Playboi Carti has been trolling and teasing for years, but the rapper has finally blessed fans with album details.

Could it be? Playboi Carti has been keeping fans on the ropes for most of the 2020s. He has flirted with the idea of dropping his legendary I AM MUSIC album over and over again, and then changed his mind. There have been too many snippets to count, and too many rumored release dates to recount. But it all changed on March 12. At least, it seems like things changed. Playboi Carti spent the entire day teasing a big announcement, and he made good on it. The rapper has finally, definitively confirmed a release date for I AM MUSIC.

For a rollout that has been predicated on rumors and speculation, Playboi Carti's announcement was somewhat anticlimactic. No big explanation, just one word. The rapper hopped on Twitter and simply wrote: "FRIDAY." There you have it. Playboi Carti's I AM MUSIC, the album that never was, and some thought never would be, will drop March 14. He followed up the tweet announcement with a video on Instagram. The video showed a man walking the street and shouting out the crucial details over car horns and traffic.

Playboi Carti New Album Release Date

"New Carti album," he shouted at the top of his lungs. "This Friday!" The social media announcements prove that all the clues leading up to the Friday announcement were legit. Playboi Carti teamed up with Spotify to release a video teaser with the album's title. Then, while fans were still unpacking what it could mean, billboards starting popping up. Multiple billboards showed up in Times Square in New York, all with the phrase: "streets ready." These two points would have been enough to fuel the Playboi Carti fanbase for weeks, but it didn't stop there. The rapper then cleared his Instagram account, all but confirming the new era of Carti was finally here.

I AM MUSIC was first teased in 2020. The rapper confirmed he had new music on the way, which he elaborated on during a 2022 interview with XXL. He told the outlet that he planned to rap about all the events that have taken place in his life since the release of Whole Lotta Red. "Love. Sex. Drugs. Changes in my life," Carti explained. "I've been rapping about going to rehab. I want to go to rehab because I think I’m bipolar... want everybody to feel free. I want this album to make everyone feel free." Well, once I AM MUSIC is out, fans will definitely feel a similar sense of freedom.

Addison Rae invited Charli XCX to join her on stage during her show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles last night. Charli appeared alongside Rae for two of their previous collaborations, performing “Von Dutch Remix,” from Charli’s 2024 project Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat, as well as Rae’s 2023 single “2 Die 4.”

For the closing number, Rae came back on stage for a surprise encore of “Nothing On (But the Radio),” a song that usually isn’t part of her set list. The performance began with Rae appearing on the big screens backstage while removing her clothes, and as the lights went down, she reemerged to deliver the fan-favorite track. Many saw the moment as a nod to Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball, where Gaga ends each show with “How Bad Do U Want Me.” Gaga originally recorded “Nothing On” as a demo in 2010.

“2 Die 4” was featured on Rae’s EP AR and marked the pair’s first collaboration. They went on to work together again for “Von Dutch” with A. G. Cook, as well as on Cook’s “Lucifer.” Earlier this year, Charli expressed her admiration for Rae in an interview with Rolling Stone, saying, “It’s been fun to watch her evolve. Everything she does relates back to her art — every item of clothing she wears, everything she says in a red-carpet interview, everything she tweets — it all is a part of the world-building.”

Rae released her latest album, Addison, in June and has spent the late summer and fall performing across multiple cities. Her next shows are set for Australia in November, followed by appearances at music festivals in South America next year, including Lollapalooza Chile and Lollapalooza Brazil. She will also perform at Coachella in April and Primavera Sound in Barcelona in June.

Charli XCX has been dividing her time between music and acting, as her film career continues to grow. She joined Lorde on stage at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles last year to perform their version of “Girl, So Confusing.” The two also performed the remix during Charli’s Sweat Tour with Troye Sivan in 2024, and again at Coachella earlier this year.

It was revealed earlier this week that Dakota Johnson is considering Charli XCX for a role in her directorial debut, A Tree Is Blue. Charli’s upcoming acting projects include Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, Julia Jackson’s 100 Nights of Hero, and The Moment, a film directed by Aidan Zamiri based on her original story.

“I am really enjoying my acting journey,” Charli told Variety earlier this year. “I feel very, very inspired at the moment in that field, I feel unbelievably creative, and I only ever want to do things that inspire me and make me feel energized.”

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