Followers have been bothering Cardi B to launch the follow-up to her blockbuster 2018 debut Invasion of Privateness for a half-decade now — and the chatter has gotten even louder for the reason that launch of her new “Like What (Freestyle)” final Friday (March 1). However does Cardi actually need that second album to solidify her present standing and her total legacy — and does she actually need it *now*? Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop author Michael Saponara and deputy director Carl Lamarre current the opposing instances.
WHY CARDI NEEDS TO DROP HER NEW ALBUM NOW
The 12 months 2018 was a very long time in the past. COVID-19 wasn’t a factor but, LeBron James left his Cleveland roots for Lakerland and Cardi B dropped her blockbuster Invasion of Privateness debut album.
It’s been 2,160 days since Cardi’s acclaimed first Invasion, to be exact – with the sixth anniversary of her debut approaching subsequent month. That counter shouldn’t go an excessive amount of larger, because it’s time for Cardi to lastly ship on her long-anticipated sophomore LP.
The Bronx bombshell lit the fuse for 2024 on Friday (March 1) with the fiery “Like What (Freestyle),” which serves as Cardi’s first totally solo single since 2021’s “Up.” That single went on to earn her a fifth Billboard Scorching 100 No. 1 hit, together with a Grammy nomination for finest rap efficiency.
Cardi tantalized followers as soon as once more seemingly about an album presumably being within the works on the finish of the Offset-directed music video for her new single. “That is just the start… Keep Tuned,” the clip’s closing credit left followers with a glimmer of hope.
Even with out a sophomore album, the rap celebrity has maintained her star energy and located a rhythm tending to the Bardi Gang over the previous half-decade by dropping off a couple of unfastened singles a 12 months (“WAP,” “Cash,” “Bongos”), a lot of which have carried out very nicely on the charts. When Cardi hasn’t been catering to mom duties, going off on Chick-fil-A or inking profitable model offers, she’s additionally been hopping on (and serving to elevate) different artists’ waves with a handful of visitor options, like on Kay Flock’s menacing “Shake It,” Latto’s “Put It On Da Ground” and GloRilla’s star-making “Tomorrow 2.”
And there’s little question Cardi B set the bar excessive with Invasion of Privateness extraordinarily excessive, and being in comparison with these requirements is a frightening proposition. IOP soared to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 226,000 album-equivalent models upon its April 2018 debut. The mission additionally produced a pair of Scorching 100-toppers, as her breakout anthem “Bodak Yellow” and the Latin-tinged “I Like It” with Unhealthy Bunny and J Balvin reached the chart apex. It gained rap album of the 12 months on the 2019 Grammys, had each observe at the very least licensed platinum by the RIAA, and have become the primary by a feminine rapper to spend over 200 weeks on the Billboard 200 within the years after. The album was later ranked by Billboard‘s workers as one of many 20 better of the 2010s, and by Rolling Stone as one of many 20 finest hip-hop albums of all time.
However some pundits have begun to theorize that Invasion‘s success has her shook a couple of potential follow-up. Whereas deeming the “lady rapper wave over” in a current episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, Budden speculated that Cardi B was “scared” to drop her sophomore effort.
“Cardi B is afraid,” the rapper-turned-podcaster declared. “And I’m uninterested in simply no person saying it. Cardi B is scared to return out [with her new album]. It don’t take this lengthy to return out. They lately discovered yearly the place she plugged the place she was coming relationship again to 2019. It’s six totally different slides of you saying you had been coming. Even this freestyle was previewed a 12 months in the past.”
Budden believes Cardi’s terrified of the backlash and fame hit she might take if the anticipated LP doesn’t reside as much as expectations. “I believe that she’s afraid to place a mission out. As a result of the wave of in the event you put a mission out and it don’t do what it’s presupposed to do, you’re donezo,” he added. “Charges go down, costs go down.”
Final week, Offset lent Cardi B an encouraging push to drop the album whereas listening to unreleased warmth from his boo in an Instagram Story. “Cease being scary and drop the album s–t goes loopy [fire emoji] @iamcardib,” he wrote.
It’s practically inconceivable to construct a adorned profession legacy with only one official album. Even The Infamous B.I.G. launched two prolific our bodies of labor – the second of which arrived 16 days after his homicide. Whereas some will level to Lauryn Hill’s one-and-done technique with the stainless The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which she’s nonetheless touring off the energy of over 25 years later, that’s clearly extra the exception than the rule — and even Hill had achieved blockbuster success as a part of the Fugees previous to going solo.
Extra importantly, a half-decade layoff is hardly a demise sentence for an album artist’s momentum — there are many current R&B and hip-hop examples of artists efficiently going 5 years or extra between initiatives.
SZA silenced the doubters together with her deadly SOS album in December 2022, which has remained a staple within the prime 10 of the Billboard 200 since its launch. She earned an album of the 12 months nomination on the 2024 Grammys and was considered one of Billboard’s greatest snubs of the evening. And regardless that different elements had been at play contributing to the prolonged hiatus such because the tragic Astroworld Pageant, Travis Scott adopted up 2018’s ASTROWORLD with UTOPIA, which was the best-selling rap album of 2023. Each artists additionally launched into profitable area excursions following their initiatives.
In the meantime, the early returns on ScHoolboy Q’s Blue Lips album have been overwhelmingly constructive in comparison with the lukewarm reception to 2019’s tepid CrasH Discuss. Rival Nicki Minaj went over 5 years between 2018’s Queen and final December’s Pink Friday 2, a flexible and well-received sequel that debuted atop the Billboard 200.
Cardi has heard all the noise, and she or he’s once more promising the Bardi Gang her long-awaited album will drop sooner or later in 2024. Throughout an Instagram Story video over the weekend that confirmed off her file of tracks within the stash, the 31-year-old relayed that she’s decided to brush off the critics and people in her ear whereas sticking to her instinct when creating.
“I promise y’all this 12 months, I’m not letting my nervousness, I’m not letting what haters say, I’m not letting what followers say [get in the way] – if I do a tune, I’m simply gon’ f—-ng drop it,” she mentioned. “Nicely, I’ve no alternative as a result of I’m dropping my album this 12 months. So keep tuned for the announcement, however don’t play with me.”
Lots of music’s A-listers (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande) are lining as much as drop albums in 2024 and Cardi B must be including her title to that record. Between hitting turbulence in her relationship with Offset, turning into a mom of two and discovering elevated competitors within the rap recreation, she’s obtained loads of lyrical content material at her disposal to hit the sales space with.
She additionally arguably has fiercer competitors than when she final dropped an album. Rap friends like Sexyy Purple, Latto, Flo Mill, Coi Leray, BIA and Ice Spice have entered the rap race, making the lane steered by Cardi and Nicki busier than years prior, whereas Megan Thee Stallion got here out of the gate weapons blazing in January with “HISS” topping the Scorching 100, Whereas Cardi and Nicki Minaj are at all times going to be pitted towards each other, Nicki will preserve the historic edge in the case of her strong discography till the Bronx native delivers one other LP.
If Cardi desires to take care of her standing atop the rap meals chain, she wants one other LP in her repertoire, which is not going to solely fortify her present place within the recreation, however strengthen her argument in the case of being taken significantly as an all-time nice rapper. If these are the conversations she’s trying to maintain her personal in in the future, one other album will cement her standing in rap lore.
It wasn’t that way back that Cardi B was checked out as the brand new celebrity on the block in hip-hop, however relationship again to her 2016 and 2017 Gangsta B—h Music mixtapes, she’s pushing a decade within the trade with a lone album to point out for it. And if people like Budden are going to maintain proclaiming a untimely finish to the “lady rapper wave,” it might be extra vital than ever for Cardi to face up and let the trade know that feminine rappers proudly owning actual property in hip-hop’s mainstream will not be some novel pattern dying out quickly.
“Each single time individuals tear me down, it offers me extra starvation to show them improper,” Cardi instructed TRL in 2018. Betting on herself has proved to be a profitable formulation time and time once more, and what higher time to take her personal recommendation than now? — MICHAEL SAPONARA
WHY CARDI DOESN’T NEED TO DROP HER NEW ALBUM NOW
Cardi B gained at life even earlier than 2018. She first gained when she slammed her locker shut, retired from the strip membership, and have become an all-time actuality TV favourite in 2015 on VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop. The Bronx dynamo’s subsequent and finest pivot got here when she pursued rap full-time and unleashed her membership firestarter “Bodak Yellow” in 2017. Her magnetic hook, “Little b–ch, you may’t f–okay with me in the event you needed to,” turned the 12 months’s most unavoidable refrain chant, serving to “Yellow” change into the rapper’s first Billboard Scorching 100-topping smash.
