After almost five long years of waiting for a new Carti album, after countless delays and fake-outs from Carti, we are finally here with his brand new album, MUSIC. I can’t believe we’ve made it this far. Currently, the biggest release of 2025 has taken over the charts by storm, but is the music any good? Let’s review it.
DISCLAIMER: TRACKS 10 AND 14 CONTAIN EXPLICIT CONTENT.
Bringing a loud and explosive start to the 30-song marathon of this generational Carti album, “POP OUT” is for sure an intro to remember with some of the most distorted and experimental instrumentals to be in not just a Carti song, but in any song.
One of the most complex and multi-layered songs on the tracklist, the production on “CRUSH” is absolutely phenomenal and features some of the most unique instrumentations used by Carti. Although the song lacks a full verse from Carti, that makes the few bars he gives very impactful and makes it a great follow-up from the intro track.
Being one of the three lead singles Carti released on Instagram months before, many Carti fans were already well familiar with the hard-hitting song “K POP”, just previously under a different track name. It is an amazing contribution to the wider context of the entire record, and one of Carti’s most addicting voices, the breathless voice, is used beautifully on this track in conjunction with the hard-hitting production and beat.
Seemingly on an unstoppable 4 song run, “EVIL J0RDAN” is another huge highlight of the album. Having previously been released already on other platforms like the song “K POP”, no one was expecting anything new to be added to the song. So, fans were pleasantly surprised to find a new hard-hitting and spectacular intro to lead the song, which was previously only played in concerts. With the intro sampling the hit song “Popular” by The Weeknd, the already-great song with Carti’s excellent performance was made even better.
“MOJO JOJO” features probably the weirdest Kendrick Lamar feature of all time. Although he isn’t credited on this song, he is definitely there, but rather than having a verse or even a single bar on the track, he instead only interjects throughout the song with ad-libs and a rather interesting intro for the song. However, the track is still a banger and Carti and Kendrick do sound good together despite the song’s weird circumstances.
In my opinion, “PHILLY” is a song that is carried solely by its production. For an album with such an impressive feature list, it seems like the features are rarely up to par in terms of quality, especially not after the 5-year-long wait for the album. Carti’s delivery leaves much to be desired here just like in many other songs, and Travis Scott’s feature is very mediocre as well.
“RADAR”, despite featuring production from Metro Boomin, doesn’t really seem to have any standout production, unlike the other tracks, which struck me as quite odd, especially on my first listen. It’s much more reminiscent of Metro’s older production, giving it an interesting 2010s feel, which isn’t necessarily a critique because the song is a banger regardless.
Entering a top contender for best song of the album, “RATHER LIE” is a song that makes you ascend to heaven. With The Weeknd on the track, his influence as a feature on the song makes it probably the most structured song on the track list. His hook is extremely catchy, Carti’s verses are perhaps the best of his discography, and the production perfectly complements the styles of both artists.
“FINE S###” honestly doesn’t have the most going on sonically. However, the voice Carti utilizes on this song is especially captivating, being more laid back in conjunction with the beat. Regardless, it’s not absurd that a 30-song album has misses on the track list, and “FINE S###” is certainly not bad enough to be the bottom of the barrel.
Kendrick Lamar features 3 times on the album, 2 of them being rage-beats with “BACKD00R” being the exception of the bunch. He is much more melodic on the song, harmonizing with Jhene Aiko’s vocals while Carti produces a repetitive but addictive hook behind a great-sounding soul sample in the production.
“TOXIC” is overall a satisfactory song; it has a great Skepta feature, who is a rapper from the UK. Although Carti’s performance is up to par, it really feels like he lags behind Skepta’s excellent verse. For these reasons, I don’t really find myself revisiting this track often.
It becomes more evident as the album plays on that the middle and later parts of the album definitely slow down with fewer hits. “MUNYUN” is an indicator of this. Its beat is very repetitive with nothing special, and Swamp Izzo’s producer tag is extremely annoying to listen to as he spams them over and over. Carti’s performance is nothing of high value, making this track fairly forgettable.
