For Iggy - whoвЂ™s seven years CartiвЂ™s senior, at 29 - it was a return to the city where her rap career began for Carti, it was a move back to the place where he spent the first 18 years of his life. вЂњIt was over with.вЂќ They moved in together by December of that year. вЂњOnce I started talking to her, I just cut off everybody,вЂќ he says. The two met in 2018, while Carti was overseas on tour. It feels like IвЂ™m witnessing a bizarre rapper version of playing house - theirs just happens to be a multimillion-dollar one. While Carti begins the rolling process, Iggy arranges hot cross buns that her family sent her from Australia on a baking sheet. She returns with a box of the leafy cigars and Carti takes a seat at a long white table in the kitchen, reaching for a huge, rainbow-colored bag of weed. Robyn,вЂќ and sends her to the nearest store. He asks for his housekeeper, a short woman with twinkling green eyes he calls вЂњMs. Soon after waking up, and after hunting through a few cabinets and drawers, Carti realizes heвЂ™s out of Backwoods. IвЂ™m talking about the next nigga that we donвЂ™t even know about right now, making a song. вЂњNiggas ainвЂ™t fucking with us on this music shit, and I ainвЂ™t just talking about me. вЂњThis is the home of the whole hip-hop,вЂќ he explains. HeвЂ™s spent time living and working in New York, Houston, L.A., and Miami, but he says being at home in Atlanta pushes him to make his best music. At 22 years old, heвЂ™s already gone through multiple eras, cycling through friends, collaborators, and vocal styles but always emerging ahead of where heвЂ™s been. Two years later, a lifetime on the internet, Carti has become one of the best indicators of where the sound of rap music is headed. Meanwhile, his fans thought he had invented a new genre of music. CartiвЂ™s flow - short and repetitive bursts of words punctuated by constant ad-libs that become part of the beat rather than standing on their own - predictably angered a set of rap purists. The mixtape, or its absence, came to take on its own mythology when it finally did come out, it seemed to signal that SoundCloud, and the lo-fi rap sounds that had been proliferating on the platform for years, had found their way into the mainstream.

Before the release of his self-titled mixtape in 2017, he spent three years building a feverish buzz off SoundCloud loosies and guest appearances without ever dropping a project. I might make the hardest song ever tomorrow.вЂќД¬arti, who once referred to himself as the вЂњJay Electronica of mumble rap,вЂќ is used to making people wait.

When I ask if him if Whole Lotta Red is finished, he shrugs: вЂњI could be done if I wanted to. Outside, as the rain falls in thicker drops, Carti walks to the end of the porch and looks down to the side of the house.The black Lamborghini HuracГЎn Iggy bought him last Christmas is safely parked in a covered garage, away from the storm. After he debuted his new red hair at the second weekend of Coachella, fans posted pictures on the Playboi Carti Reddit page, speculating that it was a sign of the albumвЂ™s imminent release. On social media, accounts dedicated to covering the rapperвЂ™s every move have been diligently ripping previews of unreleased music from Instagram, reproducing the beats, and leaking songs when they can get their hands on them. ItвЂ™s been a year since his last release, 2018вЂ™s Die Lit, and his fans have been clamoring for new music. The album heвЂ™s talking about is Whole Lotta Red, his highly anticipated third full-length and second studio album. This shit could go on my album, but if it goes on the album, then we gotta change the whole thing.вЂќ вЂњI got a whole вЂnother tape with this nigga,вЂќ Carti says. Though the two have known each other for years, this was their first time working together one-on-one. In between back-to-back weekends of Coachella performances, he had been up for days recording in L.A. When I first arrived at the house, at around 5 p.m., Carti was still waking up. Besides going to the studio, there isnвЂ™t much for him to do in his hometown. Carti says the gun range is one of the few activities that gets him out of the house. On the wall near the refrigerator, thereвЂ™s a framed gun range target sheet with a cluster of mostly accurate bullet holes in the outlined head and chest. The family photos are IggyвЂ™s - Carti says she handled the interior decorating: вЂњI ainвЂ™t do all this, that was herвЂќ - but there are a few clear signs that he lives here too. The Atlanta native and his girlfriend, the rapper Iggy Azalea, have been living here for the past six months, having relocated from Los Angeles.

When i heard that playboi carti tape