Whole Lotta Red is the second studio album by the American rapper Playboi Carti. It was released on December 25, 2020, by AWGE and Interscope Records. Recording began in late 2018, following the release of its predecessor Die Lit (2018), and concluded in November 2020. It was primarily produced by F1lthy and Art Dealer, with contributions from Pi'erre Bourne, Maaly Raw, Lil 88, Jasper Harris, Ojivolta, and Wheezy, while Kanye West served as the executive producer. Guest appearances include West, Kid Cudi, and Future.
Diverging from the melodic sound of Playboi Carti (2017) and Die Lit, Whole Lotta Red is an experimental hip-hop album that incorporates punk, trap, and electronic music. Music critics highlighted its loose structure and frenetic pace; several songs abandon traditional verse-chorus structures in favor of chants or ad-libbing with an emphasis on atmosphere over narrative. Whole Lotta Red features a dark, gothic tone in which Carti adopts the persona of a vampire rock star, and its abrasive sound drew comparisons to West's Yeezus (2013).
Whole Lotta Red received generally positive reviews. Critics praised its production and Carti's vocals, but criticized its guest appearances and lack of depth. It became Carti's first album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, earning 100,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Multiple publications recognized Whole Lotta Red as one of the year's best albums, and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked it among the "200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time".
Background and recording
In May 2018, Playboi Carti released his debut studio album, Die Lit, through AWGE and Interscope Records. The album received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its appeal and production. In August 2018, shortly after the release of Die Lit, a video surfaced showing Carti discussing his next project, tentatively titled Whole Lotta Red.[1] By November 2018, Carti was performing unreleased tracks from the album at a concert in Seattle, indicating early progress on the project.[2] In March 2019, during an interview with GQ, Carti announced that Virgil Abloh would serve as the creative director for Whole Lotta Red.[3][4] That same year, Carti's feature on Tyler, the Creator's "Earfquake", the lead single from Igor, showcased his distinctive "baby voice" style, which drew significant attention and heightened anticipation for the album.[5]
In May 2019, a leaked collaboration with Young Nudy titled "Pissy Pamper", originally intended for Nudy's and Pi'erre Bourne's Sli'merre album, gained widespread popularity on TikTok and reached number one on Spotify's US Viral 50 chart before its removal. Numerous other leaks from Whole Lotta Red surfaced on platforms like YouTube and SoundCloud, prompting speculation that these leaks led Carti to rework parts of the album or abandon certain creative directions.[6] In a June 2019 interview with The Fader, Carti revealed that recording for Whole Lotta Red began in late 2018, with sessions taking place at DJ Drama's Means Street Studios in Atlanta and at his own home.[3] In May 2020, Carti featured on Drake's "Pain 1993" from the Dark Lane Demo Tapes mixtape, continuing his "baby voice" style. The track became Carti's first top-ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number seven.[7] In November 2020, following a social media hiatus, Carti posted on his socials, blurry photos of himself, while revealing that the album was turned in to his label.[8][9]
Composition
American rapper Kanye West (pictured in 2009) served as executive producer of the album.
Whole Lotta Red is a trap,[10]rage,[11] and experimental hip-hop album.[12] Departing from the melodic trap style of Playboi Carti (2017)[12][13] and Die Lit (2018),[12][14][15] it incorporates 808 drums,[15][16]synthesizers,[15][17]drum machines,[11]punk[14][17][18] and electronic influences.[11][12] Spanning 24 tracks over an hour, the album has been described as frenetic and high-energy, with distorted production characterized by chaotic synthesizers and heavy bass. Carti's vocal performances range from rasping, guttural delivery to his high-pitched "baby voice", a variety that critics such as Pitchfork and AllMusic highlighted as central to the album's intensity.[13][14][12] Prior to the album's release, in a November 2020 GQ interview, Carti described the album as "alternative" and "psyched out".[19]Pitchfork characterized Carti's vocal variations as a defining element of the album's energy.[12] Executive produced by Kanye West,[13][11][12] with contributions from producers like F1lthy, Jasper Harris, Ojivolta, and Pi'erre Bourne, the album was described for its dark, vampire-themed aesthetic.[14][11] Both AllMusic and HipHopDX compared its bold, polarizing vision to West's Yeezus (2013) for its divisive, uncompromising approach.[13][11]
