Key Takeaways
- Playboi Carti and his 00pium label are getting ready to take over ComplexCon. Not only will they be heading the festival, but Carti will also serve as artistic director alongside Hiroshi Fujiwara and Fragment Design.
- We're breaking down 15 little-known facts about Carti, from his church-choir beginnings to his early jobs at H&M.
- Carti also has unreleased work with legends like Frank Ocean and Metro Boomin.
Playboi Carti moves on his own schedule.
While his infrequent release habits have frustrated some fans, he's evolved into one of the biggest voices in rap, with his next frontier being ComplexCon—the rapper and his Opium label are taking over the festival's LA return this fall.
And yet, even with all of the success and access, much of his life has remained a mystery. Sure, most fans know that his birthday is on September 13 or that he first began playing around with his signature "baby voice" in 2016 before fully popularizing it on Die Lit two years later. But Carti has been fairly withdrawn and reclusive in publicly detailing his life story.
So in preparation for what will be an epic ComplexCon takeover, we went on a deep dive and gathered a list of 15 facts you probably didn't know about Playboi Carti.
1. He got into music by joining the church choir
Long before Carti began uploading songs to SoundCloud, he was introduced to music at a young age as a member of the choir in his church. While he admitted that he initially joined the choir to win cool points with the girls, he eventually stuck with it for himself. “I only was into it for the girls until the very end,” he recalled in an interview with Office magazine. “Then I actually got into it, and it inspired me. It’s cool, now.” —Jessica Mckinney
2. The first album he ever bought was by Lil Romeo
Like most kids growing up, Carti was drawn to child stars that he could relate to. The first CD he ever bought was a Lil Romeo album when he was in first grade. “It was definitely a CD. I was most definitely living in Riverdale,” he recalled in an interview with SSENSE. “The only thing I can remember is Lil Romeo used to always spell out his name in his raps. I always used to know how to spell his name. I was a big fan of Romeo and Bow Wow, the little kids back in the day.” —Jessica Mckinney
3. He used to work at H&M
Before the fame and fortune, Playboi Carti was just your average kid who worked in retail. He revealed that he briefly worked at Swedish fast-fashion company, H&M, while he was in high school. “I went from bagging groceries to working at this place called H&M,” he recalled in a 2016 home video. “But look, in Atlanta, when it first popped off, I was the hottest nigga at [H&M], ’cause I was still in school.”
Carti eventually decided to quit H&M after he saw that his music career was gaining him recognition from female fans. He explained that after women approached him on the job, telling him that they enjoyed his music, he knew it was time to leave. —Jessica Mckinney
4. He released his first mixtape, Young Misfit, under the moniker $ir Cartier
When he first began his music career, Carti performed under the stage name $ir Cartier. He released his first mixtape in 2012 under the moniker, called Young Misfit. The nine-track project took a different direction than Carti's music today. While he has often been described as a mumble rapper, $ir Cartier seemed to take inspiration from more classic rap styles. And on tracks like “$teeze” and “Zombie$,” he enunciated his words in a regular tone, rather than using the muffled “baby voice” he popularized later in his career. —Jessica Mckinney
5. He isn’t a fan of stage diving
Stage diving is a near-mandatory stunt for new artists. And Carti has participated in the concert trick, most notably on the cover of Die Lit—but he revealed that he isn’t the biggest fan of stage diving. “Nah, I ain’t fucking with it,” he told Revolt TV in 2018. “Even when I used to do it, I ain’t fuck with it. It’s so crazy because if they don’t catch me, it’s a dub.” Carti said he has since stopped stage diving out of fear of fans dropping him. He even went so far as to give stage diving an overall rating of zero.
6. He loves classic movies
Playboi Carti is a movie buff.
In addition to loving the cult classic, The Lost Boys, Carti is a fan of classic films from the ‘90s and early 2000s. He has even listed Donnie Darko and Gummo as sources of inspiration for his music. He also adores Mickey Mouse. “He’s my idol. Timeless,” he said of the beloved Disney cartoon. —Jessica Mckinney
7. His mentors in high school were Ethereal, Father, and KEY!
Carti cites artists Father, Ethereal, and KEY! as three of his early mentors when he was a senior in high school. Father founded record label Awful Records in 2014, which is where Carti got his start as a rapper. “YUNGXANHOE” was one of the first records he recorded and released on SoundCloud via the label. He was later introduced to Atlanta artist Ethereal who was also signed to Awful at the time. Carti credits Ethereal to helping him find his sound and style.
“When I met [Ethereal], I was looking for shit that he was already doing. I was like wow. This is the guy. Ethereal is a legend,” he told Dazed in 2018. “Without him, I don’t know where the fuck I’d be. He’s a good dude. So talented. He’s another GOAT.” He adds, “I’m not even talking about his music right now. As a human, that man is a really good dude. He took me in when I was skipping school. Took me on the road, started going crazy. My senior year of highschool, he and Father and KEY! started going crazy, making all these tracks.” —Jessica Mckinney
8. His ASAP Mob affiliations kicked off after meeting ASAP Rocky at a house party
After relocating from Atlanta to the Bornx to pursue music, Carti crossed paths with ASAP Bari. Shortly after, he connected with ASAP Rocky at a SXSW 2015 house party. “I met Rocky at this house party and it was crazy,” he recalled. “He told me he fucked with me, bro, and after he said that I gotta get out here and get my swag up. It was lit. There were a bunch of bitches everywhere... The life I wanted was in the house, right there.”
Carti’s friendship with ASAP Rocky proved to be instrumental in his career.
