What I Listened to: March '25

Monthly reviews of every new(ish) album I listen to in a given month. Shoutout to all of you who subscribe, $5/month gets you the exclusives. First, we tackle Carti's Latest Epic.

Playboi Carti- MUSIC

I talk with my friend Brandon a lot about wanting music to feel like it matters. We’re all searching for new music that feels Important, like it means something, records we can create memories with in our lives. It’s not this conflated nostalgia either; there’s tangible factors at play when I say ‘they don’t make em like this anymore.’

It’s always cool when an album makes people collectively care. It may not be perfect; it’s rare anything is nowadays. But Playboi Carti’s MUSIC matters. It definitely follows the Kanye West Life of Pablo school of grandeur, a similarly sprawling, chaotic mess with glimpses of his best work to date.

Carti’s greatest strength as an artist is to synthesize his interests in a way that doesn’t merely lounge in the past. You can look at any of his Atlanta ideations, Gucci and Jeezy on Smack DVDs to various Rich Kids, Waka Flocka Flame and Future stylings. He resurrects Shawty Redd’s graveyard trap music on “RADAR.” Sometimes, Carti will broaden his horizons to the broader south, like lifting his affinity for SpaceGhostPurrp and Raider Klan for “CRANK.”

At his worst, Carti is incredibly derivative. “DIS 1 GOT IT” and “WALK” might as well be Future leaks OnThinIce will post while mindlessly scrolling the Twitter timeline. Borrowing the cadence is one thing if you maintain your singularity; it’s another to have to genuinely check if it was Future himself on an uncredited feature.

Elsewhere, Carti indulges in Travis Scott levels of contemporary playlist rap. “PHILLY” might as well be a leftover on Huncho Jack, Jach Huncho. “RATHER LIE” feels like an obligatory tour song, where Carti will inevitably let The Weeknd take his headliner spot after his set. While I don’t hate Kendrick’s inclusion on “MOJO JOJO” or “BACKD00R,” “GOOD CREDIT” feels especially dry sandwiched between “CHARGE DEM HOES A FEE” and “I SEEEEE YOU BABY BOI,” the kind of song Big Boy might happily introduce on his radio show. The worst offender on the tracklist is “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES,” an NBA 2K soundtrack lock for 2026.

These faults miss what make Carti such a compelling artist in the 2020s, a true boundary pusher in a music industry who inch away from daring creative decisions to assure their space. He’s truly lawless in his artistry, liberated enough to swing on something as bold and erratic as “OPM BABI.” “COCAINE NOSE” is his most overt swing at the rebellious ‘rockstar’ label he’s chased for so long.

I described MUSIC to Brandon as the truest 7/10 experience while also being Pitchfork’s Best New Music. It’s a grandiose cultural moment in a society feverishly grasping for them. It’s the rare record that exists in conflicting magnitudes, sloppy and invigorating alike. How you rank it ultimately depends on the tax and cache you lend to these defining moments in culture, flaws and all.