In December 2017, a video showed Playboi Carti behind a mixing board, presumably listening to new material with the caption "Album Mode". In March 2018, Pi'erre Bourne teased that the project had been finalized via Twitter. On May 10, 2018, Carti announced the album's release date via Twitter. On the same day, ASAP Rocky revealed the album's artwork. Upon release, the album was briefly released exclusively via Tidal, before showing up on other streaming services.
Critical reception
Die Lit was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 71, based on seven reviews. Album of the Year assessed the critical consensus as 71 out of 100, based on nine reviews. Evan Rytlewski of Pitchfork stated that Die Lit is "an album that works almost completely from its own lunatic script. It is a perversely infectious sugar high, rap that fundamentally recalibrates the brain's reward centers", praising the production and simplicity: "At its best—which is to say almost the entire thing, really—the album almost seems to suspend gravity. How does a rapper this basic pull off a project this electrifying? No, Carti's rapping isn't any better this time out. And no, it really doesn't matter. When the carnival itself is this magnificent, there's no need to nitpick the ring-leader." Corrigan B of Tiny Mix Tapes said, "Like its predecessor, it's an album of party records; these are songs that will be played ad infinitum at functions until the hooks, the breaks, and, of course, the bass are burned into the brain of every attendee." Maxwell Cavaseno of HotNewHipHop concluded that Die Lit "feels like the closest to a fully realized album as Carti is ever going to come close to achieving" and that it "should, at the very least, be respected for doing so much while doing so very little." Online publicationSputnikmusic stated: "A lot of the gratification of this record is in the production, which takes the age-old hip-hop trick of taking a fractional melodic idea, barely a song by itself, and spinning out of it a thick sonic weave." A. Harmony from Exclaim! criticized the album for having a lack of variety, saying "It's fun enough but, save for a few keepers, has the lifespan of a mayfly. Rock to it for the summer and forget most of it by September." Riley Wallace of HipHopDX stated, "Through a more respectable body of work—is unlikely to win over any naysayers." Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic said, "Like Rae Sremmurd and Migos, these big-bass trap anthems owe much to their club-friendly vibe, but offer little in terms of substance or lasting impact."
