Whole Lotta Red - Playboi Carti: Review
Oh man, Playboi Carti. What can be said… well a lot if we are being honest. His cult following is something to be astounded by and not because there is something wrong with the type of music Carti makes; except when other artists do it better. His nonsensical pronunciations and ad-libs have been a trademark staple for him, but on Whole Lotta Red it is just abhorrent and mostly unlistenable. Skepticism arose when Carti put out his album cover when it played on remnants of legendary punk magazine Slash. But despite a stylistic choice in cover art, Whole Lotta Red does not amount to the hype he has been driving these years and lands as one of the worst albums of 2020, which is filled with repetitive lyricism and poor delivery.
Whole Lotta Red has no merit to value it beyond a Whole Lotta Crap. It’s repetitive nature and simplistic and accessible nature definitely is something to commend when it has substance. Playboi Carti raps in light tones about murder, violence, sex, and drugs, which is very attune to some of the content of punk artists of the time. Sex Pistols, for instance, although they were purposely “bad” and assholes about it, but that is not what Carti does here. It feels more like Scream 2 where a leak happened and everything had to get rewritten in the process. And that rewrite polarized many people, but the difference there is nothing good to even commend it on.
Whole Lotta Red sounds rushed and lacking of creativity, with many what the fuck moments like “JumpOutTheHouse,” which is just the same 5 lines in various sequences… which is very laughable and just dumb. Fortunately he is capable of bringing solid features onto his projects and on this album, where one of the feature artist feel more like he blind sighted Kanye to drop a full solo track on “Go2DaMoon.” It is the only positive significant standout, while the negatives build up a plenty with most vividly being how off key and weak deliveries on very solid instrumentals.
It’s one thing to credit Playboi for acquiring solid instrumentals, but it's another when they are going to waste with uncorrelated sequences. “Stop Breathing,” has Playboi Carti “rapping” about his violent tendencies and his dominance amongst his peers; the hook features him with allegories of oversexualization about his body… It does however prove a point to some parents, over glamorization of negative connotations, like drugs and hanging with gangs with murderous tendencies. It’s like that is the only thing that really goes on, though he may be hyperbolic. It just doesn't amass to anything of worth. It carries a lot of problems.
Whole Lotta Red fluctuates a lot in atmosphere and lyrical content. So when Playboi isn’t out there trying to act like an impudent child Weekend At Bernie-ing an adult body, there is some promise. “M3tamorphosis,” for example, shows Playboi working with this style of atmospheric fluidly. It benefits from Kid Cudi’s hums and melodic singing, though it cannot save this album.
It’s ever so rare something that is uniquely bad because of a tenacity to be too much and that 24 tracklist is the reason for it. It jumbles a lot on its delivery of sonic infusions, and Sid Vicious is probably turning in his grave. It is a definitive must skip.