Fans of Playboi Carti and YoungBoy Never Broke Again are convinced that the two controversial rappers are working on a joint album. The speculation was prompted by Carti making an unexpected return to social media with an Instagram Story post with a photo of YoungBoy wearing an inverted cross pendant on his chain. Sacrilegious symbolism is kind of Carti’s thing, so naturally fans wondered whether YoungBoy rocking the Atlanta genre-bender’s signature iconography — and Carti posting it — was a sign.
Even more evidence of an incoming collaboration appeared on the Instagram profile @jewelryunlimited, where celebrity jeweler Wafi amin Lalani noted the chain and pendant were a gift from Carti to YoungBoy, “ahead of their new collab album.”
The duo had never previously collaborated but both have proven to be very popular among younger hip-hop fans despite aggressive opposition from traditionalists and less-than-sterling histories with women. If the rumor does turn out to be true, it’ll mean that Carti is extra busy working on collaborative projects this year; in March, Lil Uzi Vert teased that they and Carti were also working on a collab project and “about to take over the world.”
Carti is also billed to appear at Rolling Loud Miami and Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash this year, so he’s got a pretty full schedule for 2023. YoungBoy, meanwhile, has raised his proile with a string of big-name collaborations (and beefs) but is currently stuck in Utah on house arrest for the foreseeable future.