Playboi Carti’s signature rage-beats hip-hop style is one of the defining sounds of ‘20s rap music so far, and versions of it are pervasive throughout pop music. Compared to Whole Lotta Red, his earlier, less abrasive work seems tentative, if not quite timid. The sound of this album is overwhelming – buzzing and blaring like stadium lights washing out the night sky. Carti and his large array of producers divide the songs into roughly even halves of noisy future-shock avant-rap and glittering, incandescent electronic devotionals. As electrifying as the music is, Carti’s vocals are singular, polarizing, and a near-complete break from rap tradition. Carti chants more than he rhymes, alternating between guttural low and otherworldly high-pitched voices. At its best, like on the Kid Cudi-assisted, hypnotic “M3tamorphosis,” Carti turns in something that sounds genuinely new. “Stop Breathing” lurches across the dancefloor of an intergalactic nightclub and “F33l Lik3 Dyin” uses pointillistic synths and hi-hats to a climactic effect. Audacious and peculiar, Whole Lotta Red shows Carti reaching a new peak.