“I made it out the hood then made out with these hoes / I’m the Lord of Chaos, I got the moshpit in control.” That’s how Ken Carson kicks off ‘More Chaos’, and it’s the only warning you’ll get. From the jump, he body-slams you into a lawless realm of blown-out 808s, strobe-light synths and full-volume bravado. If his 2023 breakthrough Billboard-charting album ‘A Great Chaos’ proved he was serious about disrupting trap’s centre, his fourth outing makes it clear that Carson is hellbent on burning it all down – and doing it with a grin.
There’s a reason Ken self-anoints as the “Lord of Chaos” – he’s always known how to manufacture mayhem. The 25-year-old Atlanta rapper built his name on slamming 808s, nihilistic energy and satanic aesthetics – many enjoy decoding his music and liken his live shows to raves in the underworld, all while cloaked in the cult mystique of Playboi Carti’s Opium label. That signature volatility shows up immediately on ‘More Chaos’.
The first five tracks hit like a headrush: the bass rips through you while glitching, erratic synths jab at your senses, all feeling like different angles of the same punch. ‘Lord of Chaos’, ‘Root of All Evil’, and ‘Xposed’ ride Ken’s usual swagged-out cadence; ‘Money Spread’ leans into melody while ‘K-Hole’ goes jagged and staccato, like he’s glitching mid-verse. They’re all fun, built upon frenzied production, but depending on your preference, you’ll either love the stampede of flows or zone out until something shifts.
But if you stick with this 22-song-long behemoth, there’s a small reward at ‘Trap Jump’. Carson finally leans into a darker, almost apocalyptic sound – where militaristic 808s and jagged synths mimic shrapnel flying past your ears after he “hawks” his enemies with his finger twitching on the trigger: “I’m shooting the K9, yeah, y’all want fire? Go do somethin’ / I’m in the field with cleats and shoulder pads, I know these n****s ain’t gon’ do nothin’.”
The album truly starts afterwards: ‘Blakk Rokkstar’ is pure electricity as the wall-rattling synths speed around while hi-hats ricochet off booming bass. ‘LiveLeak’ is swagger central, showcasing his ability to stay fly and unfazed over even the most cluttered beats. ‘Down2Earth’ is a melodic deep cut for the fans who love his wheezy, lean-dipped delivery, while tracks like ‘Naked’ and ‘Kryptonite’ ascend with heroic synths that could soundtrack a supervillain origin story.
But, while his focus is on helming this new age of crash-out trap, Carson does flex his pen at times on ‘More Chaos’. He’s weirdly poetic on ‘Dismantled’, if you excuse the language: “My bitch, yeah, so-so godly, she the only proof of God”. He’s also proverbial on tracks like ‘200 Kash’ (“I ain’t trippin’ ‘bout it if it don’t make my bank bigger”) and ‘Psycho’ (“Gamblin’ with my life, I’m tryna hit me a seven”). He’s witty, too. On ‘Xposed’, he fires off one of his sharpest lines: “These niggas ain’t fucking with me, let’s go band for band / You ain’t flexin’ on me, bitch, you flexin’ on your fans.”
After 21 songs of Carson bragging about being a Gen-Z trap cult-leader, ‘More Chaos’’ closer finally answers Opium fans’ prayers with Carson, Playboi Carti and Destroy Lonely coming together on ‘Off The Meter’ – but it’s underwhelming. The hook is catchy, Carson skating confidently over the glitchcore-like synth-pop instrumental. It’s let down by that foundation mimicking Carti’s 2016 SoundCloud era, and further still by Carti sporting his jarring new Future-like voice. Lonely’s verse is solid, but, for the Opium trinity’s first-ever song, you’d expect more.
In the end, ‘More Chaos’ does exactly what it says on the tin: it’s overloaded, aggressive, and unruly – and that’s the point. Carson doesn’t want your approval – he’s here to burn everything down, leaving nothing but scorched earth in the wake of this war cry. While others play it safe, Carson’s feral, unleashing madness without hesitation as the overlord of the moshpit. And in that mayhem, he’s found his kingdom.
SOURCE: NME
