Whole Lotta Red - Pop or Flop?

Will Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red Pop or Flop?

To kick off the insanely bizarre year of 2020, Lil Uzi Vert released his HIGHLY anticipated album Eternal Atake, and did not disappoint. Almost a year later, many rank EA as one of the best albums in 2020 (which has proven to be the best year of music in my conscious lifetime). Since Uzi and Carti both have similar, if not the EXACT same fanbase, EA’s instant classic status puts extremely high expectations on Carti’s WLR.

Over the past 2½ years since Die Lit dropped, Carti has had a Whole Lotta time to work on the album. A lot has happened in his personal life since his last release. Carti got with and split up from Iggy Azalea, his baby’s mother. He also had his first born child, Onyx. His relationship with Iggy was analyzed and scrutinized by the media and many hip-hop blogs, which most likely unfortunately fueled the fire of their break up. He also fell in love with the idea of appearing as a “vampire/demon slayer”. His new look has caught the eyes of some influential figures, having been encouraged by fashion moguls to pursue a modeling career in parallel to his musical career.

What seems to be the most important question for Playboi Carti fans is: Are we going to get vintage Carti, baby voice Carti, 2020 Carti, or something brand phucking new? To preface, I will say that I immensely enjoyed “@ MEH”, and I did not think his “Pain 1993” feature was bad by any means. It’s no secret that the trendy thing right now is “Baby Carti is trash”, but people were not saying that at the peak of “FlatBed Freestyle” or his features on “EARFQUAKE” or “Get Dripped”. The bottom line is people get bored, and I am confident Carti has the tools to evolve his sound.

A fair question arises: Has Playboi Carti lost fans and interest due to the amount of teasers on Instagram/Tweets teasing a release? His social media engagement has fallen off significantly post “@ Meh”, which he posted on 4/14/20 on Instagram (out of nowhere as a mysterious piece of artwork.) Many believed this to be his official album art, not a single (which has over 2M likes and 120 thousand comments). Has the boi cried wolf to the point where people no longer give a shit, or is the situation completely out of his control, and are Interscope Records and UMG are controlling ALL of his moves? Either way, his fans hope to hear his side of the story once and for all this Friday.

As far as the past is concerned.. How will leaks impact Carti’s career when it’s all said and done 25 years down the road? Will all of the classics that have been trickling out for the past 3 + years be a waste? Will stealing his album art and merch designs for WLR be seen as adding to the culture, or detracting from it? Will this be an infamous and pivotal turning point in Hip-Hop’s still evolving streaming era? Will Carti be the last man truly phucked by leaks? These are all scary and important questions but it’s fair to believe that Carti will have the final say, and we are listening.

Guaranteed appearences from Kid Cudi and Kanye West, along with other big name features (Future?!) presumed to be on WLR, combined with recent snippets (that he intentionally posted himself) are a formula for another instant classic. On the cusp of a Red 2020 Christmas, Playboi Carti’s career has no room for a flop. He MUST hit with WLR, and he will.

@tflip19