Asking Cardi B to thoughts her tongue is like asking an oceanic creature to desert its undersea house. 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 superstar of our time, a larger-than-life character 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 circumstances, Cardi B has remained within the public eye. That is all even though she hadn’t launched an album since 2018’s Grammy-winning Invasion of Privateness. Her new album, Am I the Drama?, confirms that sure, Cardi B is the explanation for the entire chaotic conditions she continually finds herself in — however is she at fault, or is she simply shining too vibrant? Cardi’s newest challenge 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 consider her.
In a latest Spotify dialog with Future’s Youngster royalty Kelly Rowland, Cardi make clear the inspiration behind Am I the Drama? “Generally, followers or folks shall be like, ‘Oh, don’t give them power,’” Cardi stated. “‘They don’t deserve your power,’ or like, ‘They don’t deserve your clout or your consideration.’ And it’s like, nah, you already know what? Fuck it. I’mma give it to you. It’s like, fuck it, I’mma give it to you. As a result of generally folks be like, ‘Simply ignore, ignore, ignore. Take the excessive highway.’ And it’s like, ‘Fuck the excessive highway.’” Should you’ve if been paying even a smidgen of consideration, you already know 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 monitor, “Useless,” options R&B diva Summer time Walker singing extra passionately than we’ve heard her shortly, as Cardi raps about her foremost aim 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 after 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 Women. For almost a minute straight, Cardi shatters the rapper’s picture, with no single care or fuck to provide.
“Fairly & Petty” is sudden sonically, because it bangs like a music 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 all the music to re-escalate her beef with Boston rapper BIA, an artist she’s been concentrating on since her function 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 useless,” she raps on the high of the monitor, earlier than launching into an outright assault primarily based on accomplishments. “You wanna beef with me, are you positive?/ Do she even acquired a BET Award?” (Whereas a BET Award is a excessive honor within the Black neighborhood, it’s generally seen as low on the totem pole of awards throughout the business.)