Throughout the last few years, Atlanta-born rapper Playboi Carti has been a mysterious and hyped up figure over the last decade or so. This is because of what his music might entail next. Carti had one of the most hyped up albums of the 2020’s, with his third studio album “Whole Lotta Red”, which was released on Christmas Day of 2020. It shook a lot of critics in the hip-hop genre, and fans were curious what the enigmatic artist had in store for his next project.
At the end of 2024, fans were starting to wonder when Playboi Carti would release his highly anticipated album “I AM MUSIC”, the alternate title teased multiple times by Carti himself throughout the year. A concert was scheduled for December 2024, where Carti would be performing at Rolling Loud in Miami. Once the day came for Carti’s performance, there were multiple teases on social media that Playboi Carti would be playing new songs for the concert and a potential release of the album.
One of those two things happened, as fans were treated to multiple new, unheard songs at the concert. One of the last songs he played featured The Weeknd, and it sounded beautiful. Then, once the concert ended, fans started to speculate if the album would be coming out later that night. The speculation did not come to fruition, as there wasn’t a single word from Playboi Carti about the album’s release. Over the next month, this led fans and insiders to attempt to leak a couple of the songs that were previewed at the Rolling Loud show.
This solo album was teased a few times throughout the years 2022-2024, starting with Carti putting out a tweet back in 2022 saying to ignore sample clearances and drop “NARCISSIST”. That never happened and marked the start of a flurry of lies Carti would tell over the next couple of years. Multiple delays and unmet promises passed until, on a random Friday afternoon in December 2023, Playboi Carti released his first solo song in nearly three years, uploading a music video and the song to his alternate Instagram, titled “Different Day”. This fed a boatload of hype to fans and the entire hip-hop community, as that one post on his alternate Instagram has obtained nearly a million likes to this day.
In fall 2024, a song leaked, which sounded very suspicious, to a Carti fandom Discord server. The song was called “Real Music,” and there were weird hiccups in the sound of Carti’s voice during his verses on the song, and it didn’t sound fully coherent. It was revealed that almost all of the song’s vocals were used with an AI to make someone’s voice sound like Carti’s.
The original vocals were performed by an artist by the name of Lawson, but his real name is Devon Chisholm. There is further proof of this because on Lawson’s Instagram account is a video with the song being played, but without Carti’s filter over the vocals. This was just the start of multiple songs on which Lawson was credited.
A collaboration between Playboi Carti and the Weeknd was teased at the Weeknd’s show in Brazil, and the performance blew up the internet. This led to the release of the song “Timeless” on streaming services a couple of weeks later, along with a music video, but fans noticed a few things once the song was released. First, the vocals sounded very similar to the song that leaked, which was found to be fully AI. Then, on the credits of the single, was an artist by the name of Lawson. This almost fully proved that some of Carti’s vocals were AI and recorded by Lawson.
Fans then leaked the song called “Rather Lie”, which was the collaboration previewed at the Rolling Loud concert with Carti and the Weeknd. On this song, Carti’s vocals once again sounded like AI, but there was no proof of the leak from insiders. This was just weeks before the inevitable release of Playboi Carti’s fourth studio album “MUSIC”, which was released on March 14, 2025.
On the tracklist of 30 total songs, one of the songs included was “Rather Lie”, which did end up having credits toward Lawson. Another song was also credited to Lawson, titled “FINE SH*T”. Notably, Universal Music Group/Interscope Records has issued takedowns against videos that show proof that “Timeless” is AI on YouTube; the reason why is unknown, but it is most likely because they showcase examples of the filter being used.
After the release of the highly anticipated album, fans were a little disappointed in the use of AI, as they wanted a fully authentic album, given the amount of time that had passed since Carti’s last project. This fandom included me, as I had hoped for the same things that most fans had wished for: a raw and authentic album that could’ve shaken the masses because of how much traction it had gained.
There was no word from Carti about the use of AI, as he’s not seen in the public eye very much. Yet, even with the questioning from fans, “MUSIC” ended up debuting at number one for multiple weeks and gained a lot of positive traction over the next few months. The idea of AI being in the songs had died down, and fans just started to ignore it and enjoy the music.
There are mixed opinions on the matter, as some just say if they enjoy the music, they will listen, while others fully shame Carti and those songs specifically. I personally believe this takes away the creative ability and art in music, as it is not your own work that you have created and decided to put out. The production and creativity behind the numerous steps it takes to make a full, coherent album is why music is so highly regarded in our society.
If you take away that creative aspect and blush over it with work that isn’t your own, it’s invalid and discredited. Music has shaped generations through not only the creativity, but also the escape it can give a person. An AI engine doesn’t have emotion, which is almost what music conveys entirely.
It is important, I think, to do research on this matter, as multiple artists in the industry might use AI, and we would never know simply because we just listen to it. With the growing forms of AI, specifically in the music industry, you have to form an opinion on the matter and determine whether or not AI should belong in music.
