Playboi Carti

• 1. Introduction

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  Playboi Carti, the Atlanta rapper born Jordan Terrell Carter, walked onto the stage at Rolling Loud in Miami on the 15th of December 2024 with one hour and fifteen minutes to fill. Weeks earlier he had told fans he would play his unreleased album, Music, from start to finish. He played five new songs. For listeners who had followed him for years, the gap between the promise and the delivery was familiar. His fans have learned to wait. Yet he is also described as an influential figure in modern hip-hop and a pioneer of a microgenre called rage. How did a teenager who rapped in parking lots become that figure? What is the high, slurred "baby voice" that critics keep describing? Why does his music matter more for its mood than for its words? And what is Opium, the label he built around himself?

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• 2. Sir Cartier to AWGE

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  Jordan Carter was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 13th of September, in either 1995 or 1996, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Riverdale. He has one older brother and attended North Springs Charter High School in Sandy Springs. Before music, he wanted to play professional basketball. He told The Fader that he quit the sport after a disagreement with his coach.

  Music arrived through a school choir. Carter admitted he first joined to meet girls, but he later found it creatively inspiring. In 2011 he began uploading tracks to SoundCloud as Sir Cartier, influenced by Wiz Khalifa, Currensy and Odd Future. His earliest videos show him performing with friends in strip malls and parking lots in South Atlanta. His older brother introduced him to Gucci Mane and other Atlanta rappers who shaped his early style. By 2013 he had renamed himself Playboi Carti and was sharing music on Newgrounds as well.

  In a 2016 interview with Complex, Carter said he had no interest in college or the military. He wanted to make money. He skipped classes to record songs or to work at an H&M. At 18 he left Atlanta for New York City, where he stayed with family and friends.

  In 2014 he met a fellow Atlanta native named Ethereal, a producer in the underground collective Awful Records. Carter joined the Awful roster, and he credits Ethereal with helping him find his sound. Committed to music full-time, he stayed in New York with a drug dealer he knew. There he kept running into members of the ASAP Mob, and he eventually met ASAP Bari. Bari introduced him to ASAP Rocky, and Carter went with Rocky on a trip to Texas.

  In 2015 the singles "Broke Boi" and "Fetti", featuring Dash and Maxo Kream, spread through the underground on SoundCloud. Around then he was working with Atlanta artists such as UnoTheActivist, Thouxanbanfauni, Yung Bans and Lil Yachty, and with producers MexikoDro and Icytwat. In 2016 he signed to Rocky's AWGE imprint, a joint venture with Interscope Records. That year he supported ASAP Ferg on the Turnt & Burnt Tour and co-headlined the Left Right Tour with Lil Uzi Vert. On the 31st of October 2016 the ASAP Mob released Cozy Tapes Vol. 1: Friends, and Carter appeared on "Telephone Calls" alongside Tyler, the Creator.

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• 3. Breakthrough and Silence

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  In April 2017, Playboi Carti released a self-titled mixtape that drew coverage from XXL, Pitchfork, Spin, HotNewHipHop and PopMatters. It debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200. The single "Magnolia" reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Wokeuplikethis", featuring Lil Uzi Vert, reached number 76. He toured with Gucci Mane and Dreezy, then headlined his own run of dates.

  In June 2017 he appeared on the cover of XXL's annual Top 10 Freshman List, beside XXXTentacion, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Ugly God and PnB Rock. He also appeared on the ASAP Mob single "Raf" and on Lana Del Rey's "Summer Bummer". A planned joint mixtape with Lil Uzi Vert, titled 16*29, was teased in September. A tour of the same name was announced in October, then cancelled after Lil Uzi Vert said they needed to "focus".

  Carter spent late 2017 working on his first studio album with the producer Pi'erre Bourne. Die Lit came out in May 2018 with no radio play and little press coverage. It still debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and several publications reviewed it well. The Die Lit Tour crossed North America that summer.