The blast was seismic. At a time when Nicki Minaj had feminine rap within the Cobra Clutch, no person was near toppling her Pinkprint behemoth. As soon as “Bodak Yellow” detonated, Cardi rocketed to the moon — and saved her foot on the fuel from there, vigorously sweeping by way of options, sprinkling her sauce on hit data like Bruno Mars’s “Finesse” and G-Eazy’s “No Restrict,” and even buying and selling verses with Nicki on Migos’ “Motorsport.” Lastly, the discharge of her 2018 debut album Invasion of Privateness positioned her in hallowed territory: a Grammy-winning, Billboard 200-topping rap debut album, one which dominated year-end critics’ lists and earned RIAA platinum certifications or larger for every of its 13 tracks. Shortly after delivering her masterwork, questions arose about an encore. May she recapture the magic? May she go back-to-back like Jordan did in ’91 and ’92?
There’s no motive to suppose she couldn’t. However the true query is, does she even have to?
If Cardi B retired immediately, she’d already be a Corridor of Famer. She has 5 Scorching 100 No. 1’s, to go together with 11 prime 10s, and 46 entries on the chart, all in a seven-year span. Following the discharge of Invasion, she landed two No. 1s with “WAP” in 2020 (alongside Megan Thee Stallion) and the solo “Up” in 2021. Throughout that span, she additionally launched into a storied options run: Her sixteens elevated careers a la Drake, as her Midas contact introduced mainstream consciousness to hitmakers and/or future stars like GloRilla (“Tomorrow 2”), Blueface (“Thotiana”), Kay Flock (“Shake It”), and FendiDaRappa (“Level Me 2”).
For Cardi, the formulation any more must be easy: launch data quarterly and demolish each characteristic on sight. This blueprint permits Cardi flexibility and retains her within the Huge Three dialog with Nicki and Megan concerning the feminine rap hierarchy – even amidst the stiffer competitors from some spectacular rising stars on this decade, who nonetheless have nonetheless solely racked up a fraction of Cardi’s profession highlights and accomplishments.
As Mike talked about, Lauryn Hill has loved success over the past 25 years, and stays in rarified air, primarily resulting from her solely solo studio album, 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She has been capable of carry out at festivals and even launched into a tour final 12 months celebrating the album. However even with only one official LP, every, Cardi’s post-Invasion output nonetheless units her other than twenty first century Lauryn. Cardi’s capacity to hopscotch on data and launch one-off singles, alongside together with her enterprise dealings with Reebok, Whipshots, Pepsi, NYX Cosmetics and different manufacturers, will at all times maintain her within the dialog.
Whereas following the schedule of quarterly singles and showing on options, Cardi would additionally do nicely to lastly embark on that long-awaited U.S. tour. As a result of Cardi has but to hit the street for a full trek and now has a laundry bag of hits, she might rapidly promote out an area tour. Even then, touring doesn’t must be a right away possibility for the “Cash” MC, as a result of Cardi has confirmed she will be able to simply web one-off exhibits, like in 2022 when she carried out 35 minutes for $1 million. To take it up a notch, she might in all probability do a Tremendous Bowl efficiency proper now, simply off her discography alone. In the event you give Cardi 12 minutes, you’ll get the hits and a few incredible company on the facet.
If and when Cardi elects to drop her sophomore album, she’d undoubtedly go No. 1 off of fanfare and curiosity alone. However would it not mechanically elevate her legacy? The present and the curse with Invasion is that she dropped a landmark album that comes as soon as in a blue moon. These expectations for a possible follow-up have solely grown to fever-pitch ranges, particularly since she retains mentioning that the album is coming and it by no means does. It might be daunting for any artist to reside as much as.
Sadly, this has allowed critics like Joe Budden to have a subject day together with her. After taunting Cardi and Megan final 12 months, deeming “Bongos” as an inferior sequel to “WAP,” he doubled down following her “Like What” freestyle, calling her “scared” for not dropping the sophomore set but.
Does Cardi actually need to endure this sort of strain when she’s already reached the mountaintop of music? The one modern-day artist on Cardi’s business and important degree to launch an acclaimed debut album after which surpass that first mission the subsequent day trip is arguably SZA: S.O.S. got here 5 years after CTRL, and whereas the TDE’s singer’s explosion on the scene was a sight to see, it didn’t shake the room a la Invasion, in the end proving extra of a slow-burning success.
An 8/10 wouldn’t get it carried out for Cardi at this level, due to the large expectations that her debut album established. With the eye span of listeners these days, music appreciation is totally different from 2018: Cardi launched an album the identical 12 months that Daytona, Victory Lap, and Astroworld dropped. These had been all seminal albums, but hers rose to the highest.
So, my message for Cardi: Take your flowers and be glad. Whereas the noise from these beneath you will be fairly deafening, simply do not forget that what you instructed your haters seven years in the past nonetheless applies: “Little b–ch, you may’t f–okay with me, in the event you needed to.”