[5] He still wanted to work with West due to enjoying his music despite his controversies in the media and after the song's success, him and Ty Dolla Sign were dedicated to production of Rich the Kid's fourth album Life's a Gamble.

[12] Playboi Carti and Rich the Kid joined them,[12] while West's track "Hell of a Life" from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was sampled in place of "Iron Man".

Initially a beat produced solely by TheLabCook, the track was titled "Honor Roll" at the time and Rich the Kid warranted its inclusion due to the elevated level of energy.

[15] Ty Dolla Sign said that he initially hesitated to play the track for West because he was against any hi-hats on the album, although the rapper appreciated it upon his first listen in Las Vegas and then recorded his verse, as well as altering the melody.

[19] Shortly before the release of Vultures 1, Ty Dolla Sign FaceTimed Rich the Kid and played Playboi Carti's verse, sending him the final version across.

[24] The song incorporates a vocal loop of chanting from Inter Milan's ultras on the hook that is accompanied by intones of "ooohhh" and clapping percussion throughout,[22][25][26] which drew comparisons to the melody of "Mo Bamba" (2017) by Sheck Wes.

[22][29] In the lyrics of "Carnival", West, Ty Dolla Sign, Rich the Kid, and Playboi Carti discuss their experiences of oral sex with a woman.

[29][30] West asserted the mention is because Brown is one of the great artists who have struggled to break through due to the machinations of "middle men" in a 2024 interview, expressing that he deserves success and "is a god".

[41] The song was played after West and Ty Dolla Sign had left the stage during their listening event for the record at Milan's Mediolanum Forum on February 22, 2024.

[5] On March 10, 2024, West and Ty Dolla Sign hosted a Vultures listening party at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, which was closed with an audience sing-along to the song after they performed it earlier at the event.

Writing for Billboard, Saponara asserted that "Carnival" is the best song on Vultures 1 and amplifies why West's fans tolerate his controversies, album delays, "and madness ... because nobody in rap creates generational moments like this".

[31] Saponara commended West and Ty Dolla Sign's performances, while feeling the rapper manages to bring out the best of Rich the Kid and Playboi Carti as he "flips the bird to Ozzy" with the sample of "Hell of a Life".

[31] In Rolling Stone, Jayson Buford believed the song manages to invoke West's previous albums Yeezus (2013) and The Life of Pablo (2016), praising the "cutting-edge vocal mutations" that are only possible because of how he contributed to rap in spite of his controversies.

[50] Similarly, The Guardian journalist Alexis Petridis felt it channels West's desire to make a "big, undeniable hit" like he used to release regularly and he praised the hook that leads to a "thrillingly epic style", supported by the sample from a period when his "genius far outshone his ability to provoke outrage".

[25] Eric Skelton of Complex wrote that the album noticeably shows West is trying to produce a hit as he aims for a work that is able to be "chanted by tens of thousands of people in a soccer stadium", citing the song as a key example and observing the additional percussion.

[21][51] At The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber picked the song as a standout on the album for the ultras noisily chanting and said West "riffed on his pariah status" as his gasping resembles a street preacher, observing the musical appeal of the "adrenalizing vocal loop [that] sits atop a bone-crushing bass line".

[22] He highlighted West's move as a popstar in managing to take "an edgy, subcultural sound" and execute it with successful production as the song holds "a sense of menace, a feeling of macho alienation" that unites into a mob.

[22] Kornhaber noted the song's catchiness and powerfulness as he said its "surging sound" can soundtrack lifting weights, venting about work, or planning a coup, although he expressed that the contributing artists deliver "standard-issue pop misogyny".

[28] HotNewHipHop's Aron A. commented that West innovates by utilizing the chants in a manner "unlike anything he's delivered recently", focusing on their energy and the synthesizers as he hailed "Carnival" as the album's highlight.

[23] Providing a mixed review, Rhian Daly of NME wrote off West's self-comparisons and his support for Brown, finding if the words are ignored that creativity is shown from the chants colliding "with a wall of overdriving fuzz".

[52] In a negative review at XXL, Joey Ech wrote that West shows his support for Kelly and Cosby in "perhaps one of his most eyebrow-raising verses to date", noting the mentions of Puff Daddy and Jesus too.

[33] The Times reviewer Will Hodgkinson criticized the song's subject matter of oral sex in a Rolls-Royce from a woman that the performers seemingly hate, questioning if this is the best work West can produce after his controversies.

[32] Steven J. Horowitz from Variety said West "attempts to pour gasoline on the already raging fires" with the "Ye-Kelly" line that is worthy of an eye-roll, complaining that his reference to Swift proves he cannot let their incident go.

"[36][34] Swift's fans organized an attempt online to prevent West from topping the Hot 100 with "Carnival", encouraging streaming of singer Beyoncé's "Texas Hold 'Em".

West responded by posting that the song's proclamation of him being "the new Jesus, bitch" has no connection to Swift and he sided with her when Scooter Braun purchased her masters in 2019, considering the singer and Beyoncé to be inspirational.

This also made West the oldest rapper to reach the summit and marked his fastest time at four weeks, beating the seven-week period for his previous number-one from his feature on Katy Perry's "E.T."

[24][93] In a since-deleted Instagram post promoting the video, West said that the number-one was for Ty Dolla Sign, Rich the Kid, Playboi Carti, and his fans that remained loyal.

[22][96] For The Atlantic, Kornhaber noted that the "mesmerizing" music video shows the likes of skinhead and police trooper figures in imagery that invokes "thoughts of factional war, male anger, and the apocalypse".

[22] HotNewHipHop's Zachary Hovarth described it as a "scroller-esque set of violent and raging CGI imagery", which evidently had the time and energy put in for the shots emulating "the vibe of the cut".

[24] Jon Powell of Revolt said the shots show "aggressive fans turning a stadium upside-down during an intense soccer match", while Guillaume Narduzzi of Pure Charts branded the video as "astonishing".