Miller, the hip-hop journalist who’s one half of the “Rap Radar” podcast with Elliott Wilson and frequent curator of influential rap playlists on streaming platforms, recently appeared on “Way Up With Angela Yee” and gave his unfiltered opinion on Complex‘s “50 Greatest Atlanta Rappers of All-Time” list.
“We have Big Boi at eight, 2 Chainz at nine, Lil Baby at 10, 21 Savage at 11 and Playboi Carti at 12,” Yee said.
“Naw, I can’t get jiggy with that,” Miller said. “Playboi Carti couldn’t rap a gift. Have you heard Playboi Carti’s music? He raps in like Batman sound effects. He sucks.”
Yee then gasped.
“You think Playboi Carti sucks?” Yee asked.
“Absolutely,” Miller said. “He’s terrible. Am I alone here? OK. Naw, he’s terrible.”
Playboi Carti ranked #12 on Complex’s 50 Best Atlanta Rappers list, Rap Radar's B. Dot reacts… 😬
"He raps in like Batman sound effects. He sucks. He's terrible." pic.twitter.com/YuCxHQOAT3
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) August 16, 2024
Carti’s music style is different from traditional rap. He rose to prominence in the mid-2010s as a viral online artist through his time at Atlanta independent record label Awful Records and New York’s A$AP Mob. Carti was known as a “Soundcloud rapper” and a “mumble rapper,” a style of music where teenagers freestyle all of their songs. The genre’s appeal is more about how the music makes listeners feel as opposed to what they’re saying.
In 2018, Carti directly addressed the criticism of his style on the song, “R.I.P.”
“F— that mumblin’ s— / f— that mumblin’ s— / bought a crib for my mama off that mumblin’ s—,” Carti rapped. “Made a mill off that, uh, off that mumblin’ s—.”
Tyler, The Creator later referenced those lyrics when he accepted his 2021 Rock The Bells Cultural Award at the BET Hip-Hop Awards.
“Playboi Carti has a line where he says, ‘Bought a crib for my mom off this mumblin’ s—,” The Creator said. “And I always get teared up when he says that because this thing that’s a hobby, a past-time or a passion for us — for a lot of people here — that s— kept us out of trouble. And it allowed us to change our family’s lives, our friends’ lives, our lives.”
From the time of The Creator’s speech in 2021, Carti changed his style more drastically: his music turned into a fuse of metal with flashes of his previous “mumble rap” sound. He began to become less accessible to the public and only posted cryptically on social media, which only added to how stan-like his fan base has grown for him. He’s now one of hip-hop’s most popular figures.
