“ALL RED” Single Review: Playboi Carti’s Originality Is in the Red Zone

On Sept. 12, Playboi Carti released a new single, “ALL RED,” coinciding with the rapper’s 29th birthday. Although Carti has been promoting a steady stream of singles on his YouTube and Instagram pages, “ALL RED” is his first solo song released to streaming platforms since his 2020 album “Whole Lotta Red.” The beat is still produced by F1LTHY, but Carti seems to be trying to reinvent himself again, just as he’s done with each previous album cycle.

For this particular run, Carti has abandoned his idiosyncratic, high-pitched “baby voice,” opting instead for a deeper register. In fact, on most of his features over the better part of the last two years, Carti has put this new inflection on full display over tracks like “I LUV IT,” “Type Shit,” “CARNIVAL,” and “FE!N.”

On his non-streaming singles, for which he has released five since December of 2023, he employs this deeper voice to even greater effect. “2024” saw Carti glide over a melodic instrumental with his old and new flows. On the flip side, “H00DBYAIR” was dark and foreboding, pairing well with the darker spoken tone. The same was true for tracks like “EVILJ0RDAN,” which featured Carti’s raspy voice over a moving instrumental.

On “ALL RED,” though, it sounds like Carti is doing his best Future impression. Vocally, the effort leaves something to be desired, especially when eccentricity in his spoken preferences is almost entirely what Carti is known for. Nor is the instrumental able to rescue the song — it’s not particularly inspiring and sounds largely ordinary as trap beats come. The lyrical attempt is minimalist, with just two instances of the chorus and a lone verse. Carti doesn’t try to break any new ground, as this effort continues to see him lean into the occult imagery first piloted with the “vamp” aesthetic from Whole Lotta Red.

The most sonically interesting part of the song comes around the halfway mark, when formidable dark horns briefly make an entrance and add texture to an otherwise unremarkable melody. But even this welcome change goes away after less than two bars.

The new single is especially disappointing given the electrifying snippet Carti and The Weeknd previewed at a concert in Brazil just four days prior. Compared to the series of non-streaming singles Carti has previously released, which were combinations of bold, exciting, and fresh, “ALL RED” feels like it falls short. Only time will tell if the artist can live up to the audacious declaration that heads his upcoming album: “I Am Music.”

—Staff writer Derek Yuan can be reached at derek.yuan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByDerekYuan.