It’s tempting to view Carti’s debut full length mixtape as a tentative step to his eventual blaring, widescreen sound. There is some truth to that. Carti and producer Pi’erre Bourne turn in a relatively restrained, modest – by later standards – initial effort. Tracks like “Magnolia” and “wokeuplikethis*” use percolating synths and mechanical beats to conjure up a serene, if narcotically evocative, atmosphere. Carti’s vocals fit into the traditional definition of rapping in a way they almost never would again. “Location” is a spare, scene setting opener and “Flex,” again, is a drug’n’b triumph signifying roads not taken. What ties these songs and this release together is a use of negative space and silence in between the staccato melodies, and it allows the music to breathe in a way that is rare for Carti. On “New Choppa” and “Lame N——-” Bourne and Carti turn up the pressure, hinting at the monuments to noise they’d later turn to. Here, though, they fashion a midpoint worth an extended visit, as fleeting as it would turn out to be.