Overview: I AM MUSIC, otherwise known as MUSIC on most music streaming services, is the 3rd studio album released by Playboi Carti. The album was highly anticipated, perhaps the most anticipated album of 2025. This is due in no small part to the fact that the album’s release was postponed several times and that Carti promised to drop the album in 2024 only to release it on March 14th, 2025. There was uproar online over Carti’s failure to drop over months of teasing, with the line “I AM A LIAR” being made popular as a play on words regarding the album’s title. Moving away from I AM MUSIC’s controversial release date, the album has an impressive feature list: Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Jhene Aiko, Kendrick Lamar, Skepta, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, and Ty Dolla $ign. The features are generally well executed and raise the level of the tracks they are included in. As for the genre, I AM MUSIC is primarily a trap album. As you may know from my review of Eternal Atake 2, I am not a fan of the trap genre. In fact, it’s one of my least favorite kinds of music to listen to. That’s not to say that I hate EVERY trap song, but the genre is certainly not something I am lining up to listen to. That being said, I will not be modifying my rankings or opinions in any way to make up for my dislike for trap, so be ready for some possibly harsh rankings and reviews. If you disagree with any of my reviews on any album, you can always hit me up via email at [email protected], because I stand by my takes. Besides trap, I AM MUSIC also incorporates hip hop/rap, which is more my style. I think the album generally sounds similar throughout the 30 tracks (did I mention there are 30 SONGS on this album?! That’s nuts) and it was sometimes hard to differentiate between songs, but I’ll hold my opinions till the rankings and conclusion.
Themes: Playboi Carti has never been known for lyrical brilliance or mastery of theme, so this album’s themes are unsurprisingly very loose. From what I can tell, I AM MUSIC focuses on Carti as a musician and artist and his complete embodiment of music. The album is raw and chaotic, which definitely suits Carti’s musical style, but it is sometimes difficult on the ears. It’s hard to tell if the theme is showcased well in I AM MUSIC in part because it’s difficult to understand what Carti is saying half the time, but I gleaned enough to be able to say that Carti is certainly confident in his skills as an artist. In “EVIL J0RDAN”, he yells: “I AM THE MUSIC,” signifying that he believes in himself as an artist and in his ability to “be the music.” He echoes the same sentiment in many other tracks as well. Ultimately, the theme doesn’t matter as much for a Playboi Carti album as it would for a more lyrical artist, so I will let the loose theme slide this time around.
Song Ratings and 1-Word Descriptions
- “POP OUT” – (3.5/10): Rattling
- “CRUSH” – (6/10): Energetic
- “K POP” – (3.5/10): Unimpressive
- “EVIL J0RDAN” – (4/10): INTRO
- “MOJO JOJO” – (2.5/10): Disappointing
- “PHILLY” – (5.5/10): Carried
- “RADAR” – (3/10): Goofy
- “RATHER LIE” – (8.5/10): Vibe
- “FINE S**T” – (5/10): Mid
- “BACKD00R” – (6/10): Interesting
- “TOXIC” – (4/10): Innit
- “MUNYUN” – (5.5/10): Confident
- “CRANK” – (1.5/10): Rough
- “CHARGE DEM HOES A FEE” – (4/10): Boring
- “GOOD CREDIT” – (4.5/10): Kendrick?
- “I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI” – (6/10): Fun
- “WAKE UP F1LTHY” – (5/10): Indifferent
- “JUMPIN” – (5.5/10): Short
- “TRIM” – (6.5/10): Potential
- “COCAINE NOSE” – (4/10): SEEYUH
- “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” – (8.5/10): Bop
- “OLYMPIAN” – (6/10): Solid
- “OPM BABI” – (3.5/10): Crowded
- “TWIN TRIM” – (7/10): lol
- “LIKE WEEZY” – (5/10): Fine
- “DIS 1 GOT IT” – (5/10): Bearable
- “WALK” – (5.5/10): Sameness
- “HBA” – (4.5/10): Formulaic
- “OVERLY” – (3.5/10): Meh
- “SOUTH ATLANTA BABY” – (5.5/10): FINALLY
Standout Tracks
My standout tracks from I AM MUSIC are: “TWIN TRIM,” “RATHER LIE,” and “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES”
“TWIN TRIM”: The thing that made me remember this track so well above everything else about it was the first line. It had me laughing out loud. Absolute gold. Otherwise, I think this song is well produced with an above average beat and decent verses. Its shortness does hurt it, as it is the second shortest song on the album, coming in at 1:35. If it was a bit longer with a developed chorus or a little bit more substance, it could conceivably reach an 8.