Opening tracks like "Rockstar Made" and "Stop Breathing" were described by NME and Rolling Stone as energetic, with heavy bass and synthesizers.[15][18] Songs such as "No Sl33p" and "JumpOutTheHouse" depart from conventional verse-chorus structures, instead using short, repetitive vocal passages.[12] For example, "Stop Breathing" pulses with a beat echoing Gucci Mane's 2008 "Shirt Off", as the lyrics reference the death of his friend Bigg Sosa, which some critics interpreted as expressing grief and anger.[14][11] "Vamp Anthem" incorporates a sample of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, combining organ samples with trap instrumentation, a style critics linked to the album's vampire-themed imagery.[15][12] According to PopMatters, the album's second half shifts toward melodic territory while retaining its experimental core.[17] "ILoveUIHateU" and "Place", produced by Pi'erre Bourne, reminiscent of Carti's earlier trap style, with synthesizer-driven production and higher-pitched vocals.[15][17] "Control" features lyrics that address romantic themes, with Carti exploring love over a glossy hyper-pop beat, while "Punk Monk" reflects on industry pressures and exhaustion, with HipHopDX and Pitchfork praising these introspective moments.[11][12]
Critics described Carti's vocal delivery as central to the album, largely sidelining his "baby voice"—heard on "Teen X" and "New N3on"—for a raspier, breathless delivery brimming with intensity.[18][12] On "M3tamorphosis", featuring Kid Cudi, Carti raps lines such as "When you feel like this, can't nobody tell you shit", which reviewers interpreted as confident or boastful.[15][13] Lyrically, critics highlighted that Carti emphasizes atmosphere and persona over narrative content. Carti prioritizes vibe over narrative, with his "King Vamp" persona incorporates recurring themes of excess, paranoia, and self-presentation as a rockstar figure.[11][18]
Artwork and aesthetic
On December 22, 2020, Playboi Carti unveiled the cover art for Whole Lotta Red on social media. The cover was designed by Jung "Art Dealer" Chung and features a black-and-white image of Carti outlined in white, with the word "Red" displayed in bold red letters at the top.[20] The design is an homage to the cover of the late 1970s punk-rock magazine Slash, which once featured David Vanian of the band the Damned on its cover.[21][22] In addition, the left side of Carti's cover, beside the parental advisory label, reads "Volume One Number One Of Red", referencing a fictional magazine from Carti's Opium imprint.[22][23]
The album's visual aesthetic, as well as the accompanying merchandise designs, have been described by journalists for their influence from heavy metal imagery, further contributing to the rebellious, punk-inspired vibe of the project. Throughout Whole Lotta Red, Carti adopts the persona of a vampire rock star, complementing the album's dark and gothic themes. Despite shifting his vocal approach at times on the album, Carti still incorporates his signature "baby voice" style across various tracks, reinforcing his distinctive sound and artistic identity.[18]
Release and promotion
On April 14, 2020, Playboi Carti began teasing the single "@ Meh" by sharing its cover art on Twitter, with the track officially released two days later on April 16 as the anticipated lead single for Whole Lotta Red.[24][25] The song, featuring Carti's signature "baby voice",[26] achieved commercial success, peaking at number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100, marking Carti's second top 40 entry as a lead artist.[27] Alongside the single's release, its music video, co-directed by Carti and Nick Walker, debuted the same day.[28]
Following a period of social media inactivity, Carti returned on November 23, 2020, posting blurry photos of himself and announcing that Whole Lotta Red had been submitted to his label.[29] In the lead-up to the album's release, Carti heightened anticipation by teasing collaborations with artists including Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, and Future, while also hinting at potential features from Post Malone and Pharrell Williams.[30][31][32] Media personality DJ Akademikstweeted that Whole Lotta Red was set to release on Christmas Day and would be executively produced by Kanye West, claiming he "nearly sold his soul" for the information.[33]
On December 21, 2020, Carti officially unveiled the album's cover art, release date, and pre-order details for merchandise.[34]Whole Lotta Red, executively produced by Kanye West, was released on December 25, 2020.[35][36][37][38] On the same day, the music video for the track "M3tamorphosis", featuring Kid Cudi, was released, directed by Nico Ballesteros.[39][40] On April 2, 2021, Carti released the music video for "Sky", the nineteenth track from Whole Lotta Red.[41][42] Directed by Nick Walker and produced by Chad Tennies and Rachel Walden, the video features Carti and his crew causing chaos in a grocery store, knocking over shelves, spilling products, and riding carts, with a distinctive green-tinted aesthetic and faux security camera footage.[43] The video, which includes a cameo from a fellow Opium signee, Destroy Lonely,[44] reflects the album's punk-inspired aesthetic and has garnered over 100 million views on YouTube as of April 2025.[45] To support the album, Carti embarked on the King Vamp Tour, originally titled the Narcissist Tour, during the fall of 2021, performing across various cities in North America.[46][47][48][49]
Whole Lotta Red 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 75, based on seven reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[51] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[50]
