Review Summary: A pivotal moment in the genre - a divisive record that has the potential to push the sounds of hip-hop in a new direction similar to 808s and Heartbreak.
"Whole lotta trash"
Scrolling thru twitter and /r/hiphopheads when this dropped on Christmas 2020 at Midnight was certainly a trip. Between the disappointment in failing to live up to all the hype and Iggy Azalia calling Carti out for being the deadbeat dad that he is, it seemed everyone in the world was having a blast dunking on Carti. For good reason too. He certainly does not sound like a model citizen to say the least. But his personal affairs aside, how could he possibly live up to the hype that he built up this year? This was a botched album rollout, with false starts and stops abound, leaks of what could have been and then the rise of Mario Judah.
It felt as if Mario Judah had beaten Playboi Carti at his own game - releasing 5 tracks on an alternate universe version of "Whole Lotta Red" Possibly the version of the album that many of us had expected, and maybe even preferred. But that wasn't the true "Whole Lotta Red".
On first listen, I hated this. Texted my buddies about how it was the worst album of the year. (Well, in terms of big releases). Everyone seemed to agree. Throw it in the trash.
But then a funny thing happened. I kept coming back to it. Suddenly there were tracks I liked... and some tracks I still hated. But I kept on listening to it.
Then one night everything changed for me. Suddenly it all made sense. This album rules.
Even as I am typing this, I feel like my brain is broken. Why do I even like this, let alone love it? By all accounts, the production is not good, and in places feels like it was rushed to completion in order to meet the demands of his fans and Mario Judah. That is the charm. It's Carti's take on a punk record - abrasive, in your face, mumble trap nonsense from another planet. Like the memes have shown, tracks such as "Vamp Anthem" are so absurd they sound like they could be used to score a Mario Kart track.
The puzzle has been unlocked, nothing makes any sense, and nothing matters anymore. Whole Lotta Red's title makes more sense under the context that just like a vampire, the more you fight it, the more it sucks your blood and you become one. Join us vamps, or don't. Whatever.
