Playboi Carti’s new album, MUSIC, is taking over streaming platforms and breaking records left and right. Dropping on March 14, the Atlanta rapper’s highly-anticipated third studio album quickly became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day for 2025. But not everyone is impressed. Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling definitely isn’t feeling it.
In the weeks leading up to the release, Spotify went all out with the promotion, plastering billboards across major cities like Los Angeles, New York City, and Miami. The messages? “STREETS READY,” “SORRY4 DA WAIT,” and “I AM MUSIC MF.” The hype was real, and fans were more than ready.
The 30-track album came after a long five-year wait since Carti’s previous project, Whole Lotta Red, which dominated the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. And it’s not just the massive tracklist that’s catching attention—Carti pulled in big names like Travis Scott, Future, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Lil Uzi Vert, Skepta, Ty Dolla $ign, and even Young Thug.
However, once ‘Funkmaster’ played the song ‘OPM Babi’ from the album, he took to Instagram and Twitter to make his disappointment known.
“Playboi Carti’s album is terrible. What happened to Hip Hop,” Sterling posted. “Call me old because I actually like lyrics in my hip-hop. This ain’t hip-hop young buck. This needs its own category and unchecked on my genre lists.”, he added.
View this post on Instagram
While the consensus is all about praising the album’s creativity and unique sound, Sterling’s comments have people calling him a ‘boomer’ all over his comments section. To be fair, he did use the word ‘Young Gun’!
The debate didn’t end there though. ‘FunkMaster‘ then went on a rant on Twitter, talking about how Carti needs his own Genre and also telling fans who they should listen to instead.
Sterling’s Hip Hop advice
‘Funkmaster’ seems to be really passionate about the kind of music he listens to. So, after people called him out for not understanding the kind of music Playboi Carti was trying to make, saying it was a unique sound that no other artist had.
But naturally, Sterling doesn’t like this ‘unique’ sound. But the main gist of his argument isn’t that the album is bad. He actually wants Spotify to label it as an entirely different genre.
“I said this is NOT hip hop! Why tf is Spotify putting this shit in my hip hop section? Give Playboi carti his own genre. Idk what to call it but it give it another genre name.”, he argued.
I said this is NOT hip hop! Why tf is Spotify putting this shit in my hip hop section? Give Playboi carti his own genre. Idk what to call it but it give it another genre name https://t.co/Xyr2xwobIo
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) March 18, 2025
So what does Sterling consider to be ‘real’ Hip Hop? One fan suggested that ‘Funkmaster’ was the kind of person to switch the Carti album off to play some BigXthePlug music.
Responding to this, Sterling said, “Big X is a much better listen IMHO. But undiscovered artists like this make more lyrically and fun music. Get the everything in one consistently. @TroyGrindz”
Big X is a much better listen IMHO. But undiscovered artists like this make more lyrically and fun music. Get the everything in one consistently. @TroyGrindz https://t.co/SkrBPQLRXI pic.twitter.com/JT1KJCuic1
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) March 18, 2025
Sterling also gave a shout-out to Long Island native, TroyGrindz as an underground Hip Hop artist whose music he thinks is ‘real’ Hip Hop, infused with good lyrics and clever wordplay.
It should be noted Sterling himself is no stranger to making music, the former UFC champion released a single called ‘Go Dumb’ back in 2023, his first-ever song. He has since shifted his focus back to his MMA career.
