The Life Of Pi'erre 4

A month after paving the way for frequent collaborator Young Nudy to spew poisonous darts across the joint project Sli’merre, Atlanta-based producer Pi’erre Bourne returns to sulk by his lonesome. Titles like “Romeo Must Die,” “Lovers,” and “Ballad” set the tone; on the latter, Bourne searches for melodies in what seems like real time on the slow-building guitar-driven ode that abandons his recognizable 808s. “I wonder what life would be like if I left you,” croons the producer across the pensive, gloomy “Lovers.” He ambitiously sequences the project to run as one cohesive piece of music, with each track blending into the next, even through day-in-the-life skits including interludes of drive-through trips and mundane conversations that help hammer home the tape’s title. On the standout “Juice,” though, the multiplatinum beatsmith reenters a more conventional, braggadocio lane, proving his own viability as a commercial product with an earwormy hook and reintroducing the signature thuds and atmospheric sounds fans know from Trippie Redd’s “Poles 1469” and Playboi Carti’s entire catalog. On *TLOP4*, Pi’erre becomes more than a catchy producer tag that sets up Nudy, Carti, and others to continue Atlanta’s dominance. Better, he reveals himself as a romantic who’s seeking and forgetting love (“Tell me your feelings, I confess mine,” he lays out on “Try Again”) before a Homer Simpson-like regression into the background of your next favorite song.

Playboi Carti's go-to producer goes solo, crooning in AutoTune over his blissfully simple earworm beats.