Playboi Carti’s ‘Music’ Goes No. 1 & Ye Leaks ‘Bully,’ But Is He Back?: ‘Billboard Unfiltered’

Playboi Carti debuted atop the Billboard 200 with Music, earning just under 300,000 total album units in its first week on the chart.

Billboard Unfiltered returned with a brand-new episode on Wednesday (March 26) featuring The Breakfast Club‘s Nyla Symone as a special guest, and the crew debates Carti’s massive debut numbers, Ye’s Bully leak and more.

“I wasn’t surprised at this level of commercial success from Carti,” staff writer Kyle Denis said. “It was really more confirmation of his past five years of how he’s positioned himself as the leader of the new gen. The kids love this man.”

“Rather Lie” featuring The Weeknd debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been serviced to radio, which could position itself as the longest-lasting hit from Music.

Deputy editor Carl Lamarre compared “Rather Lie” to feeling inspired by Drake and SZA’s No. 1 hit “Slime You Out.” “Weeknd’s verse was very ‘Slime You Out.’ I’m just saying he was inspired,” Lamarre alleged.

The conversation moved to finding the “big three” in rap behind Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. The crew seemed to agree that behind them it’s looking like Playboi Carti, Travis Scott and Tyler, The Creator have solidified themselves as the next superstars.

“Numbers don’t lie,” senior charts & data analyst Trevor Anderson said.

Denis added: “The kids really f— with those two [Playboi Carti and Travis Scott]. We see it in the streams go crazy, the hard sales go crazy when they put up stuff for you to buy, the ticket sales be going crazy, the festival crowds go crazy and they got the cultural pull. Carti wasn’t necessarily getting chart hits the past five years, but was still a bigger cultural presence than a lot of rappers that were getting hits.”

With people complaining about the lack of new stars in rap, Anderson wonders if he’ll receive a true mainstream push in the form of radio play, award show performances and commercial accolades. “Clearly you have evidence millions of people f–k with this dude so why not open the door,” he said.

Ye (Kanye West) returned with the leaked release of his Bully album last week, which drew positive reviews from fans even in the midst of his hateful tirades on X.

“From what I heard, I do like it,” Symone said. “I never doubted Ye couldn’t come back, but as far as being excellent at his craft, he’s never swayed from that.”

Denis believes the “curatorial” and “sequencing” skills have “disappeared” for Ye following 2016’s The Life of Pablo. “I haven’t had a favorable listening experience top-to-bottom in quite some time,” he said.

Lamarre thinks fans are still hanging onto the hope of Ye being able to put everything together once again and have it pay off in the music. “In the last decade, we have seen so many flashes of the old Ye,” Lamarre said before citing Ye’s performance at the Larry Hoover benefit concert and tracks like “530.”

The rest of the episode also finds the crew diving into the hopeful album releases from Cardi B and Saweetie as well as GloRilla versus Doechii. Watch it below.

Related Images: