Congratulations are in order for Cardi B, whose debut album, Invasion of Privacy, dropped minutes ago and is already eligible for a Gold certification.
The Bronx-born rapper can attribute this figure to the massive success of her debut Atlantic Records single, “Bodak Yellow,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 last September and is certified 5x Multi-Platinum (5 million units) by the RIAA. As Chart Data recently noted, 10 track units equal one album sale, which means Invasion of Privacy has moved 500,000 units on the strength of “Bodak Yellow” alone, enough to earn a Gold certification.
The success of "Bodak Yellow" has been nothing short of extraordinary. The track bubbled at No. 2 on the Hot 100 for two weeks under Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" before finally dethroning the pop queen, making Cardi B the second female rapper to score a solo No. 1 hit on the chart, after Lauryn Hill first accomplished the feat in 1998 with "Doo Wop (That Thing)." (Her three-week run atop the chart set a new record for a solo female rapper as well.) The boisterous, inexplicably catchy banger consummated Cardi's transition from reality TV star (she appeared on VH1's Love & Hip Hop: New York in 2015) into rapper, proving she had the talent and the star power to make a serious dent on the charts.
Unfortunately for Cardi, the units from "Bodak Yellow" won’t be counted toward Invasion of Privacy's first week sales total. Still, “Bodak Yellow” turned the 25-year-old MC into a household name, and her features have helped launch several other artists’ singles into the Top 10. She also just earned another Platinum certification for her own hit, “Bartier Cardi,” which peaked at No. 14. In other words, Cardi’s Invasion of Privacy should do just fine in its first week, with or without the “Bodak” boost.
Listen to Invasion of Privacy on Spotify now.
Leading up to the release of this debut album, Cardi B could be seen on her Instagram stories working late into the night, finishing its final tracks just days before it was due out. Tired, reportedly pregnant, without makeup and lit in her phone’s blue light, she again showed the unguarded realness that has made her rap’s most endearing new star. From her social media snaps to her complete lack of mystery, she epitomises the notion of “no filter” in every sense. As she says on the origins-story opener Get Up 10: “I started speaking my mind and tripled my views / Real bitch, only thing fake is the boobs.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The cover of Cardi B’s album Invasion of Privacy. Photograph: Atlantic
This lack of stage-school poise is a result of her decidedly earthy background. A former gang member and stripper from the Bronx who took a long, modern route to fame via reality TV and Instagram hilarity, she broke through last year with Bodak Yellow, a withering track that crushed her enemies with the calm, latent aggression of a boxer at the weigh-in. She’s since had another big solo hit (Bartier Cardi) and two notable guest spots: on MotorSport, alongside Nicki Minaj, Cardi’s fiance Offset and his fellow MCs in Migos; and on Finesse, Bruno Mars’ nostalgic revival of new jack swing. The block-party cheer of the latter showed she was capable of more than just verbal disembowelment, and her album continues to show off a rounded, emotionally complex human being.
Yes, there are still plenty of commanding, Bodak Yellow-style moments, not least the gigantic Money Bag, which rides a slow, caustic electro backing towards the album’s most eyepop-emoji punchline: “I don’t understand what this hate is about / How you gon’ suck yo man dick with my name in yo mouth?”
There is more cartoonish ribaldry throughout. On I Do, she announces that her “pussy so good I said my own name during sex”. Again referring to her vagina, she requests that her paramour “beat it like piñatas”. One man is so taken by her breasts, she says, that he compares them to Beyoncé’s infant twins. “Spread them asscheeks open, make that pussy crack a smile,” she demands.
And yet there is a political, even feminist element to all this. One look at the tastemaking Spotify playlist Rap Caviar will show you how overwhelmingly male the scene still is, and in their tracks, women are often reduced to mere “beasts” and “bad girls”, seduced into infidelity less for sexual pleasure than as a way to cuckold their partners in a war of masculinity. The common use of “thot” – an acronym for “that ho over there” – shows how depersonalised women often are. Like Lil Kim, Foxy Brown and Nicki Minaj before her, Cardi’s genius is to take the sexually available “thot” image and rehumanise it, reminding boorish men of women’s agency, wit and emotional reality.
And there is far more to her than a Louboutin heel ground into a man’s chest. After four tracks of strutting self-confidence comes the vulnerable Be Careful, her husky plea that a cheating partner treats her better. Her usual anger, thrown off by pain, is modulated into need: “Tell me where your mind is, drop a pin, what’s the coordinates?” Thru Your Phone and Ring – the latter with a strong chorus from Kehlani – affectingly explore the contemporary romantic paranoia that comes from smartphones.
Then there’s I Like It, where she nods to her Latin heritage (her father is from the Dominican Republic) on a trap-salsa track with a penetrating bass wobble; and Best Life, whose laid-back beat invites self-reflection, and as Cardi raps about her triumph over adversity, there is something so keen and poignant about how badly she needs to tell her story. A brilliant guest turn by Chance the Rapper, adding his trademark blessing-counting energy, makes it a highlight.
'I want you to feel that empowerment': how Cardi B went from stripper to star Read more
In an age of slurred mumble-rap and sing-song delivery, there’s an old-school satisfaction in hearing someone deliver their bars with such, well, finesse. There’s even a touch of Biggie to the way she balances a thick local accent with absolute clarity and perfectly weighted metre, but her way of drawing out vowels before slamming them into teeth-kissing consonants is all her own. Cliches like “I did this on my own, I made this a lane” still work, meanwhile, because Cardi B actually has done it on her own and made her own lane. Thanks to her killer punchlines, emotional range and just being a total force of nature, she has absolutely earned her “real-life fairy tale, Binderella shit”.
Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
In just one day, Cardi B’s debut album, Invasion of Privacy, will be upon us. The album, out April 6, has been months in the making, anticipated ever since Cardi shot to fame after Love & Hip-Hop: New York with the release of “Bodak Yellow,” one of the undisputed songs of last summer. There’s a lot riding on the Bronx native’s first album and, so far, we’ve had more questions than answers: Will Beyoncé be on it? What will it reveal about her rocky relationship with Offset from Migos? Is there really going to be singing? Let’s get into what we know.
It has two lead singles
It could be argued that there wouldn’t be an album if it weren’t for Cardi’s juggernaut debut single, “Bodak Yellow.” It’s the song that launched her as a phenomenon and it, of course, will be on her debut album.
Her follow-up single, “Bartier Cardi,” will also appear on the album and was just given a luxurious video.
She will sing and rap
Cardi B is about as multi-hyphenate as they come, so it should surprise no one that her debut album will not be limited to rap. While “Bodak Yellow” and “Bartier Cardi” may have demonstrated her knack for sharp, brazen bars, the album’s third single, “Be Careful,” showcased her ability to carry a song with sung vocals, too.
In a “preview” of the album that was actually a fake-out, Cardi also covered the Cheetah Girls’ “Cinderella” and nailed every note.
Invasion of privacy😌😌 A post shared by Cardi B Official IG (@iamcardib) on Mar 28, 2018 at 7:13pm PDT
But that doesn’t mean the album will lean on the lighter side of her sound. In an Instagram Live, she previewed one potential song off the album that drew comparisons to Meek Mill’s famed rapid fire, anthemic “Dreams and Nightmares” intro, which recounted his origin story. Cardi’s version also appears to be autobiographical, performed at a similarly dizzying speed.
Cardi said
“I was covered in dollars now im dripping in jewels” pic.twitter.com/HxGVCgkkIY — Benito Muesli (@dances) March 12, 2018
She also shared (but deleted) a snippet of a separate song that could be on the album, a delightful ode to her derriere.
She will address her relationship woes with Offset
Cardi B and Migos member Offset’s yearlong relationship has been anything but a honeymoon: The two quickly got engaged following months of dating, but a video of Offset cheating with another woman in a hotel room emerged soon after the engagement. Much of the ensuing drama played out on Instagram, with Cardi briefly announcing she was single, but then the two made amends before the dust could even settle on the breakup. It appears Invasion of Privacy will clear up the confusion: The track “Be Careful” is aimed at a cheating partner, though it never mentions Offset by name (as Cardi does in most of her other songs)*. “You want some random bitch up in your bed? / She don’t even know your middle name, watch her ‘cause she might steal your chain,” she sings.
Track titles “Ring,” “Thru Your Phone,” and “I Do” also seem to allude to the relationship. Despite their lovers’ quarrels, Cardi told Beats 1 that she made a love song for Offset to, well, offset the heartache: “I did a love song, and while I was doing the verse I just kept thinking about a couple of months back when me and him weren’t on really good terms. And I was getting really pissed off and really emotional and I was like, ‘Who cares? I got a ring!’”
*Update: In a new Beats 1 interview premiering with her album release, Cardi says “Be Careful” is not specifically about Offset, but her general experiences with men. “No, I wasn’t talkin’ about Offset, I was just talkin’ about things I relate to and that have happened to me … First of all, I heard the record before I even was in love with Offset like that.”
Migos will be involved
Though Offset might be in the doghouse for some of the album, he will make an appearance beyond just lyrical sublimination. Migos are featured on “Drip,” their second collaboration with Cardi following “MotorSport.” Cardi and Offset share rapping duties on the song’s hook, if that’s any indication that the two are still amicable.
Maybe Beyoncé will be on it, maybe not
At last summer’s Made in America Festival, the new people’s princess met queen B. Cardi and Beyoncé had a photo op, which then quickly escalated to rumors of a collaboration (fueled by a recording engineer who leaked a photo of the apparent track). Cardi has since claimed that photo was fake, and Beyoncé doesn’t appear on the official track list. (Singer Kehlani also said she and Cardi made “a jam” for Cardi’s album, but she is not on the track list either.) However, in sharing that track list, Cardi noted that there will be “more surprises” on album-release day, so there’s still hope!
It’ll probably be multilingual
Cardi B is half-Dominican and has nodded to her Latinx roots, singing in Spanish on “La Modelo,” her collaboration with Puerto Rican singer Ozuna. She also appeared on the remix to Chris Jeday’s “Ahora Dice.” She previously released a Spanish version of “Bodak Yellow” and sings some Spanglish on “Be Careful,” so it’s safe to assume at least some of the album will be multilingual. Maybe even some Russian and French?
