Ken Carson – xperiment Album Review: Rage Rap at Its Best, Buried by Bloat
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As the calendar flips, we officially have the first major hip-hop release of July on our hands. Ken Carson is back with his highly anticipated new LP, xperiment, a project he has been heavily teasing across social media for the last few months. We all know that Carson has solidified himself as one of the most recognizable faces in the modern rage rap territory.
Emerging as another prominent star who grew up during the SoundCloud era back in the mid-2010s, he has carved out a massive lane for himself under Playboi Carti’s influential Opium Records. This new release marks his fifth full-length project, arriving as the high-stakes follow-up to his first Billboard number-one album, More Chaos. Spanning a massive 22 tracks, the album predictably features his closest associated artists, including Playboi Carti, Destroy Lonely, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, and 2hollis, all riding over high-energy production, heavy 808 bass, electronic elements, and Carson’s signature auto-tuned vocals.
The album features a staggering number of 48 producers, which is completely insane, though the most prominent names driving the sound are familiar Opium heavyweights like F1lthy, Art Dealer, Star Boy, and Lil 88. I really loved the production on this project, which is easily good enough to make it a great rage rap album—honestly, it stands as probably the best rage rap album of the year so far.
However, one thing I am very upset about is that it is simply too long, carrying a bloated runtime of over an hour across 22 tracks. To be fair, that length isn’t a massive surprise in the rage rap territory; we have seen Playboi Carti drop 20- to 30-track projects in the past. But in the current musical atmosphere of 2026, everyone is craving short, sweet micro-albums.
Even looking back, I couldn’t call Carti’s MUSIC a truly great album because it was way too long and bloated, and that exact same issue is very visible here. Several tracks on xperiment feel like genuine filler. If those unnecessary tracks were cut entirely, making it a tight 12-to-15-track project, this album would easily be a masterpiece.
Talking about the production again, Carson deployed a staggering roster of 48 producers to piece this album together, which is totally insane and feels like he simply hired everyone existing in his immediate creative circle. However, as I noted before, I really loved the sonic landscape here. Despite the bloated tracklist, the sound of this album never gets boring or monotonous, a trap that long projects often fall into.
Instead, it delivers a massive variety of different beats, sudden beat switches, and high energy everywhere. The record is primarily anchored by heavy 808 bass and high-octane instrumentation, though electronic and synth elements are explicitly visible within that deliberate chaos. That said, I felt like a few of the F1lthy-produced tracks sounded heavily borrowed from Playboi Carti’s past songs.
Furthermore, while the album is titled xperiment, can we actually call it experimental? Probably, yes, but the execution isn’t a masterclass by any means. The electronic and synthetic touches are wonderful, but the album ultimately stays firmly in its established rage rap lane without pushing far beyond those boundaries.
Ken Carson’s performance across this album is overall satisfying to me. I truly loved some of his rapping skills here, and he genuinely rapped well on a macro level, though certain performances inevitably felt pretty boring and monotonous. His vocal presence on tracks like “deaf note,” “edm,” “ghost,” “knocking,” and “addiction” is really good and highlights his strengths.
On the flip side, I was left pretty upset with his flat performances on “wrist” and “somanybags.”
As for the guests, I’d say both of Playboi Carti’s verses on this album were exceptionally strong; his vocals are completely undeniable and incredibly hard to recognize every single time he switches his cadence. Lil Uzi Vert and Young Thug also turn in good verses, and Destroy Lonely’s contribution is somewhat good.
However, I really didn’t like 2hollis’s feature here; the track “shadeson” felt entirely sluggish to me, especially coming right after a sequence of two high-energy tracks.
The tracks “deaf note” and “ghost” will certainly be in my heavy rotation throughout this year. I really loved these two tracks, as Carson displays some incredible chemistry with both Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, resulting in some of the most cohesive and exciting moments on the entire project.
In contrast, I would easily cut “wrist,” “outofmybody,” “the ritual,” “somanybags,” “amandabynes,” and “amnesia” from the tracklist entirely, as they feel like total trash filler that bogs down the album’s pacing. Without them, the project would have been far better and much tighter. While Carson attempts to pay tribute to the late XXXTENTACION on the track “wrist”—an artistic gesture I respect so much—the song itself is not really good at all, and the repetitive chorus instantly makes me sick of the track.
Ultimately, xperiment stands as potentially the best rage rap album of the year, but it is heavily weighed down by its own excess. Ken Carson’s sonic architecture—built by a staggering roster of 48 producers—is an absolute triumph of high-energy 808s, thrilling beat switches, and brilliant electronic elements that prevent the listening experience from becoming monotonous. When Carson hits his stride on tracks like “deaf note” and “ghost,” alongside an undeniable, shape-shifting performance from Playboi Carti, the album reaches undeniable heights.
However, the project falls short of being a true masterclass due to its bloated 22-track runtime. In a 2026 musical landscape that heavily favors tight, concise projects, xperiment bogs itself down with egregious filler like “wrist” and “somanybags” that completely derail the album’s pacing. If Carson had trimmed the excess down to a focused 12-to-15-track masterwork, this would be an absolute masterpiece; instead, it remains a fantastic but frustratingly bloated addition to the Opium canon.
[Rating: 6/10]
- Favorite Tracks: deaf note, wheredoistart, edm, ghost, shopping, knocking, addiction
- Least Favorite Tracks: wrist, the ritual, somanybags, amandabynes
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