Fred Thomas reviewed the album for AllMusic, lauding the "blown-out instrumentals" and "demonic vocal performances".[13] Paul A. Thompson of Pitchfork described Whole Lotta Red as "both wildly innovative and strikingly consistent", praising the "bright and serrated beats" and Carti's "outré, expressive" vocals.[12] Danny Schwartz from Rolling Stone enjoyed the album, saying, "Playboi Carti—Gen Z's answer to Nosferatu—performs emotions, toggles between them, and disguises them with a disquieting ease. He has never been more enigmatic".[18] Reviewing the album for PopMatters, Semassa Boko stated, "Whole Lotta Red demonstrates Playboi Carti's commitment to dynamic growth and experimentation. However, it's painfully apparent that Carti needs more features".[17] Colin Dempsey of Spectrum Culture praised the album, stating, "Carti comes into his own by stepping into the coffin of a vampire, scoffing at every critique tossed towards his vaudeville fangs".[16] Vivian Medithi of HipHopDX said, "Semi-automatic dracos are made in Romania and Dracula was too. Whole Lotta Red is the sound of a new legend dying to be born. It'll be album of the year in 2022".[11]
In a mixed review, NME's Kyann-Sian Williams said, "Initially, you might be disappointed to have waited two years for what at first sounds like an underworked collection of throwaways. In places, though, the record rewards repeat listens. [...] But there's no getting away from the fact that at 24 tracks long, there's not a lot of variety on 'Whole Lotta Red', and the biggest take away here is perhaps that perennial rap fan favorite: less is most definitely more".[15] In a negative review, Beats Per Minute's Mimi Kenny stated: "Whole Lotta Red has a vibe the same way a TGI Fridays has an atmosphere; it just rides a wave of different shades of lifeless trap, an endless TikTok dance in purgatory. [...] The problem is Whole Lotta Red hardly ever gives Carti a chance to be real. He puts on vapid personas like 'rock star' and 'vampire' like he's at Halloween Express. Tracks are Seinfeldian in their nothingness."[14] Critic Robert Christgau highlighted "Rockstar Made" and "Punk Monk" while conceding that Playboi Carti "sounds like nobody else", but concluded that he "means as little as any rapper of consequence ever".[52]Pitchfork and NME critiqued tracks like "New N3on" and "Over", describing them as filler compared to the album's stronger cuts.[12][17] Guest appearances, including Kanye West on "Go2DaMoon" and Future on "Teen X", were seen as lackluster by Pitchfork and PopMatters, with critics noting they failed to match Carti's commanding presence.[12][17]
Despite being divisive upon its release, Whole Lotta Red is widely regarded as an influential album in modern hip-hop and its underground hip-hop scene.[62] It is credited with pushing the rage subgenre into the mainstream—a sound defined by distorted 808 drums, punk-inspired aggression, and minimalistic yet high-energy vocal delivery.[63][64] Artists and critics have, in hindsight, come to view the album as a watershed moment in the evolution of modern rap.[65]Whole Lotta Red's avant-garde and aggressive production, most of which was spearheaded by producers such as Pi'erre Bourne, F1lthy, and Art Dealer, was likened to Kanye West's Yeezus for its boundary-pushing experimentation.[13][11]Rolling Stone deemed it "one of the most forward-thinking rap records since Yeezus", and later crowned it the best rap album of 2021.[58] In 2022, the magazine also included it in "The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time".[59]
The album is particularly influential in the years following its release. A new wave of artists, such as Yeat, Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, Che and SoFaygo, borrowed much of the album's core sonic and visual tenets. Yeat's Up 2 Me (2021),[66] Carson's Project X (2021)[67] and A Great Chaos (2023)[68], all build from the template Carti created with Whole Lotta Red, incorporating hyper-aggressive production, heavily filtered vocals, and dark cartoon-like aesthetics. Carti's Opium label, which signed both Carson and Lonely, has also amplified this sound and visual culture.[69] The album influenced many modern underground hip-hop albums, such as Che's Rest in Bass, which Pitchfork praised as "the platonic ideal of rage rap", with Che containing "10 Whole Lotta Reds' worth of Playboi Carti's within his chest".[70]
Beyond music, Whole Lotta Red also had a profound cultural and visual impact. The vampire persona that Carti inhabited—most evident in tracks like "Vamp Anthem", the King Vamp merch, and the blood-red album cover—redefined hip-hop aesthetics for a newer generation.[71][72] The aesthetic was co-opted across fashion, graphic design, and social media, with designs routinely incorporating gothic lettering, red-and-black color schemes, and stripped-back visual iconography.[73]
Commercial performance
Whole Lotta Red debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 100,000 album-equivalent units (including 10,000 pure album sales) in its first week.[74] This became Carti's first US number-one debut and his second top 10 album.[74] The album also accumulated a total of 126.43million on-demand streams for its tracks, in the week ending December 31, 2020.[74] On January 11, 2022, 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.[75]
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