Playboi Carti's Reddit Community Never Lost Hope

At midnight on Christmas, Playboi Carti declared himself Santa. After years of hype, false starts, and cryptic messages to fans, the rapper finally shared his album Whole Lotta Red, the hotly anticipated follow up to 2018’s Die Lit. The 24-track, 62-minute record inspired an almost immediate bifurcation on social media. There were Carti die-hards calling it his best work as soon as 1 a.m. There were critics lamenting its long runtime and ostensible lack of focus in equally swift measure. Just minutes after the release, Carti’s ex-girlfriend, the musician Iggy Azalea, with whom Carti has a child, took to Twitter to express frustration at the rapper’s alleged absence during their son’s first Christmas. It all made for a particularly active week on the Playboi Carti Reddit, which for the past several years, has been the source for every iota of information that has trickled out of the notoriously secretive rapper’s camp.  David Ha, a 20-year-old student at Ryerson University in Toronto, started the Playboi Carti subreddit in 2016, after starting similar pages for artists like 21 Savage and Bryson Tiller, though he says it was the Playboi Carti subreddit that he invested the most effort in “because that was my favorite artist.” Like the more than 160,000 members of the community, Ha has followed the near-mythic trajectory of Whole Lotta Red, an album that many in the community were resigned to believe would never come. Now that it’s arrived, taking Carti to Number One on the RS 200 chart, Ha told us about managing one of the most active and loyal fan communities on the internet.    Saweetie, Doja Cat Celebrate Camaraderie in 'Best Friend' Video Why K-Pop Group Seventeen Can Never Be Divided Paul McCartney's 40 Greatest Solo Songs Why Did the Beatles Really Break Up?  What has it been like navigating all of the information about Carti — from leaks to rumors and fake release dates — over the past few years?I feel like it’s divided into different eras. After Die Lit came out, he was getting a lot of traction, and a lot of people were coming to the sub. And then between that and Whole Lotta Red, the sub started to become notorious for memes to be honest, because everyone got tired of waiting. I guess a lot of us were just fiending for the newest leak or snippet.   A lot of fans would make their own tracks out of those snippets and leaks. Have you seen people develop as producers through the subreddit?I’m not completely sure in terms of development, just because we have so many people in the sub that I haven’t been keeping track. But I do think there is a lot of talent in this fanbase. I’ve seen a lot of kids posting their art and their remixes and stuff like that. I think Carti has a really talented fanbase.  For the years leading up to the release of Whole Lotta Red, the album basically existed as a meme. Did you ever lose hope that it would be released?Part of Whole Lotta Red as a meme was never having too much hope in the first place. We