Asking Cardi B to thoughts her tongue is like asking an oceanic creature to desert its undersea residence. It’s not fucking taking place. The Bronx MC lives and breathes controversy, even when she’s not deliberately courting it. Since her 2017 breakthrough single, “Bodak Yellow,” Cardi B has steadily revealed herself to be the high-profile movie star of our time, a larger-than-life persona who’s simply as fast to decorate down the typical Barb as she is to eviscerate her personal friends.
Between a messy divorce, infants (infants, and extra infants), rap beefs, web vitriol, and courtroom instances, Cardi B has remained within the public eye. That is all even if she hadn’t released an album since 2018’s Grammy-winning Invasion of Privacy. Her new album, Am I the Drama?, confirms that sure, Cardi B is the rationale for the entire chaotic conditions she consistently finds herself in — however is she at fault, or is she simply shining too vivid? Cardi’s newest mission is an providing of proof that she’s a innocent sufferer of hating-ass bitches and ain’t-shit n****s. It’s as much as us to imagine her.
In a latest Spotify conversation with Future’s Youngster royalty Kelly Rowland, Cardi make clear the inspiration behind Am I the Drama? “Typically, followers or folks might be like, ‘Oh, don’t give them vitality,’” Cardi stated. “‘They don’t deserve your vitality,’ or like, ‘They don’t deserve your clout or your consideration.’ And it’s like, nah, you understand what? Fuck it. I’mma give it to you. It’s like, fuck it, I’mma give it to you. As a result of typically folks be like, ‘Simply ignore, ignore, ignore. Take the excessive highway.’ And it’s like, ‘Fuck the excessive highway.’” For those who’ve been paying even a smidgen of consideration, you understand that Cardi B’s aversion to going excessive when others go low is unsurprising. This album is her alternative to get her lick again on everybody who has been praying on her downfall, be it for years or minutes.
The opening observe, “Lifeless,” options R&B diva Summer season Walker singing extra passionately than we’ve heard her shortly, as Cardi raps about her foremost purpose of killing the competitors: “They are saying, ‘Cardi, you tweaking,’ nah, I don’t be tweaking sufficient/ Bitches be doing shit and I be letting it slide and I don’t be bringing it up/ Bitches be out right here telling lies about me and y’all simply be consuming it up/ However once I drag her to hell, ‘Cardi, you evil as fuck!’” On the BossMan Dlow-inspired “Magnet,” Cardi menacingly sharpens a lyrical machete in a pointed assault in opposition to JT of the previous Miami rap group Metropolis Ladies. For almost a minute straight, Cardi shatters the rapper’s picture, with out a single care or fuck to provide.
“Fairly & Petty” is surprising sonically, because it bangs like a tune that West Coast newcomer AZ Chike would place on his personal debut album. However thematically, it’s proper on cue, as Cardi makes use of the whole tune to re-escalate her beef with Boston rapper BIA, an artist she’s been focusing on since her characteristic on final yr’s “Wanna Be” remix with GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion. “Title 5 BIA songs, gun pointing to your head/ Bow, I’m lifeless,” she raps on the high of the observe, earlier than launching into an outright assault primarily based on accomplishments. “You wanna beef with me, are you certain?/ Do she even acquired a BET Award?” (Whereas a BET Award is a excessive honor within the Black group, it’s typically seen as low on the totem pole of awards throughout the trade.)