  Then, in August 2018, Carter announced his second album, Whole Lotta Red, and it did not arrive for more than two years. In that gap, leaked songs, including "Pissy Pamper", gathered tens of millions of unofficial streams. Carter released no new original music, though he turned up on Nav and A Boogie wit da Hoodie's "Baguettes in the Face", Solange's "Almeda" and Tyler, the Creator's "Earfquake". He opened for ASAP Rocky's Injured Generation Tour and Wiz Khalifa's Decent Exposure Summer Tour.

  In April 2020 the single "@ Meh" broke the silence and peaked at number 35 on the Hot 100. The next month he was on Drake's "Pain 1993", which debuted at number 7, his first top-ten entry. In November he said Whole Lotta Red was finished. He announced the release date four days ahead, and the album came out on Christmas Day 2020. It became his first number-one album on the Billboard 200. Rolling Stone called it "one of the most forward-thinking rap records since Yeezus" and later placed it among the 200 greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

  The waiting resumed almost at once. In March 2021 he hinted at another album. By August he had named it Narcissist and set a release date of the 13th of September 2021. That date passed with no album. The fall tour, first titled the Narcissist Tour, went out as the King Vamp Tour.

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• 4. The Baby Voice

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  On Solange's "Almeda", Tyler, the Creator's "Earfquake" and the Young Nudy collaboration "Pissy Pamper", Carter used the technique that made his name. Critics call it his baby voice. It is high-pitched and frantic, with pronunciation that is deliberately unclear. It gives the music a playful but edgy feel.

  After Whole Lotta Red, he added a second register. His coarse "deep voice", inspired by metal, first appeared on "Mr Miyagi" with Kanye West and Future. It returned on Travis Scott's "Fein", on "Type Shit" with Future, Metro Boomin and Scott, on Camila Cabello's "I Luv It" and on Music.

  Almost all of his raps are freestyled, a habit he took directly from Lil Wayne. He has also named ASAP Rocky, Kanye West, Jay-Z, MF Doom, Slayer, the Sex Pistols and Kiss as influences. He plays a rock star, and his early songs were carefree and youthful, rarely serious. Over time he moved toward experimental sounds, and Whole Lotta Red brought punk and metal into his hip-hop roots.

  Critics argue about what the music is for. Briana Younger of Pitchfork wrote that "Carti's music is less about lyricism and more about atmosphere", and that "whatever Carti lacks in substance he makes up in sheer audacity." The New York Times noted that his style emphasizes performance and persona over conventional rapping skill. His imagery often draws on the Satanic and on vampires, a thread that runs through the later tour name King Vamp.

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• 5. Thrift Store Kid

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  Long before any label paid attention, Carter was the kid in his neighborhood wearing skinny jeans and riding a skateboard. He took cues from the punk look he saw at Atlanta's Historic Fourth Ward Skatepark. He shopped at thrift stores and sometimes got teased for what he wore. In his later high school years he rarely attended class, because he was busy recording and chasing a record deal. So he never made a "best dressed" list, even though classmates knew his style.

  He still calls himself a "thrift store kid" and prefers vintage clothing. GQ named him the leader of a youth style, and placed him between the fashion gloss of the A$AP Mob, the punk attitude of Lil Uzi Vert and the playful camp of Lil Yachty.

  His favorite label is Balmain, and his favorite designer is Raf Simons, whom he met at a 2017 fashion show in New York City. The A$AP Mob song "Raf" was dedicated to the designer. Its video shows Carter, A$AP Rocky and Quavo wearing rare Raf Simons pieces. That same year he told Vogue that Kanye West and A$AP Rocky were his fashion inspirations.

  He has modeled for Louis Vuitton at Paris Fashion Week and appeared in Kanye West's Yeezy Season 5 show, in VFiles and in Drake's OVO Lookbook, beside Ian Connor and John Ross.

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• 6. Opium

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  Opium, sometimes written 00pium, is the record label and rap collective Carter founded in 2019. It is based in Atlanta and holds five acts: Carter himself, Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, ASAP Nast and the duo HXG. All but ASAP Nast are natives of the city.

