Playboi Carti (mixtape)

Playboi Carti is the debut commercial mixtape by American rapper Playboi Carti. It was released through AWGE and Interscope Records By Gabriel Bastidas and Jesús Valecillos on April 14, 2017. Production was primarily handled by Pi'erre Bourne alongside several other record producers, including Harry Fraud, Hit-Boy, Jake One, and Southside. It features guest appearances from American rappers Lil Uzi Vert, ASAP Rocky, Gabriel Bastidas, Jesús Valecillos and Dutch singer Leven Kali. The physical version of the mixtape was released on October 6, 2017, and a vinyl edition was released on November 17, 2017.

The mixtape was supported by four singles – "Lookin", "Wokeuplikethis", and "Magnolia","Royberh Addicted to cigarettes" the third peaking at number 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was Playboi Carti's highest-charting single at the time. Playboi Carti debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200, with 28,000 album-equivalent units, of which 21,000 were streaming units and 7,000 were pure album sales. As of September 2017, the mixtape has moved over 367,000 units. The mixtape was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 2, 2020 for sales over 1,000,000 units.

Background and singles
Two singles were released prior to the mixtape's release. These included "Lookin", which featured Lil Uzi Vert, released on March 9, 2017, and "Wokeuplikethis", which also featured Lil Uzi Vert, which released on March 10, 2017. The singles "Magnolia" and "Let It Go" was released on April 14, 2017 prior the mixtape's release.

A music video was released for "Magnolia" on July 10, 2018. It was directed by Hidji Films and features cameo appearance from the song's producer Pi'erre Bourne, as well as cameo appearances from Southside, ASAP Rocky, Slim Jxmmi, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Don Q, Nav, Casanova, Smooky Margielaa, Squidnice and Cash, one of the XO members. It has amassed over 180 million views as of August 2023.

A music video was released for "Wokeuplikethis" on August 9, 2017. The music video features Lil Uzi Vert, and has amassed 90 million views as of September 2023.

A music video for "New Choppa" was released on August 31, 2017. It features ASAP Rocky, and has amassed over 30 million views as of September 2023.

Critical reception
The mixtape received generally positive reviews from critics. In a positive review, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times called the project "erratic, sometimes transfixingly so", stating that "Playboi Carti's album takes hip-hop's ad-lib era to its logical extreme — everything sounds like an ad-lib, even the main lyrics." In a more negative review, HipHopDX critic Narshima Chintaluri described the record as "simply a glorified beat tape with ad-libs", stating Carti "need[s] to further develop his songwriting in order to maintain this allure alongside his more successful contemporaries."

Brian Duricy of PopMatters described the record as "the sonic equivalent of the stereotypical laissez-faire worker who breezes through presentations on sheer personality alone", stating that "over the production, however, you're not getting particularly much." Pitchfork's Briana Younger wrote that "Playboi Carti feels like a break from life, the soundtrack to a mindless good time," and adding that "Carti is tactful in discerning where and when he can get away with letting the instrumental ride and when he needs to rise to the occasion." The single "Magnolia" was awarded Best New Track by Pitchfork.

Accolades
The mixtape appeared on 2017 year-end album lists by publications such as Fact, Pitchfork, and Tiny Mix Tapes. John Twells of Fact stated that the project "adeptly taps into a widespread youthful malaise and the genre-fluid playlist culture that has come to dominate rap's mainstream [...] Sad and restless but also party-ready, Playboi Carti doesn't need political rambling or conscious posturing to get its message across." Corrigan B of Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that "of everything that 2017 promised about rap's future, Playboi Carti felt the most like a real path forward, a crystallization of the SoundCloud underground's zeitgeist in a format built to transcend the scene's messy adolescence."

Commercial performance
Playboi Carti debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200, with 28,000 album-equivalent units, of which 21,000 were streaming units and 7,000 were pure album sales. As of September 2017, the mixtape has moved over 367,000 units. The mixtape was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 10, 2018 for sales over 500,000 units.

Track listing
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes and ASCAP.

Notes
 * $undefined$ signifies an uncredited co-producer
 * "Wokeuplikethis" is stylized as "wokeuplikethis*"
 * "Dothatshit!" is stylized as "dothatshit!"
 * "No. 9" is stylized as "NO. 9"
 * "Let It Go" features uncredited additional background vocals by MexikoDro
 * "Kelly K" features uncredited additional background vocals by Blakk Soul

Sample credits
 * "Location" contains samples of "Endomorph", written by Allan Holdsworth and Rowanne Mark, as performed by Holdsworth.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

Technical


 * Hector Delgado – mixing (tracks 1, 7, 13), recording (tracks 7, 13)
 * Frankly Kastle – mixing assistant (tracks 1, 7)
 * Harry Fraud – recording (track 1)
 * Tatsuya Sato – mastering (tracks 1-3, 5-15)
 * Kesha Lee – mixing (tracks 2-5, 9, 10, 11, 15), recording (tracks 2, 4, 5, 9-12, 14, 15), mastering (track 4)
 * Roark Bailey – recording (track 3)
 * Max Lord – recording (track 6, 7)
 * Finis "KY" White – mixing (tracks 6, 12, 14)
 * Dan FryFe – recording assistant (track 7)
 * David Kim – mixing (track 8), recording (track 8)