“RATHER LIE”: This song and “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” really stood out to me above the rest of the album as the top picks. This is probably due in part to these tracks being much more conventional in their structure and sound than the rest of I AM MUSIC. The Weeknd does a great job in the chorus, as he generally elevates most things that he touches. The verses from Carti aren’t half bad either, and the beat supports the song well. “RATHER LIE” is most definitely the catchiest song on I AM MUSIC and is my early pick for being the most popular track off of the album. It’s simply a vibe to listen to, and it makes the listener want to come back to it.
“WE NEED ALL DA VIBES”: After listening to “RATHER LIE”, I kind of expected it to be the best song on the album, but this track sitting at #21 surprised me. It’s also a vibe, with the advantage of having better verses than “RATHER LIE”. It’s rated 8.5, but it was very close to a 9 for me. The chorus is the star of the show in this song, just like “RATHER LIE”, but I found “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” to be more fun to listen to. I wish that Carti made more songs like this, because this is gas, but unfortunately this isn’t really his regular style. The additions of Young Thug and Ty Dolla $ign elevate the track, and I believe that Carti is at his best when he has a feature or two to lean on. Overall, a good song. Not going to knock anyone’s socks off, but a solid effort.
Stinker
My stinker for I AM MUSIC is “CRANK”. There are a lot of not-so-good songs on this album, but “CRANK” is the only song on here that I genuinely hated. I’m listening to it right now while writing this section, and I can barely stand it. I have several complaints about this track, so settle in. I didn’t like the beat for this song at all, and I found it annoying to listen to the screeching sound in the background. To add on to that, Carti’s voice is not easy on the ears in this song. If I can understand what he’s saying, which is only half the time, all I get is a voice that I wish would just shut up. It’s genuinely just not a fun voice to listen to. My last complaint is that there is nothing of substance going on with this song. It’s a straight 2 minutes and 28 seconds of useless noise. I pick up nothing but pain and disappointment when I listen to this track, which is an accomplishment, because I try to have a positive takeaway from every song I listen to. While this song isn’t among the worst I’ve ever listened to, it’s not for a lack of trying.
Conclusion
I AM MUSIC was certainly an interesting listen. To be honest, I liked it a little more than I thought I would, but I still didn’t LOVE it. As far as I can tell, this album does the trap genre pretty well, and it even got me to mildly enjoy some of the trap songs on here. There were also plenty of songs I didn’t like, too. Something that I certainly wasn’t expecting was the number of songs that were ranked as middling, which means that I only slightly liked or didn’t like the song. There are 11 tracks on I AM MUSIC that I rated between a 4.5 and a 5.5. To put that into perspective, that’s over 1/3 of the album that I felt largely indifferent towards. This can be explained by a few factors: 1. A lot of the tracks on I AM MUSIC ended up sounding very similar to each other. 2. This album is LONG, so there is a lot of space for mid music in here. 3. Carti’s musical style is quite unique and results in a lot of middling songs. Let’s talk about number 1 first, because I found that one of my main problems with this album was that everything started to sound the same throughout I AM MUSIC. The beats became indistinguishable from track to track, and Carti’s voice was the same unpleasant tone for most of the album. I think that one of the main limitations of trap that affected I AM MUSIC is that it has a very specific sound, so a lot of the songs sound similar. I also want to talk about number 2. I AM MUSIC contains 30 tracks for a total run time of 1 hour and 17 minutes. I listened to this album at least 3 times, probably more if you add in the individual songs that I listened to for my standout tracks and stinker. That means that I listened to Playboi Carti for around 4 hours when writing this review. Do you know how INSANE that is, dear reader??? I wouldn’t be able to listen to my favorite album ever for 4 hours, and yet I listened to this middling amalgamation of tracks for that amount of time. Someone should give me a purple heart for the sacrifices I make for y’all. Finally, number 3. I think that there is certainly an audience for Carti’s musical style, but I’m just not a part of it. I find his voice annoying at times and indecipherable at others, and his rapping style is just not my vibe. He can make the occasional banger, but it truly is occasional. This album didn’t impress me, but it didn’t disappoint me either, and this can be seen in the average score, which is barely under 5.
Final Conclusion: I AM MUSIC shows off a variety of traits, some good, some bad. The artist features always seemed to elevate the quality of the tracks they were included on, and some of these songs are genuinely pleasant to listen to. However, the album consistently delivers middling to bad songs instead of re-listenable tracks, and I was disappointed by several songs on I AM MUSIC. Furthermore, Carti’s voice can be annoying, and many tracks ended up sounding incredibly similar. The sheer number of songs on the album is impressive but can also be a limitation. Also, with the highest rating for a song being 8.5, no track stood out to me as excellent. 5/10.
