Die Lit received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its appeal and production. Although Die Lit was marketed with no radio play or much press coverage, it was a commercial success and was positively reviewed by several publications. It debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200, with 61,000 album-equivalent units earned in its first week, and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album was supported by the promotional single "Love Hurts" (featuring Travis Scott), released on May 2, 2018, exclusively on SoundCloud.
Background and release
In December 2017, a video showed Playboi Carti behind a mixing board, presumably listening to new material with the caption "Album Mode".[2] In March 2018, Pi'erre Bourne teased that the project had been finalized via Twitter.[3][4] On May 2, 2018, Carti released "Love Hurts", featuring American rapper Travis Scott, as a promotional single for the album, being released exclusively on SoundCloud.[5][6] On May 10, 2018, Carti announced the album's release date via Twitter.[3] On the same day, ASAP Rocky revealed the album's artwork.[7] Upon release, the album was briefly released exclusively via Tidal, before showing up on other streaming services.[8]
Composition
Die Lit is characterized by its minimalist trap production, featuring distorted bass, spacious mixing, and ethereal synthesizer melodies.[9] The album's production, primarily handled by Pi'erre Bourne, incorporates elements of cloud rap and psychedelic music, creating atmospheric soundscapes that complement Carti's vocal delivery.[10] The beats often utilize unconventional sound design, with heavily processed samples, bouncy and reverb-heavy percussion arrangements.[11]
Vocally, Playboi Carti employs his signature "baby voice" style throughout the album, a high-pitched delivery that emphasizes ad-libs and melodic vocal inflections over traditional rap cadences.[12] His lyrics primarily focus on themes of luxury lifestyle, romantic relationships, and street life, delivered through fragmented phrases and repetitive hooks.[13] The vocal performances often function as additional musical instruments, with Carti's ad-libs and vocal layering contributing to the overall sonic texture of the tracks.[14]
The album's sonic palette draws influence from various sources, including punk rock aesthetics and contemporary Atlanta trap music.[15][14] The production frequently features prominent 808 bass patterns and trap drum programming while experimenting with unconventional song structures.[11] Several tracks, such as "FlatBed Freestyle" and "Love Hurts", showcase Carti's evolution of his vocal style, pushing further into abstract and experimental territory.[16]
Die Lit was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 71, based on seven reviews.[17]
Evan Rytlewski of Pitchfork stated that Die Lit is "an album that works almost completely from its own lunatic script. It is a perversely infectious sugar high, rap that fundamentally recalibrates the brain's reward centers", praising the production and simplicity.[21] Corrigan B of Tiny Mix Tapes said, "Like its predecessor, it's an album of party records; these are songs that will be played ad infinitum at functions until the hooks, the breaks, and, of course, the bass are burned into the brain of every attendee".[10] Maxwell Cavaseno of HotNewHipHop concluded that Die Lit "feels like the closest to a fully realized album as Carti is ever going to come close to achieving" and that it "should, at the very least, be respected for doing so much while doing so very little".[9] Online publication Sputnikmusic stated: "A lot of the gratification of this record is in the production, which takes the age-old hip-hop trick of taking a fractional melodic idea, barely a song by itself, and spinning out of it a thick sonic weave."[23]
A. Harmony from Exclaim! criticized the album for having a lack of variety, saying "It's fun enough but, save for a few keepers, has the lifespan of a mayfly. Rock to it for the summer and forget most of it by September".[19] Riley Wallace of HipHopDX stated, "Through a more respectable body of work—is unlikely to win over any naysayers".[14] Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic said, "Like Rae Sremmurd and Migos, these big-bass trap anthems owe much to their club-friendly vibe, but offer little in terms of substance or lasting impact".[18]
Die Lit debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 61,000 album-equivalent units (including 5,000 copies as pure album sales) in its first week.[30] On July 31, 2019, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and streams in excess of 500,000 units in the United States.[31] As of January 2021, the album has earned 1.1million album-equivalent units and net 1.67billion on-demand streams for its tracks.[32]
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