti First Announced I Am Music Since March of 2021, rap\u2019s most delayed and anticipated album has been subject to name-changes, empty promises, and surprise singles. Here is a four-year timeline of Instagram posts, leaks, snippets, and rumors that have kept fans hanging on. By Olivier Lafontant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":939818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-939817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=939817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/939818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=939817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=939817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=939817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}