  The producers KP Beatz, Lil 88 and F1lthy are affiliated with the label, and all three worked extensively on Whole Lotta Red. The label's sound is dark and builds on Atlanta's rage rap scene. It also draws on the punk rock of the 1970s and 1980s. That niche style steers away from mainstream trap rappers and has earned a cultlike following.

  Carter acts as a mentor to the roster. In July 2022 he served as executive producer on Ken Carson's album X. In April 2025 Ken Carson's album More Chaos included "Off the Meter", with Carter and Destroy Lonely. The roster also toured with him. His Antagonist Tour, announced in August 2025, ran from the 3rd of October to the 1st of December with Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, HXG and the affiliate ApolloRed1.

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• 7. The Long Road to Music

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  In June 2023, Carter joined the Weeknd and Madonna on "Popular", first released as the lead single for The Idol, Vol. 1, a soundtrack album that was later cancelled. In July he played a track called "Pop Out" at Wireless Festival, and it later appeared on Music. Later that month he featured on "Fein" from Travis Scott's album Utopia.

  On the 8th of December 2023, he released "Different Day" through the Opium Instagram account, with a full-length video. Promotional singles for Music followed: "2024" on the 14th of December and "HBA" on the 19th. "Backr00ms", with Travis Scott, came on the 1st of January 2024, and "Evil J0rdan" on the 15th of January. "Evil J0rdan" debuted at number two on the Hot 100.

  In February 2024 he joined Travis Scott's performance at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. That month he also appeared on Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign's Vultures 1, on "Carnival" and "Fuk Sumn". "Carnival" became his first number-one single on the Hot 100. In March came "K Pop", the sixth promotional single for Music, plus "Type Shit" and "I Luv It". August brought "Field Trip" on Vultures 2. In September, "All Red" was his first solo streaming release since "@ Meh" in 2020. That month he also joined the Weeknd on "Timeless", the lead single for Hurry Up Tomorrow.

  Music finally arrived in March 2025, following teasers from Spotify. It earned generally positive reviews and sold 290,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. That made it his second consecutive number-one album on the Billboard 200. A deluxe edition, Music - Sorry 4 Da Wait, followed later that month with a video for "FOMDJ". He then supported the Weeknd on the North American leg of the 2025 After Hours til Dawn Tour, alongside Mike Dean.

  In November 2025, Fortnite announced a collaboration with him, including his own skin, an in-game event and emotes set to his tracks. The skin was revealed during the Zero Hour Event on the 29th of November, and the bundle went on sale on the 11th of December.

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• 8. Trouble Off Stage

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  Carter's career has run alongside a series of legal problems. In January 2019 he was convicted and fined 800 pounds for assaulting his tour bus driver in Gretna, Scotland, in February 2018.

  In April 2020, police stopped him in Clayton County, Georgia, over an expired tag on his Lamborghini. Authorities reported finding 12 bags of marijuana, three guns, Xanax, codeine and oxycodone. After an altercation with police, he and a man named Jaylon Tucker were taken to the county jail. Carter was charged over the tags, marijuana possession and improperly passing an emergency vehicle, and was released on bond the next morning.

  He was arrested for reckless driving on the 21st of September 2022. Footage of that incident was released on the 9th of January 2024. TMZ reported on the 14th of February 2023 that he had been arrested on the 29th of December on a felony assault charge, after he allegedly choked his girlfriend, who was 14 weeks pregnant. Police said it followed a fight over paternity testing. He was released on bond a day later.

  In July 2025, Carter was denied entry to Canada, which forced the cancellation of his opening slots for the Weeknd on the 15th, 16th and 19th. On the 2nd of October 2025, he was charged with assault after allegedly punching his limousine driver, Carl Reynolds, in the face while on tour in Utah.

  In his private life, Carter has two children. His son Onyx was born in 2020 to the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, whom he dated from 2018 until December 2019. In December 2023 he revealed he also has a daughter, Yves. As of June 2019 he lives and works around Atlanta after a stint in Los Angeles, and he has asthma.

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