While some artists play the long game, is it better to cut to the chase?
When Playboi Carti began rolling out his new album I Am Music (for the third time) in December 2023, his first consistent string of releases in years came with a seemingly plausible promise: “2024, Music.” Since then, his fans have received more outfit pictures than actual musical releases, with only a handful of singles being dropped throughout the year.
As of Nov. 22, nearly every week and month of the year has come (and gone), unlike the album. Carti’s fanbase has been teased for over three years now with new album titles, rollout attempts, and announcements, with no final product materializing yet.
The trend is common, with other artists leaving their fans in the dark over long periods of time regarding key album updates.
SZA failed to deliver her deluxe edition of SOS, announced shortly after the original’s December 2022 release. She returned a year later to reveal a new project titled LANA and some of its cover art, but only a single and a snippet of a song would surface in the eleven months that followed. A$AP Rocky had finally announced an Aug. 30 release date for DON’T BE DUMB, his first album in six years, only for it to be delayed until fall, extending an already egregious wait for fans (the album remains without a release date at the time of publication).
“I’m all for an artist taking their time with a creative endeavor,” said Aidan Flanagan, a third-year literature major at Concordia. “But when it gets to a point where they are making big spectacles out of announcing records and consistently delaying and dropping breadcrumbs for years on end, it does nothing but make me want to listen to other artists who do drop music when they say they will.”
While fans of these artists have continued to wait almost too patiently, other artists have rolled out their albums in rapid timeframes, capitalizing on short notice to create lightning-in-a-bottle anticipation.
Tyler The Creator’s latest album, CHROMAKOPIA, was unveiled and released within just twelve days, the same timeframe in which Playboi Carti posted a few photos of himself wearing a polo top to his Instagram story.
“It was a very short rollout, but not too short,” said second-year economics major Tredy Méroné about CHROMAKOPIA. “Concise, and kept us wanting more until we basically got the full deal, a.k.a., the album.”
The sudden hype translated into success: the album landed atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 300,000 units in just four days, as it was released on a Monday (instead of the standard Friday).
“I used to be very entertained by long, drawn out rollouts [like] Donda, Whole Lotta Red, SOS as they would give me all this suspense. CHROMAKOPIA made me realize that all this suspense for music is not really necessary; it doesn’t really change my level of enjoyment of the music,” said Flanagan.
Surprise releases have been an effective method for artists to spark immediate hype around a record while skipping the antics and letting the music speak for itself.
“Not every artist can do it. We’ve seen Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Bad Bunny do it — they’re iconic players, they can do anything. Minimal pre-promotion definitely works, and then these guys are rolling on the album for a hot minute and properly promoting it. It succeeds, especially when it’s good: YHLQMDLG by Bad Bunny was a crazy album,” said Lu B, a Montreal DJ and co-founder of the Latin event collective Frikiton.
Regardless of whether rollouts are lightning-fast, elaborate, or tiringly drawn out, the audience will be ready to support the album whenever it arrives.
“Carti is stringing us along because he knows we’ll be there when or if the music drops, no matter what. It’s at no cost to him,” Flanagan said.
With only five Fridays to the year left, Playboi Carti fans can only hope that “2024, Music” doesn’t ironically spill over into 2025.
