Whole Lotta Red
Whole Lotta Red is the second studio album by the American rapper Playboi Carti. It was released on December 25, 2020, through AWGE and Interscope Records. It was primarily produced by F1lthy and Art Dealer, with contributions from Pi'erre Bourne, Maaly Raw, Lil 88, Jasper Harris, Ojivolta, and Wheezy, while Kanye West and Matthew Williams served as executive producers. Diverging from the melodic trap style of Playboi Carti and Die Lit, Whole Lotta Red is an experimental hip-hop, rage, and trap album that incorporates punk and electronic influences. Its lyrical themes include guns, wealth, and hedonism. Music critics highlighted its loose structure and frenetic pace; several songs abandon traditional verse-chorus structures in favor of chants or ad-libbing with an emphasis on atmosphere over narrative. The album features a dark, vampire-themed tone in which Carti adopts the persona of a vampire rock star, and its abrasive sound drew comparisons to West's Yeezus. Guest appearances include West, Kid Cudi, and Future.
Whole Lotta Red received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its production and Carti's vocals but criticizing its guest appearances and lack of depth. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 100,000 album-equivalent units, becoming Carti's first US number-one album; in January 2022, it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Despite its December 2020 release, multiple publications recognized it as one of 2021's best albums, and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked it number 129 on its "200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time" list. Upon release, Whole Lotta Red received a polarized response but was later credited with helping to define the rage microgenre of trap music and influencing many artists, including Yeat, Ken Carson, and Che, as well as a majority of the current underground rap scene. An accompanying tour began in October 2021.
Background and recording
In May 2018, Playboi Carti released his debut studio album, Die Lit, executive-produced by Pi'erre Bourne. Three months later, in August 2018, he first revealed the title of his next project as Whole Lotta Red. In late 2018, after moving from Los Angeles back to Atlanta with his then-partner Iggy Azalea, Carti settled in the city's Buckhead neighborhood and began recording the album. Sessions took place primarily at DJ Drama's Means Street Studios and at his own home, where he often recorded alone during extended late-night stretches he referred to as "Carti hours". He described the process as deliberately private and solitary, limiting his routine to "studio and the house" while searching for new sounds and expanding his vocal range. While retaining his signature "baby voice", Carti experimented with higher-pitched falsetto and distorted deliveries that would become hallmarks of the record. He framed the album around a vampiric persona drawn from cult films such as The Lost Boys and Interview with the Vampire, an aesthetic that permeated its imagery and themes. While recording, he drew additional inspiration from Tyler, the Creator's Goblin and other "psyched-out" or "evil" music, and identified the Sex Pistols as his favorite band and Sid Vicious as a key influence and personal alter ego.In a March 2019 GQ interview, Carti announced that Virgil Abloh would serve as creative director for the project. By mid-2019, he estimated he had recorded around fifty songs and was working with producers including Metro Boomin, Maaly Raw, Richie Souf, Don Cannon, and engineer Roark Bailey. Longtime collaborator Pi'erre Bourne, who had shaped Carti's earlier sound, played a reduced role compared to Die Lit, though Carti continued to credit his influence. In May 2019, an unreleased collaboration with Young Nudy titled "Pissy Pamper" leaked and reached number one on Spotify's US Viral 50 chart before being removed. Originally intended for Nudy and Bourne's Sli'merre, the song was never officially released due to sample clearances. By late 2020, Carti had completed 16 tracks. After Kanye West agreed to executive-produce the album, the two recorded an additional 16 songs during sessions at West's studios in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Calabasas, California. Carti recorded the album with live performance foremost in mind, later stating that every song was designed to incite mosh pits and be performed onstage. He described treating his voice as an instrument, with ad-libs and layered vocals frequently becoming indistinguishable from the production itself; the album's harsher, raspy deliveries emerged organically from recording at high volumes with producer F1lthy rather than from a deliberate attempt to adopt a punk style.
