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In the almost five years since the release of “Whole Lotta Red,” Playboi Carti’s second studio album, the Atlanta rapper graduated from a potentially influential internet curio to a full-blown, era-defining headliner.
Still, even while closing festivals with his brand of mosh pit mayhem and helping to lead songs like “Fein” by Travis Scott and “Carnival” by Ye (formerly Kanye West) into the Billboard Top 5, Carti has maintained the edge and mystique of an underground cult hero.
That is, in part, thanks to absence: canceled concerts, blown appearances and repeated, yearslong delays for his increasingly hyped follow-up to “Whole Lotta Red,” with a growing legion of obsessive fans sating themselves instead by chasing every Carti-flavored online morsel, official and unofficial.
Then, last week, it finally arrived: “Music,” a 30-song album lasting more than 75 minutes, with appearances by a who’s who of modern rap stars, including Kendrick Lamar, Future and Travis Scott. A streaming blockbuster already, “Music” has confounded and satisfied in equal measure, likely raising more questions than it answers: Is this what mainstream hip-hop sounds like now? Could anything Carti put out have lived up to the anticipation? And what role do toxic masculinity and obscure internet rabble-rousers play in this fandom?
To discuss these Playboi Carti conundrums and many more on Popcast, the hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times were joined by Kieran Press-Reynolds, a columnist for Pitchfork and a contributor to The Times and other publications.
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