He actually had fans going for it. Playboi Carti set the music world on fire for a few hours on September 12th. He dropped a link with a big announcement at 9:30pm ET. Fans immediately went wild with theories. Could Playboi Carti finally release a single? Could he drop a release date for the new album? Maybe even the album itself! The possibilities were endless. Then 9:30pm came and we found out what the announcement was.

Playboi Carti decided to release box sets to accompany his upcoming album. Well, no need. He released pre-order links for the box sets for the upcoming album. One of the sets includes a hoodie, another a t-shirt, and the last a hat. All three pieces of clothing feature the logo for his upcoming album. MUSICemblazoned on it. It’s not bad in a vacuum, but Playboi Carti had everyone rushing for something big. The hype leading up to the announcement didn’t match the announcement itself. Fans weren’t happy.

The meme machine was fast and efficient, with Carti fans whipping up the same old familiar fare, like compilations of brick shots and that one image of the man applying clown makeup in the mirror. “F*ck you playboi carti and your mysterious sh*t we all know you’re just a regular ass fake as f*ck,” wrote one particularly angry Twitter user. Others were less aggressive and simply tired of being strung along. “Playboi Carti. We’re sick of this,” tweeted another user. “We’re sick of this. Please give us what we want.”

There is some silver lining to the pre-order drop. Well, sort of. Playboi Carti released a statement confirming that the album’s release date will be “announced soon.” An announcement before an announcement. Like we said, sort of. Fans don’t want to hear any more promises from Carti at this point, though. They want to vent their frustrations. Keep scrolling to read more social media reactions to the pump fake drop. Do you think Carti will eventually release his album? Let us know in the comments and check back soon for more music/pop culture news updates.