Can Playboi Carti Maintain His Superstar Run For the Long Haul? (Critic’s Take)

On Sunday night (Mar. 23), Playboi Carti notched his second Billboard 200 No. 1 album with MUSIC. The colossal 30-track set scored a wondrous debut for the OPIUM leader, as he secured the biggest streaming week for any album in nearly a year. For Carti, this is his first album in five years, and its debut nearly triples the opening week-performance of his previous album, 2020 demon-driven effort Whole Lotta Red, confirming him as a leading light of this rap generation. Though Carti should savor this win, the late great Ben Parker comes to mind: “With great power comes great responsibility.” If Carti wants to be the undisputed torchbearer for hip-hop, he should consider a few crucial factors on his road to glory.

Before his MUSIC atomic bomb detonated the charts, Carti was a proven features savant. His eccentric delivery and kooky flows made him a must-listen whenever he was penciled in on a guest slot. Over the last couple years, he’s left indelible prints on songs like Kanye’s “Carnival,” Future and Metro Boomin’s “Type S–t,” Travis Scott’s “Fe!n,” and The Weeknd’s “Timeless,” which all became Hot 100 flamethrowers, with the first becoming his first No. 1 hit. Though Carti is a missile on features, he’ll need more enduring hits on the solo front to cement his legitimacy as a bonafide hitmaker.

His 2017 breakout “Magnolia” from his self-titled mixtape was a seismic force culturally and musically. The Pierre Bourne-produced hit was his first top-30 song and was beloved by rap fans, with the biggest one being Jay-Z, who dubbed the record “incredible.”But eight years later, “Magnolia” is still the only song with Carti as a lone artist to spend more than 10 weeks total on the chart. If Carti wants to be the “Travis Scott of Atlanta,” as he was rumored to have told Akademiks, he’ll need to churn out bangers of his own like his Houston brethren.

So far, Carti might have a heater on his hands with “EVIL J0RDAN,” which is in the early lead as MUSIC’s most popular record, netting nearly 53 million plays on Spotify and debuts just behind Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s five-week No.1 “Luther” at the runner-up spot on this week’s Hot 100. When you think of rap giants like Drake, Kendrick, Cole, Future, Travis, and now Tyler, they all landed a hit that lasted beyond their album’s opening week. The question going forward will be if “EVIL J0RDAN” can stick around in the top 10 longer than its opening week, and have the legs to compete well into the spring.

Carti’s steadfastness in his sound and lack of compromise is also something that will add to his legacy as he goes deeper into his career. Though he brought in the late-2010s rap Avengers in Kendrick, Future, Travis, and Uzi for MUSIC, he doesn’t sacrifice his sound to do that, which plays into his genesis as a superstar. Lamar, arguably in the midst of the most incredible run in hip-hop history, appears thrice on the project and is pretty malleable, sliding seamlessly into Carti’s orbit. Whether he’s playing lyrical hopscotch with his rap “twin” on “GOOD CREDIT” or ad-libbing alongside him on “MOJO JOJO,” Lamar slips into those pockets like a hand-in-glove, without spoiling Carti’s efforts. 

Carti’s vision isn’t one that everyone can understand, especially those from an older era, but the fact that he has earned the trust and respect of both Mount Rushmore-caliber rappers like Lamar and Future and even current generational leaders like Uzi and Travis speaks to his unflappable influence. Whole Lotta Red was rage rap at its finest and, for some fans, a challenging departure from his Die Lit days. On MUSIC, though, Carti tones down the vamp rap and made palatable music for his day-one listeners while still showing love for his mosh-pit bandits, especially on “POP OUT.”

As Carti continues his quest for immortality, he must also continue to nurture his burgeoning Opium collective, which has thrived under his watch. The rise of Destroy Lonely and Ken Carson in the last few years has answered questions about Carti’s executive skills. Last summer, Carson notched his first Hot 100 hit with “Overseas,” and before that, he enjoyed a torrid set at Coachella and toured with revered rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. As for Destroy, last year, he earned his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with Love Lasts Forever, also debuting at No. 10 on the Billboard 200. Despite not having Carson or Lonely on the album, there’s always time for Carti to put out an OPIUM project to satiate fans’ hunger between releases, which would bode well for his team and excite fans about the collective’s promising future.

Lastly, the huge question mark is Carti’s productivity. After a grueling five-year wait with MUSIC, Carti can’t afford to make fans wait until 2030 for another album, even if he’s dropping fiery features. Past hip-hop greats have traditionally gone at most two to three years without releasing a project. Carti – still in the early stages of his career – needs to increase his output exponentially. There’s no reason why he can’t release at least two more projects before 2030, which would firmly secure his place as one of the decade’s preeminent greats.

With the “Big Three” conversation still oozing out of barbershops and every other rap podcast, the new topic of choice should be: Does Carti now need to be included in any such discussion? If he amps up his output, grows his collective and scores some huge hits of his own, he absolutely will be.