Die Lit

In December 2017, a video showed Playboi Carti behind a mixing board, presumably listening to new material with the caption "Album Mode".[2] In March 2018, Pi'erre Bourne teased that the project had been finalized via Twitter.[3][4] On May 10, 2018, Carti announced the album's release date via Twitter.[3] On the same day, ASAP Rocky revealed the album's artwork.[5] Upon release, the album was briefly released exclusively via Tidal, before showing up on other streaming services.[6]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Album of the Year	71/100[7]
Metacritic	71/100[8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Exclaim!	6/10[10]
Highsnobiety	4.0/5[11]
HipHopDX	3.0/5[12]
HotNewHipHop	79%[13]
Pitchfork	8.5/10[14]
Spectrum Culture	[15]
Sputnikmusic	3.8/5[16]
Tiny Mix Tapes	4/5[17]

Die Lit was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 71, based on seven reviews.[8] Album of the Year assessed the critical consensus as 71 out of 100, based on nine reviews.[7]

Evan Rytlewski of Pitchfork stated that Die Lit is "an album that works almost completely from its own lunatic script. It is a perversely infectious sugar high, rap that fundamentally recalibrates the brain's reward centers", praising the production and simplicity: "At its best—which is to say almost the entire thing, really—the album almost seems to suspend gravity. How does a rapper this basic pull off a project this electrifying? No, Carti's rapping isn't any better this time out. And no, it really doesn't matter. When the carnival itself is this magnificent, there's no need to nitpick the ring-leader."[14] Corrigan B of Tiny Mix Tapes said, "Like its predecessor, it's an album of party records; these are songs that will be played ad infinitum at functions until the hooks, the breaks, and, of course, the bass are burned into the brain of every attendee."[17] Maxwell Cavaseno of HotNewHipHop concluded that Die Lit "feels like the closest to a fully realized album as Carti is ever going to come close to achieving" and that it "should, at the very least, be respected for doing so much while doing so very little."[13] Online publication Sputnikmusic stated: "A lot of the gratification of this record is in the production, which takes the age-old hip-hop trick of taking a fractional melodic idea, barely a song by itself, and spinning out of it a thick sonic weave."[16]

A. Harmony from Exclaim! criticized the album for having a lack of variety, saying "It's fun enough but, save for a few keepers, has the lifespan of a mayfly. Rock to it for the summer and forget most of it by September."[10] Riley Wallace of HipHopDX stated, "Through a more respectable body of work—is unlikely to win over any naysayers."[12] Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic said, "Like Rae Sremmurd and Migos, these big-bass trap anthems owe much to their club-friendly vibe, but offer little in terms of substance or lasting impact."[9]

Die Lit debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 with 61,000 album-equivalent units of which 5,000 were pure album sales.[24] On July 31, 2019, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and streams in excess of 500,000 units in the United States.[25]

All tracks produced by Pi'erre Bourne, except where noted.[26][27]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an uncredited co-producer

Sample credits

• "R.I.P." contains a sample from "What About Us", written by Donald DeGrate, Reginald Moore, Shirley Murdock, Larry Troutman and Roger Troutman, as performed by Jodeci.[28]
• "Fell in Luv" contains a sample from "Grandloves", written by Megan James, Corbin Roddick and Isaac Gerasimou, as performed by Purity Ring.[29]