(AWGE/Interscope)
Already staggeringly popular since its long-awaited release on Friday, the Atlantan rapper shows off his almost mystical level of vocal range on his jaded, narcotised third LP

Almost no album in rap history has been quite so anticipated as Music, the third album by Atlanta’s Playboi Carti. The harsh, extreme-bass sound of his second, 2020’s Whole Lotta Red, took him to a new level of fame and acclaim – it was canonised as the second best album this decade by Pitchfork (beaten only by Fiona Apple) and a massive influence on a whole generation of rage-rap from Yeat to Ken Carson, OsamaSon and numerous other noisy young MCs. Carti initially announced Whole Lotta Red’s follow-up just three months after its release. Instead, it’s been – cue Titanic grandma voice – over four years, with Pitchfork recently issuing a 34-entry breakdown of all the false dawns and teased info that Carti has drip-fed his starving fans in that time.

It looked like Music (renamed from I Am Music) would finally arrive on Friday, but the promised release time was moved back by three hours. When that time arrived, no album appeared. “My bones are weak, my soul is drained, and my will to live is hanging by a thread” was one typical reaction in the Instagram comments; the danger was that the wait was so long it could never be worth it. But Music is easily good enough to sweep any embitterment away and could come to be seen as a trap classic.