One of hip-hop’s most elusive artists finally opens up in an exclusive interview with XXL for the magazine’s Spring cover. Playboi Carti lets people peek into his world and discusses his fourth album, tentatively titled Music, his vision to change the sound of music, his personal goals and struggles, relationships with artists including Kanye West, Lil Uzi Vert and A$AP Rocky, his new label and roster of talent, clothing line, being heavily influenced by Tech N9ne, fatherhood and much more.

On Being Himself: “You got rock stars. Punks. You got emos. You got goths. With me, I’m just being myself and I feel like it’s a lot of people who really want to be themselves and do a lot of different things. That’s the reason why it’s a cult because everybody is not going to understand, and I understand. And when they see me, especially when I was coming up, [the are] like, ‘Damn, Carti look just like me.’ A regular Atlanta nigga, you know what I’m saying? Like, boom, boom, tall, dreads and all of that.”

On His Vision for Changing the Sound of Music: “What I mean by changing the world? New sounds. New waves. New movements. I just don’t want to say it like that ’cause...that sounds cocky. So, what I mean by changing the world is just something like refreshing that would—not change the world—just change the sound of music. Every time.”

On Kanye West: “Kanye. Words can’t describe...that’s my big brother. That’s my friend. I talk to Kanye every day. He’s different and I’m different. I see myself in him a lot and I’m pretty sure he feels the same. I don’t really have too many friends and that’s really one of my friends. I love him.”

On Mother of His Son, Iggy Azalea: “Yeah, just make sure [put in] that I love my baby mother. It definitely needs to be known that [Iggy] is the best mother in the world. My son is perfect. He’s too perfect. I need to rough him up a little bit.”

On Tech N9ne’s Influence: “Tech N9ne, he’s the pioneer of what I got going on right now. When it comes to having a cult following, embracing yourself, and sticking to your vision, Tech N9ne is the pioneer of that.”

On Lil Uzi Vert: “I love Uzi. I forgot to mention him. I love Uzi to death. Uzi is working on mad music right now. I don’t know if he’s serious about a lot of things. But I hope one day we can change the world with that, for sure.”

Read the complete cover story interview on the XXL website here. Buy a magazine issue when it hits newsstands in late April or online at the XXL store also.

Look out for Playboi Carti's new cover, and check out the other interviews in the magazine with Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J, Fivio Foreign, Latto, DaBaby, Hit-Boy, Denzel Curry, Joey Bada$$, RZA, Big K.R.I.T., Saba, Morray, Nardo Wick, Kali, Sleepy Hallow, SSGKobe, ATL Jacob, Pink Sweat$, Saucy Santana, Jason Lee, Angie Randisi and Colby Turner.

playboi carti xxl magazine cover spring 2022
Atiba Jefferson for XXL
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