“I AM MUSIC
THE ALBUM
LINK IN BIO”
The link to Carti’s online store features merch box sets with hats, hoodies, and vinyl copies of I Am Music, despite there still not being an official release date. The site makes note that all items will ship on April 18, 2025.
September 13, 2024
“All Red” is formally released on Carti’s birthday, the first “official” solo release in his catalog since Whole Lotta Red. Expectedly, fans go crazy online while also wearing backward NBA jerseys. It’s been said a million times before, but, on this track, his delivery strikingly resembles Future over F1lthy’s calamitous instrumental. I had a friend earnestly ask me if the line “Upside down cross tat on my neck, shut ’em up” was recorded through an AI voice filter.
To celebrate the “All Red” release, Carti posts an unofficial I Am Music album cover in homage to Lil Wayne’s Dedication mixtape series.
September 15, 2024
Carti posts another snippet to his IG story. This time it’s a video of him playing an unreleased song to a baby in a stroller who dances along, waving his little arms like a traffic guard. Carti mimics him as his icy shards of Auto-Tune plead “How do I know that you down for me?” The beat kinda resembles Ken Carson’s bubbly 2023 sleeper “Pots.”
November 16, 2024
In a joint-headlining event with Travis Scott, at ComplexCon, Carti debuts another new songthis one paying homage to Jay-Z’s “Jigga My Nigga” by proclaiming, “What’s my mothafuckin’ name?”
November 17, 2024
book alludes to Ye working on the production for I Am Music at a club performance. “Shoutout to my nigga Kanye,” he says into the mic. “Big bro been making beats and shit, that album gon’ be crazy.”
November 18, 2024
Following a performance at Camp Flog Gnaw, Carti tells a group of fans “I’m tryna do that shit by myself” when asked if the new album will have any features. Just before then, Carti asks them if they want the album to drop in 2024 or in January, to which one dude replies “Whenever you want bro!” Safe to say fans online weren’t rocking with that.
November 20, 2024
Another music video snippet goes up on Carti’s Instagram story with Kanye’s account tagged in the post. Behind studio footage that looks like it was ripped from Nokia phone, Carti’s raw vocals lilt over buoyant sub bass and another soul sample. Between the tied dreads, white tank, and black shades he has on, the Lil Wayne method acting reaches a new level.
November 21, 2024
Playboy Carti drops another single on his spam IG with the caption, “PLAY THIS.” Here, he reverts to Die Lit–era melodies over flowery plucks of synth. There’s no music video, but the thumbnail features a photo of Babyxsosa, the Virginia-born singer/rapper whom he once shouted out on a 2022 loosie with A$AP Rocky called “Sights / Our De$tiny.”
December 12, 2024
Carti posts a music video snippet at the end of a photo dump full of studio session fit pics and money-filled Goyard bags. In the video, he cleans jewelry with a toothbrush and watches Mike Dean do bong rips on Facetime. There are no lyrics in the snippet, only a Kanye-like instrumental passage in which a choir repeats a refrain of “Drugs got me numb/Love got me numb.”
December 15, 2024
For Rolling Loud’s 10-year anniversary (crazy, right?), Carti serves as the headliner for the final night. The build-up to his performance is compounded by RL co-founder Tariq Cherif affirming that I Am Music will be played live. For the performance, Carti pulls out the classics (“Sky,” “Stop Breathing,” “Shoota”) and recent solo highlights (“H00dByAir,” “2024”) and splices them with five unreleased tracks. Two of the unreleased tracks respectively feature Travis Scott and the Weeknd. After the show, Carti posted a snippet to his spam of “Crush,” the unreleased Travis collab. In it you can hear Travis Scott’s trademark “Straight up!” adlib followed by a spiraling synth lead.
December 20, 2024
Like he’s trying to convince himself it’s still happening, Akademiks makes an announcement for the third consecutive December that, “Carti is on the WAY! Relax.”
December 27, 2024
The final Friday of 2024 comes along with no album in sight, and Carti fans start to accept the fact that they’ll have to wait until the new year. Subsequently, #IAMLIAR begins to trend in the community with the most egregious memes and AI mockups you’ll see online.
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