Music and lyrics
Overview
Whole Lotta Red is an experimental hip-hop, rage, and trap album. Diverging from the melodic trap style of Playboi Carti and Die Lit, it incorporates 808 drums, synthesizers, drum machines, punk and electronic influences. Spanning 24 tracks over an hour, the album is built on chaotic synthesizers and distorted bass, with beats described by Paul A. Thompson of Pitchfork as bright and serrated. Carti's vocal performances range from rasping, guttural delivery to his high-pitched "baby voice", a variety that critics such as Thompson and Fred Thomas of AllMusic highlighted as central to the album's intensity. Lyrically, Whole Lotta Red focuses on guns, wealth, drugs, hedonism, women, and rockstar excess, conveyed through repetitive phrases, ad-libs, and crooned melodies. Prior to the album's release, in a November 2020 GQ interview, Carti described the album as "alternative" and "psyched out". Thompson characterized Carti's vocal variations as a defining element of the album's energy. Executive produced by Kanye West and Matthew Williams, the album was described for its dark, vampire-themed aesthetic.Tracks
Whole Lotta Red opens with "Rockstar Made", featuring distorted basslines and guitar-like synthesizers described by Kyann-Sian Williams of NME as suitable for mosh pits, with blown-out 808 drums and aggressive synthesizers. "Go2DaMoon", featuring West, was characterized as rushed and scrappy, resembling an unfinished interlude. "Stop Breathing" includes bells and 808 drums alongside Carti's staccato delivery, with the line "Ever since my brother died, I been thinking 'bout homicide"; Thomas of AllMusic described the blown-out instrumentals as complementing his vocal performances. "Beno!" features pixelated sounds reminiscent of Die Lit, with a beat that Thompson described as sounding "like an iPhone ringing in heaven" and highlighted for complementing a brief, personal aside about Carti buying his sister a Jeep. "JumpOutTheHouse" features Carti repeating "Jump out the house / Jump out that bitch" more than 50 times in under two minutes; Thompson described its beat, produced by Richie Souf, as built on "sinister Atlanta rap scaffolding" reminiscent of a track an "agitated Gucci Mane might have jumped on in 2008", while highlighting the performance's "refreshing sense of humor" and looseness that allows "the zaniest idea to occasionally win". "M3tamorphosis", featuring Kid Cudi, includes layered ad-libs resembling goblin-like sounds and Carti chanting "Metamorphosis" seven times mid-verse, described by Tom Breihan of Stereogum as an instinctive blurt turning the word into a mantra. Thomas described it as creating an ominous atmosphere, while Semassa Boko of PopMatters viewed it as an overly long duet lacking excitement. "Slay3r" precedes "No Sl33p", which Thompson described as potentially built around a hummed reference to "Slay3r". It features jagged, off-balance production with hiccuping, echoing beats, described by Breihan of Stereogum as sounding like Atlanta trap gone hyperpop. It also features ascending synthesizers and distant chirps described by Mehan Jayasuriya of Pitchfork as "downright bubbly" compared to the album's prevalent post-Yeezus darkwave sound. Jayasuriya described that Carti's boast of potentially joining the American thrash metal band Slayer aligns with the band's leather-clad showmanship, blend of catchiness and confrontation, and arena-scale satanism."Vamp Anthem" samples Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, chopped by KP Beatz and Jasper Harris; Thompson of Pitchfork highlighted that the dramatic organ sample is paired with Carti laying vocals in a black cape and plastic Halloween fangs, while Williams described the track as merely repetitive once its shock value has faded. "New N3on" and "Over" are among three songs that Thompson identified as having better-executed counterparts elsewhere on the album, with "New N3on" cited by Mimi Kenny of Beats Per Minute as an example of dully competent but ultimately tedious material. "Control" features Carti in a vulnerable love song over a hyperpop beat, highlighted by Williams for lines such as "I only want the best for you / I'll cure your love like a doctor", and includes an uncredited DJ Akademiks cameo in the opening seconds that Danny Schwartz of Rolling Stone called "inexplicable". "Punk Monk" includes the line "I gotta worry 'bout me", expressing exhaustion with unreliable associates. "On That Time" features heavy distortion contributing to punk energy, described by Schwartz as a standout. "King Vamp" represents Carti's progression to a vampire persona, with Medithi describing it as part of his evolution from pop star to rock star to "ruler of the undead". "Place" is a subdued collaboration with Pi'erre Bourne featuring minimalist 808 drums and elongated synthesizers, described by Williams as "nostalgic" and "harking back" to the "mellow magic" of earlier tracks such as "Magnolia". "ILoveUIHateU" features fluttering production and was highlighted by Uproxx as "frantic and skin-tingling trap", alongside "Meh". "Die4Guy" includes the jittery lines "If I die it's gon' be real sad / So I fuck on my bitch like it's our last / I'm a rockstar so I never can relax", which Medithi linked to the album's distillation of fearful isolation. "Not PLaying" features rapid, distorted synthesizer patterns that contribute to the "dizzying neon gyrations" described by Medithi. The closing track, "F33l Lik3 Dyin", samples Bon Iver and features melodic singing about Carti's relationship with his mother, including the lines "My mama always knew I was a star / She gave me the keys to her only car / I took that bitch and I went far".