“CRANK” takes a turn for the better, with one of my favorite beats so far. The sound is very out-there, but it’s done very well, and this time, Swamp Izzo’s producer tags don’t drive me crazy.
Many fans actually have been hating on this track since it’s release, and while I do see where they’re coming from, I do have to defend this song. Most of them complain of Future’s repetitive hook, but in my opinion, while it is relatively repetitive, his delivery and the insane production of the song work so well together that it sounds so cohesive and put-together despite the song taking a good amount of time to pick up. Not to mention Carti’s performance is great and the last leg of the song also has Travis Scott’s best feature on the album. Alas, that’s not saying a lot because Travis Scott is actually pretty weak overall on this project.
“GOOD CREDIT”, while featuring a full Kendrick Lamar verse, kind of suffers from it. While the first half of the song is great, with excellent performance from Carti and a great rage beat to match him, Kendrick Lamar kind of just sounds off in his verse, and it’s honestly kind of lackluster.
This song I would consider to be another kind of filler track, it’s middle of the road in terms of quality, and in this sea of Carti songs, it just doesn’t provide anything to stand out.
This is the best Travis Scott feature of the album, especially compared to his previous lackluster ones. Overall, it’s a pretty good song.
I really like the Uzi feature on this track, and the production is great, but Carti is kind of mid on this track.
“TRIM” is another highlight of the album with one of the best Future features we’ve gotten in a while. It’s overall a very strong song, and every aspect of it is very impressive. I will admit Future carries the song though.
“COCAINE NOSE” is probably one of, if not my favorite song from this album, with its amazing Carti performance and outstanding performance, this was a song made for live shows. If I had one wish in life, it would be to hear this song in the Carti pits before I die.
This song is one of the highlights of the album, with amazing features from both Young Thug and Ty. The upbeat energy all three artists bring to this track is absolutely insane and instantly makes this song a bop to enjoy anywhere.
“OLYMPIAN” is very reminiscent of Carti’s older music from the Die Lit and Playboi Carti era, making it a great and fun throwback to his former sounds. Therefore, it’s the favorite of many fans and a great addition to the track list.
This song is trash.
With two Uzi features on the album, this one is the better one. Lil Uzi Vert has a much longer verse on “TWIN TRIM”, and in my opinion, he also performs better on this track. The production on this song was less impressive to me however, and Carti’s performance is kind of forgettable.
“LIKE WEEZY” is a great song, Carti brings a great performance throughout the entire track, and the production is infectious and fun. Although many fans claim this is the best song of the entire album, I can’t really see it being there yet.
“DIS 1 GOT IT” features guest production from Workin on Dyin, and they do a great job at doing the song their way. Carti works really well on this one, and overall it’s an enjoyable listen for sure.
“WALK” is a pretty hard song, that’s all I got, thanks.
Being perhaps the best song out of the previously released tracks with “K POP” and “EVILJORDAN”, “HOODBYAIR”‘s name is changed into the abbreviation “HBA” on the official album release. It remains an amazing song, with Carti’s best performance in conjunction with probably the best production as well. One complaint I have, though, is that Swamp Izzo added way too many snare drum rolls to the song, and it can be irritating at times, knowing the song sounds perfectly fine without them.
I couldn’t remember anything about this song until I re-listened to it individually. I think that speaks volumes about its place and presence on the album. It’s not bad, of course, like most songs on the project, so at least it kept its consistency throughout, but it’s really just kind of boring when Carti has demonstrated so much potential.
“SOUTH ATLANTA BABY” is a decent closer to end the album, it’s fun and hard-hitting. Even though it shares some of the mediocrity problems like other songs, you can’t really hate on the closer too much.
Overall, this long-awaited album from Carti is an enjoyable listen, especially to long-time Carti fans. After 5 long years of waiting, the 30-song length is fairly justified, but at the same time, it suffers at times due to the length and the amount of mediocre songs on the track list. Music is an album that has the highest of highs, but also the lowest of lows in Carti’s career, but its recording-breaking, chart-topping debut is certainly proof that Music is at least an album to be remembered.
