After teasing NARCISSIST over the past few weeks, Playboi Carti appears to have finally dropped the mysterious project, albeit a day later than scheduled.
While many fans had been hoping that NARCISSIST would be a new album since it shares the name of the rapper’s upcoming tour, it appears that the moniker refers to a new merch collection. Carti’s official online store was updated with a collection that includes a hoodie, ski mask, long sleeve tee, bomber jacket and motorcycle helmet.
As fans balked at the aforementioned helmet, which boasted a $5,000 USD price tag, one fan decided to investigate further and unearthed an identical helmet that was already being sold on the Chinese retailer Alibaba for $29 USD, sharing their findings to Twitter. The user then discovered that the same $40 USD ski mask was listed on Alibaba for $0.45 USD.
The images on Carti’s store showed the exact same product images as those on Alibaba, with only the background color changed. Another user noted that the long sleeve was emblazoned with an incorrect spelling of the word ‘narcissist.’
While Alibaba is known for its counterfeit dupes, the items had arrived on the retailer too quickly for fans to believe that they were originally from the rapper’s collection.
Amid the social media blowout, the merch was pulled from the online store and Carti interjected to say that hackers were to blame for the release. “The website is hacked,” the rapper wrote in a screenshot of a group text that was posted to Twitter this morning. “The ref [reference] folder was posted live. Never approved any clothing/etc.”
Since then, Carti has yet to update fans on when they can expect a revised NARCISSIST drop.
In other music news, Chance the Rapper drew comparisons between Kanye West and Michelangelo.
