When he starts to play me music, it quickly becomes clear that he's entered into new vocal territory. The baby voice is still present on multiple songs, but he's warped it into a higher pitch, stretching his voice into something much more unorthodox. On one track, an 8-bit beat where he says "RIP Yams" in the refrain, Carti sings a wordless melody in a falsetto behind his verses. On another, he raps over a driving, synthy beat that sounds like it could soundtrack a 2019 Miami Vice remake. Some of the songs — like "Cancun" and a song that fans have been calling "Molly" or "No Stylist" — I recognize from low-quality snippets online. Played through the floor-shaking monitors in the studio, they sound heavenly.
There are a few Pi'erre Bourne productions — one of them samples the sound of a styrofoam cup full of ice being shaken — but Carti lists off Maaly Raw, Richie Souf, his engineer Roark, and Don Cannon, who comes into the room at one point to hear the new music, as other contributors. In between Carti's vocal acrobatics, I also hear the occasional guest verse from Trippie Redd and Gunna.
