A year ago, Playboi Carti seemed poised to put an end to his penchant for mystery and drop his new album, reportedly titled I Am Music, in a timely fashion. By last January, he’d already shared a handful of well-received new singles and music videos, signaling the beginning of a new era for the rapper. It all appeared to be lining up, and Carti fans online could hardly believe their good fortune. Their suspicions ended up being warranted, as the ever-elusive rapper proceeded to delay the record for more than a year despite pre-orders, merch, and numerous festival appearances. Today, I Am Music seems as out of reach as ever.
It all started in December 2023, when Carti set the internet ablaze, dropping a new single every week for a month straight. First came “Ur the Moon,” featuring Carti’s new vocal signature: “Seeyuh.” Then came the now ironically titled “2024,” where Carti proclaims, “2024…music.” A week later, he dropped the Opium label posse cut “H00dByAir,” featuring Destroy Lonely and Ken Carson. Then, he followed it up with “Backr00ms,” featuring Travis Scott. It was a well-oiled album rollout that, by any artist’s standards, would all but guarantee a successful release.
Even as the months went by last year, the strength of that initial rollout gave fans outsized hope that new music was coming. Adding fuel to fans’ wishful thinking were billboards that popped up around the country last month teasing the album. This came after Carti’s performance at Rolling Loud Miami in December, which was explicitly teased as the premiere of his new album. Only a few weeks prior, in November, Carti performed at ComplexCon and at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw. In both cases, listeners were almost certain that his appearances would mean he’d be premiering new music, since he’d already toured his 2020 album Whole Lotta Red.
Not to mention the fact that, two months before ComplexCon and Flog Gnaw, Carti shared the official pre-order information for I Am Music on his website. The page unveiled new merch and physical copies of the upcoming record, with a clause on the website stating the albums would ship no later than six months from Sept. 12 of last year, making March 12 the drop-dead date before Carti will have to begin issuing refunds. With most new music dropping on Fridays these days, a number of fans had their hearts set on March 7 as an official release date. Alas, that date has come, and the album has yet to materialize.
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All of this isn’t to say Carti’s been totally quiet all these months. His collaboration with the Weeknd, “Timeless,” was a fixture atop the charts last summer, and obsessive fan pages have ample fit pics to gawk at while they clamor for new music. Still, Carti’s protracted delays mark a return to form for an artist whose career so far has been defined by how difficult he is to pin down. If anything, the string of singles in 2023 might’ve been a fluke. As for I Am Music ever seeing the light of day, betting platform Polymarket has the odds of Carti dropping the album before June at 60 percent. Even at those odds, it’s far from a safe bet.
