R&B/Hip-Hop

The wait is finally over: Playboi Carti has released his long-awaited third studio album, I Am Music on Friday (March 14) via AWGE and Interscope Records.

Spotify has been assisting with the album rollout over the last month by putting up billboards around major cities such as Los Angeles, New York City and Miami that read, “STREETS READY,” “SORRY4 DA WAIT” and “I AM MUSIC MF.”

I Am Music was preceded by one official single, “All Red,” which reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The rapper (real name Jordan Terrell Carter) also released a handful of songs on his YouTube and Instagram accounts, including “2024,” “BACKR00MS” featuring Travis Scott and “H00DBYAIR.” He also performed unreleased songs during his headlining set at Rolling Loud Miami in December, including “Lose You” featuring The Weeknd. Carti and The Weeknd’s “Timeless” collaboration from the latter’s Billboard 200-topping album Hurry Up Tomorrow reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 last year, following their platinum-certified “Popular” joint with Madonna.

Carti is also headlining Rolling Loud California on Sunday, March 16. The festival posted on X earlier this week that his 2018 debut album Die Lit dropped the day before Rolling Loud Miami, and he’s continuing the tradition by dropping I Am Music the day before Rolling Loud California commences the weekend.

I Am Music arrives five years after his last LP, Whole Lotta Red. The 24-track project featured collaborations with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West, “Go2DaMoon”), Kid Cudi (“M3tamorphosis”) and Future (“Teen X”). The set topped the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, marking the rapper’s first No. 1 on both charts.

Listen to I Am Music below.

Harlem weeps.

Jim Jones sat down with Ebro on Apple Music’s Rap Life Radio show and talked about the back and forth he’s been getting into with fellow Diplomat Cam’ron recently. When Ebro brought up their recent drama, Jones downplayed the situation, saying, “I don’t want people to think I’m going back and forth, I’m just telling my truth.”

Adding, In terms of me telling my truth, people feel they need to have a rebuttal or whatever they got going on, let them do it. People know this is not a battle at all.”

He was then asked if their relationship is still a “brotherhood” to which he replied, “Nah, it’s definitely ain’t no brotherhood.”

He continued on by saying that their relationship started to change once the started to become successful and brought up his grandmother’s apartment where they frequently hung out before the stardom. “The brotherhood been over damn near since 5H,” he said. “That was where the brotherhood was at. When we ain’t have nothing. When we were eating dollar chicken sandwiches and sh—t like that.”

Jimmy then suggested that he maintained the relationship because he knew Cam was giving him an opportunity to change his life for the better, telling Ebro that he played his position because he knew he was in a place where he could get up out of 5H as Killa declared on the track “That’s Me” from his sophomore album S.D.E.

However, he’s not confident the relationship can be fixed. “Not right now,” he told Ebro after asking if the situation is fixable. “Not something I could foresee, but who knows. God might tell me something while I’m sleeping. Right now it’s about me. I ain’t got time to focus on nothing else and no one else.”

The two found themselves at odds over a conversation 50 Cent and Cam’ron had on Talk With Flee about the time Dipset and G-Unit were at odds.

King Vamp is back. Playboi Carti has finally announced that his highly anticipated I Am Music album will be released on Friday (March 14).

Fans of Carti can collectively exhale temporarily and celebrate the “trim” moment, as he’d call it, with the countdown clock starting toward Friday.

Carti shared posts to X and Instagram late Wednesday (March 12), announcing that his album would be dropping on Friday, and various I Am Music billboards have popped up across the United States.

DJ Akademiks claimed to have heard the album on Thursday (March 13), and he’s already championing it as a “day one classic.” Ak teased a star-studded guest list that allegedly includes frequent collaborators Lil Uzi Vert, The Weeknd, Future and Travis Scott.

“CARTI got Pluto slime Uzi Trav Weeknd floating on dat bih,” he wrote to X. “I nearly shed a tear listening to the s–t. This s–t for everybody I SWEAR. Btw purple hair Uzi back.”

He also seemingly confirmed rumors circulating of a Kendrick Lamar appearance on I Am Music. “Buckle up, y’all,” Akademiks said. “That n—a talking s–t again.”

Before hitting the road for tour with The Weeknd, Carti will debut the project live when he takes the stage at Rolling Loud California 2025 this weekend at Hollywood Park.

It’s been a long journey for Playboi Carti to I Am Music after announcing the project in 2022. His last album, Whole Lotta Red, arrived on Christmas Day in 2020 and debuted atop the Billboard 200 for his first No. 1 album, which earned 100,000 equivalent album units.

Find Playboi Carti’s I Am Music post below.