In addition to citing Rocky as his mentor coming up, he’s collaborated with ASAP Mob on several projects in music and fashion. In 2016, Carti was featured on ASAP’s single “Telephone Calls,” which appeared on the Cozy Tapes Vol. 1: Friends album. Their partnership soon resulted in Carti signing to the collective’s AWGE imprint and Interscope that same year. In 2017, the rapper appeared on the second volume of the Cozy Tapes series on the hit “Raf.” Carti has also designed for ASAP Bari’s streetwear label VLONE. —Jessica Mckinney
9. He Has Unreleased Music With Frank Ocean
Back in 2017, in an interview with FADER, Carti revealed that he had unreleased music with the ever-elusive Frank Ocean.
Carti said that he met with Frank in New York City, and the two recorded some songs. He also mentioned how much he admired his musical abilities. “We worked on some music in New York. Actually, he's very talented,” he said. “That man was doing everything in the studio. He really works with instruments and shit. Like, it's crazy. He really showed me a new type of style and shit. We made a song, and it's very lit. I don't know if the world's going to get it, though."
In 2018 on LA Leakers, Carti was asked about Frank Ocean once again. The rapper referred to him as the “GOAT” adding that they “did like five songs.”
As of now, the duo has only appeared on one song together: RAF, the A$AP Mob posse cut, on which Carti only provides ad-libs. —Antonio Johri
10. He Almost Signed Pi’erre Bourne to Opium
On Whole Lotta Red’s Punk Monk, Playboi Carti gave a rare glimpse into the makings of his Opium label. On the song he mentioned the artists he was listening to before they blew up, and one of them was rapper-producer Pi’erre Bourne.
“I thought I had Pi'erre, but the label tricked me,” Carti raps. Later, in an interview with Inked, Carti revealed the story behind the line. “I slept on it, and I woke up, and [Pi’erre] was signed to a major label,” he said. “I wasn’t really salty about it. I was just looking at it like, alright, cool. I just need to lock it in when I step into a room with some people from now on, because I feel like people just started looking at my taste and my opinion. ‘Alright, if Carti likes it, sign it—boom.’” —Antonio Johri
11. Virgil Abloh Was the Initial Creative Director for Whole Lotta Red
Virgil Abloh was always tapped into new talent. And he seemed to have a particular interest in Carti's movement, having him walk in multiple runway shows for Off-White and Louis Vuitton. This access naturally positioned Virgil as the ideal choice to serve as creative director on Carti’s next project.
"Virgil is just a big inspiration to everything, and it's got nothing to do with music. We just talk about the future. He's going to be the creative director of my next album," Carti told GQ in 2019. That album would be Whole Lotta Red.
The duo would meet in Paris, and Virgil and Carti, armed with spray-paint cans, making some visual art which became the epitome of the “Cash Carti” era. This collaboration would help inspire the DIY and raw aesthetic of the album’s first iteration, which most fans refer to as WLR V1. That art now sits in the Virgil Abloh: The Codes exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris, France. —Antonio Johri
12. He Signed His Blood Cousin, Apollored1, as the First Artist Under His YVL Imprint
After striking gold with both Ken Carson and Destroy Lonely, Carti has demonstrated his ear for spotting talent early. During the rollout for his album MUSIC, Carti started the YVL movement, which stands for “Young Vamp Life,” complete with its signature hand sign and label. The first artist on the roster is Apollored1, who revealed to Bars that his mother and Carti’s mother are sisters, making them cousins.
Apollo clarified that YVL is different from Opium when speaking with Kids Take Over. “Opium is kind of like the foundation. They've been the label since 2019—or 2020, one of them. That's really the difference. Opium is like the pioneers of this whole aesthetic, right? YVL is kind of the younger crew.”
Apollored1 dropped his album Demon Heart Radio and will be performing at ComplexCon this year alongside the rest of the Opium roster. —Antonio Johri
13. He Taught LUCKI How to Rap on Trap Beats
LUCKI and Carti came up together during the SoundCloud era of the late 2010s, but their friendship goes back all the way to when they were kids.
As the two were trying to make it in music, Tune told KTO that, “Carti taught me how to rap on trap beats without having to rap about chopping up bricks and killing people. He taught me how to swag on it.” —Antonio Johri
14. He Has an Unreleased Collab Tape With Metro Boomin
Carti has a myriad of unreleased projects that rival even Ye’s or Young Thug’s vaults. One of those rumored projects is a full collaborative album with Metro Boomin. In the middle of those studio sessions in LA FADER caught up with Carti, where he stated, “I got a whole ‘nother tape with [Metro].”
At the time, he was also working on Whole Lotta Red and seemed conflicted about where to place the music, saying, “That’s why my head’s fucked up. [The Metro] shit could go on my [WLR], but if it goes on the album, then we gotta change the whole thing.”
Carti and Metro have work together on numerous occasions. Some of their most recent collaborations include “Type Shit” from Metro and Future’s 2024 album We Don’t Trust You and “RADAR” from MUSIC. —Antonio Johri
15. "POP OUT," the opening song off MUSIC, was recorded and completed hours before the album was released
Like a lot of great modern day rappers, Carti is a procrastinator. And, even though he was on a tight deadline, Carti was still recording MUSIC hours before it was set to be released.
During an interview with Complex, DJ and collaborator Swamp Izzo told the story of how they made "POP OUT" just hours before the album set to release.
"The first song, ‘POP OUT,’ we did that during the final stretch of the album coming out,” Swamp said. “The album was done, supposed to drop at midnight. He's like, ‘Nah, Swamp, just go in the other room and give me some more energy.’ I'm like, ‘For real? It's done. We ready. We locked.’ And he's like, ‘We're going to drop at 3 AM.’ So if you listen to ‘Pop Out’ you'll hear ‘I'm in here with Swamp right now…on my mama.’" —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
