04/14/23

Playboi Carti: A Generation-Defining Genius

on his cult following, evolution, and influences

This piece encapsulates the heart of a dialogue that took place between myself and my friend Avi, a producer. He released his second album Nitro in 2021. I like to pick his brain about music, artists, and art in general. He’s shaped my taste in music ever since we first crossed paths in our high school Physics class.

On music

Aish: Why do you love music?

Avi: Music is a good proxy for self-exploration in a way that words can’t really accomplish for me. I’ve always had a hard time really telling people how I feel through words. So, if I can make something melodic that usually gets the point across a little bit better.

That's like a personal reason, but even just on a more practical note, I think naturally, it's easy for me to do things that are musical because I was exposed to it at such a young age. Early on, I wasn’t  really good at sports or getting into other art forms, like painting, but music, I just got to so it's really just it made sense for me to keep going with it. 

But on a deeper level. I think it's a really good avenue to find yourself so I think there's meaning. It's not just an automatic thing. There's a reason to do it. 

Cult following

Aish: So Jordan Terrell Carter, known professionally as Playboy Carti, American rapper signed to the underground label Awful Records, prior to signing with ASAP Mob’s AWGE label under Interscope Records – built a cult following early in his career. 

Avi: Yes it was a cult following, but it was really big because his songs even before he released his studio album had millions and millions of plays. But people still didn’t really know who he was. They might have known his songs. 

Aish: Remember the summer of Magnolia?

Avi: That was sort of after the initial Carti wave was, like you were saying, Awful (records) 2014. Then 2015 was when it really solidified him as being an underground sensation. 2015, he was huge, especially for people who were committed to looking for the most inventive trap music on SoundCloud.

Genre-defining 

Aish: speaking of that – is that how you would describe the genre? Inventive trap? Is that the word? 

Avi: I don't think that would be the name of the genre. But what I would say though, is I actually think when he came out, it coincided with a lot of other artists who were taking a more emotional route to trap music. Because before that, trap music was very much a product of the streets and it was music made for the streets in Atlanta, in Houston. And it was very strictly regional. And the subject matter was very specifically about certain things that are sad. And people who know trap music know that it was made about those specific topics and I think Carti’s emergence signified a shift away from that, in that, it wasn't quite as dark and it was more fun. So him, (Lil) Uzi (Vert), are two huge ones who actually signified a shift away from “traditional” trap music, but they were still using the trap soundscape to get their point across. It was trap sounds but put together differently in that it wasn’t quite as dark. 

Evolution of Carti’s music

Aish: It’s really important for artists to co-evolve with their fans. How would you say Carti’s music has evolved? Since his 2015 cult following to his self-titled album (2017) to Whole Lotta Red (2020) to now? 

Avi: I think the actual process of evolution was a result of him playing with people's expectations. Because when he came out with his first self-titled album, I think it was May of 2017. It very much was what people loved about Carti in the SoundCloud era of 2015 because it was the very logical next step for him musically. And the fans held on to that and I think there's something strategic about it from Carti’s perspective, because that was the right move to make. He made a song like Magnolia, but he also gave us such a solid body of work that surrounded it with his self-titled album. If he didn't have that be successful, he wouldn't have moved on to Whole Lotta Red in the end. 

So I think it evolved because he realized after his self-titled (2017) and after Die Lit (2018), two albums that people really loved, that he was in a position to really test people's expectations.

Like people use the Yeezus term a lot to describe this, Whole Lotta Red really does fit that description quite well, because it was his statement saying that he's committed to the art of it. Yeah, like evolving what he does, and he wanted to challenge the status quo. 

Aish: Would you say he committed to the genre with Whole Lotta Red? 

Avi: Well, he definitely took influence from punk and heavy metal in terms of how distorted that album is, like it's really aggressive sounding. And I think he knew that his fans probably were going to have a bit of a hard time getting it at first, but now it's celebrated, just as much as all of his other ones.

From the fan’s perspective, that's a cool way to sort of look at his evolution is that he was toying with his fans’ expectations on Whole Lotta Red because he could. Even on Die Lit, he was toying with it too because, the song where he does the baby voice – FlatBed Freestyle, that was all over Instagram and it was meme’d to death because it’s hilarious singing like a two-year old on a track is very funny. 

One thing that is also cool about how he evolved is how his songs got leaked. In between each of his albums, there was a significant chunk of music that just kept getting leaked. And when an album or song gets leaked, you can’t put out that album because it doesn’t have that same value. Artists don’t drop songs that are previously leaked. He didn’t drop any of those leaked songs – which forced him to evolve, because when you keep on making music, and you don't want to get bored with your stuff, you evolve.

If you take a snapshot of his stuff from 2017, even 2018 there's subtle evolution, but a lot of it is because he couldn’t release music earlier, because so much of it got leaked. 

Aish: It must suck for artists to not be able to put those out. 

Avi: Yeah, we can only really listen to a low quality version of it on SoundCloud or YouTube. 

Influences

Aish: I’m always curious about the influences on an artist – who inspired them? who made them feel seen and heard? who are they trying to emulate?

Avi: He said in an interview, when he dropped his debut album, that his favorite rapper was Currensy. He really liked Currensy and Action Bronson. I think that's definitely a generational thing. Without assuming too much, but I think if he was born a decade earlier, that definitely would have been true. He is very close to our age. I think he's a year older. Action Bronson and Currensy were very popular when I was in the 10th and 11th grade.  

So I kind of get that he was just a product of the internet.

Also being from Atlanta had a huge influence on him. He’s said that he’s a huge Young Thug fan. I don’t think you have Die Lit without Young Thug. I don’t think you have most of Cardi’s stylistic choices without Young Thug. 

Aish: What about his Satanic imagery and Vampire stuff? Didn’t that get a bunch of backlash?

Avi: That’s pretty on the nose influence from heavy metal. One of his lyrics on Whole Lotta Red – Slay3R:

I’m a rockstar, I could’ve joined Slayer  

Slayer, an American thrash metal band was criticized for the use of Satanic imagery in their music. 

We ended off our dialogue with a speed round of our favourite Carti album, song, era, feature, and beat.

This piece is 14/50 of my 50 days of learning. Subscribe to hear about new posts.