Playboi Carti Albums Ranked, Worst to Best

Playboi Carti albums ranked is a short list with an outsized argument attached: four full-length projects released between April 14, 2017 and March 14, 2025, two of them No. 1 debuts, one of them the record that invented an entire subgenre. Here is the order, and the reasoning behind it.

The full Playboi Carti albums ranked list

1. Whole Lotta Red (2020)

Whole Lotta Red arrived on Christmas Day 2020, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and was widely disliked for roughly six months before becoming one of the most imitated rap albums of the decade. Executive produced by Kanye West, it replaced Carti’s whispered charm with a screamed, blown-out vocal and a wall of distorted 808s — the template the whole rage subgenre was built from. Every artist on Opium, and most of the underground that followed, is working inside the language “Stop Breathing,” “Rockstar Made” and “Sky” set down. No other Carti album changed what other people sounded like.

2. Die Lit (2018)

Die Lit is the best-made record he has, and it loses the top spot only because it perfected a lane instead of opening one. Pi’erre Bourne produced most of it, and the pairing — weightless, bright, endlessly bouncing beats under a rapper using his voice as a percussion instrument — is the most purely enjoyable 57 minutes in the catalog. It peaked at No. 3 and has aged better than its chart position suggests, largely because nothing on it was chasing a radio single.

3. Playboi Carti (2017)

The self-titled 2017 project is the blueprint: 15 tracks, no chorus writing to speak of, and “Magnolia,” which peaked at No. 29 on the Hot 100 and remains the most recognizable song of his early run. It reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and established the ad-lib-as-hook approach that the next three albums all extend. It ranks third because it is a sketch of an idea the later records finish, not because it is slight.

4. MUSIC (2025)

MUSIC is the biggest commercial moment of Carti’s career and the least focused album in it. Released March 14, 2025 after years of delays, it moved 298,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, topped the Billboard 200 and drew a 73 Metacritic score across 10 reviews. The guest list — The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign, Jhené Aiko, Skepta — is the strongest he has assembled, and “Timeless” with The Weeknd reached No. 3 on the Hot 100. At 30 tracks it is also the one project where sequencing works against him. Career-best numbers, fourth-best album.

Where does BABY BOI fit?

BABY BOI is unreleased and therefore unranked. DJ Swamp Izzo has said publicly that the album is finished, as Billboard reported, but Carti has not confirmed a title, tracklist or release date, and no label announcement exists. Treat every circulating date as unconfirmed until Interscope says otherwise — our running file on the BABY BOI album tracks each claim as it lands.

What’s next?

Two things decide how this list looks in a year: whether BABY BOI actually arrives, and whether it follows MUSIC‘s maximalism or Die Lit‘s discipline. If you want the individual tracks rather than the projects, our ranking of the best Playboi Carti songs is the companion to this page.