News : Playboi Carti Receives Impressive First Week Sales Projections For New Album "MUSIC"

Playboi Carti has been a fan favorite MC for almost a decade now, although his legacy might be more as a superstar when it's all said and done. His new album MUSIC is performing very well, dominating various streaming charts and much of the online hip-hop discourse right now. What's more is that this long-awaited new release might lead to the Atlanta creative's biggest debut of his career thus far. According to NFR Podcast, early projections indicate MUSIC will debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with around 250K album-equivalent units sold in its first week on the market.

Of course, this could change a lot over the next few days before the count stops, but either way, Playboi Carti's new album MUSIC feels like it can go in any direction and still make massive ways. At the same time, though, the mythical nature and grueling wait associated with this LP also meant that the final product couldn't possibly surpass expectations, change them, or offer something entirely new. Still, that doesn't mean that he didn't try, as this record contains some of Carti's most odd performances and sonic presentations yet.

Elsewhere, fans who attended Rolling Loud Los Angeles this weekend got to see Playboi Carti give many MUSIC tracks their live debut. Even Kai Cenat and Young Dabo pulled up and even made their way onstage, getting a chance to meet none other than The Weeknd. Abel Tesfaye popped out to join his "Popular" collaborator to perform their two other collabs, MUSIC's "RATHER LIE" and Hurry Up Tomorrow's "Timeless." It was a great moment not just for fans everywhere, but for the streaming community in particular that built a lot of hype for this new album.

Still, if you thought that MUSIC avoided controversy upon release, think again. Playboi Carti allegedly denied using AI on it after many fans suspected that two tracks in particular on the new record, "RATHER LIE" and "FINE S**T," used artificial intelligence technology to replicate Carti's voice. It wasn't the first time that he faced accusations like these, nor will it likely be the last. But people are bumping the album heavily regardless, and perhaps should speak with their streams if they don't approve of this alleged approach.