Cardi B
Am I the Drama?
ATLANTIC
When Cardi B finished her long-awaited sophomore album and went for its cherry-on-top designation, her question was not only rhetorical, but silly. Of course she’s the drama. The fact is, since audiences caught hold of Cardi as a diamond-in-the-rough reality television sensation turned rapper with her unique Afro-Caribbean style and sex-forward lyricism on display, she’s been the operatic focus of all that she’s surveyed.
It’s not as if Am I the Drama? is so much harder or harsher than her diss-heavy debut, 2018’s Invasion of Privacy. There’s plenty of fight songs and fuck-first-talk-later tracks here. Seven years of feuds and infidelities, however, have given Cardi the time to stew and marinate, to—in Costanza-ian terms—shout her airing of grievances aloud and in order with the bitch-fest sloganeering of “Magnet,” “Killin You Hoes,” and “Pretty & Petty.” Hell, if you start a record with the threats and taunts of “Dead” (“I’m collecting body bags like they purses” ), where can you go but down?
Yet this hearty Cardi is not without its surprising vulnerability or softness (“Man of Your Word” tears the ass out of her cheating mate without naming him, but also contemplates her own doe-eyed levels of trust), and therefore is more fully rounded than the rapper fresh off of Love & Hip Hop. Both “Safe” and “Principal” espouse the virtues of finding men of honor rather than those with cash and flash. And she’s not diluting herself to hold onto a false belief that she’s made it all look easy—a life without stability or fidelity, but overcoming such strife, is at the heart of “Trophies” and “ErrTime.”
And this is something that I cannot stress enough: Am I the Drama?, like a swanky club, comes with a VIP guest list (Janet Jackson, Summer Walker, Megan Thee Stallion, Selena Gomez) and a host of star producers (London on da Track, Ayo & Keyz), but is hardly a velvet-rope affair. Instead, Cardi B’s second album is weirdly down-to-earth, a grand pavement-to-penthouse-and-back-again journey through love and hip-hop. This one may be a bit glossy for a Best Hip-Hop Album of the Year award, but, song for song, pound for pound, I dare you to find a more qualified contender to beat it.
