How Playboi Carti Keeps a Loyal Fan Base
A large portion of social media and entertainment is understanding how to create your own personal brand and execute it through social media presence. In short, certain celebrities portray themselves in a mysterious manner to keep the buzz and loyal fans/followers up to date.
Playboi Carti, also known as Jordan Carter, is an American rapper/songwriter also known for his gothic fashion statements and persona. Playboi Carter first blew up in 2017 from his single called “Woke up like this” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. After the single dropped, he released an entire album called “Playboi Carti that same year. In 2018 he released an album called “Die Lit”, and as much success as both albums got, he didn’t release another album until 2020 on Christmas day known as “Whole Lotta Red”. The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics and debuted at the top of the US Billboard, earning 100,000 album-equivalent units of which 10,000 were pure sales, becoming Carti’s first US number one album. In between that time, Carti promised his fans that he would release his last album multiple times to keep his fan base on their toes. He dropped a single five months before the album actually released, but also wouldn't be active on social media for months at a time. Whenever he would tweet something it would be out of the ordinary. There is no perfect way to describe it, but as much as he would stay out of the industry drama, he definitely had some issues happening behind the scenes.
Another way Playboi Carti strategically uses his social media for entertainment is trolling. Trolling, in other words means to intentionally try to instigate conflict or “going against the grain”, so there will be more fan and follower engagement whether the audience agrees or not. In this case, for about two years in between his albums, there were rumors that Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert had some sort of animosity between them. There were crytpic tweets between the two, and it was around the time that they both were going to release music. This was a big deal to the media because, Lil Uzi Vert is the reason Carti got exposure in the beginning on his hot single that blew up. They were almost known as a dynamic duo, but it makes sense now why they instigated the problem on longer. After “Whole Lotta Red” released, miraculously they were friends again on and off social media.
In conclusion, Playboi Carti’s fans waited a long length of time for his music, and that goes to show their loyalty. However, if he did not execute his persona, the results may be altered. He was so successful because of the way he carried himself through social media.