Maybe she wrote it, maybe not
Rumors that Cardi B does not write her own lyrics have dogged the rapper since she borrowed Kodak Black’s flow for “Bodak Yellow.” But accusations that she’s guilty of using a ghostwriter have recently escalated on social media. Following the release of “Be Careful,” a video surfaced of New York rapper Pardison Fontaine rapping the same lyrics to the same beat, leading many to believe Cardi either stole his song, or he wrote it without properly being credited. However, as Complex notes, Fontaine writes under the name Jordan Thorpe and is credited on the song as that name; Thorpe is also credited as a writer on “Bodak Yellow.”
same exact beat.
same exact lyrics.
can you address why @lifeofthePARDI was already rapping “Be Careful” on IG last year? @iamcardib pic.twitter.com/PxzW4bTxg4 — shawn ☝🏽 (@saytruuuth) March 30, 2018
Cardi later responded to a fan who said that the song having 17 songwriters raises suspicion about her writing contributions, explaining in a since-deleted tweet that she has to credit all writers, including anyone whose lyrics she interpolates (more on that below). She also noted that she will go into further detail about the controversy in future interviews*, but that she won’t stand by and allow people to discredit her work.
I will never let nobody discredit me ,before i sign to Atlantic i put 2 mixtapes out and i was pushing FOREVA by myself .I went to Renaissance HS for musical theater .I been love music .After high school i Stopped wanna know why ?cause music DONT PAY YOUR FUCKING BILLS A JOB DOES — iamcardib (@iamcardib) March 27, 2018
*Update: Cardi now tells Beats 1 that she did, indeed, purchase the song from Fontaine after he played her a verse in the studio, she fell in love with the song, and they agreed to work on it together. Cardi also says that Hill herself had to hear the song for approval and gave her blessing to clear the sample. “Nobody could talk shit about this record to me because the sensei approved it,” she says.
It was finished at the eleventh hour
Some albums are completed months in advance, others are still being fine-tuned up to the minute they hit streaming services (and, in the case of Kanye, even months after the fact). Cardi appears to be taking the latter route, saying on Instagram earlier in the week that she had to fight through a cold in Miami to record one last track she wanted to include on the album. (It’s unclear which was the late addition, or if it even made the cut.)
It’s already a hit
The music business is a numbers game, and it’s all about strategy. To ensure that an album will do well in sales, most artists and record labels have started to tack on older singles to albums to reap the streaming benefits. (Drake famously did that with “Hotline Bling” and Views.) Invasion of Privacy will, of course, include “Bodak Yellow,” making it instantly eligible for gold RIAA certification (signifying 500,000 albums sold) because of the single’s already-established streaming and sales numbers. (Those numbers won’t, however, factor into the album’s first-week sales.) But shhh, no one tell her it’s going to be big, you’re stressing her out!
I’m also seeing predictions on sales and numbers .Please STOP! I’m already having bad anxiety .Let the shit drop and do what it do. — iamcardib (@iamcardib) March 27, 2018
It pays homage to Lauryn Hill
When “Bodak Yellow” hit No. 1, Cardi B became the first female rapper to have a solo No. 1 song since Lauryn Hill in 1998. On “Be Careful,” Cardi nods to the history by interpolating “Ex-Factor” on the song’s bridge. What’s more, Hill is given a co-writing credit on “Be Careful” for use of her lyrics (and, in turn, Wu-Tang Clan are also credited, since “Ex-Factor” borrows from “Can It Be All So Simple”).
There have been many delays
Cardi B’s rap ascent has been rapid enough that expectations to deliver her debut album and prove she’s more than a one-hit wonder began the second “Bodak Yellow” reached No. 1. For that reason, Cardi has said she took her time to make it perfect, and pushed back the release date multiple times. “I have a lot of pressure on me. I have songs stashed up. I just don’t think they qualified for my album, ” she tweeted last November. “Sometimes I think it’s ready. Sometimes, I think it’s not, so I’m going to take my time till it’s right.” It seems the right time is now.
When Cardi B first appeared on Love & Hip Hop: New York and told the world she wanted to rap, a collective eye roll spread across the faces of viewers considering that just about everyone who appears on any iteration of Love & Hip Hop has yet to use the show as a trampoline into the rare air of success in the music industry. But the charismatic former stripper from the Bronx with a penchant for a witty one-liner floored the universe when she dropped her magnetic “Bodak Yellow” and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks.
Despite the success of the song (and her follow up "Bartier Cardi”), the question remained whether she was the female version of J-Kwon or if this was the start of something new. Fast forward ten months and Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy crashed into our social media feeds Thursday night and dominated conversation with the 25-year-old’s debut album.
With guests including Chance The Rapper, Kehlani, YG, SZA and Migos, Cardi B’s 45-minute romp is easily the talk of the town in a year that has already seen some stellar rap albums.
Here are five things we learned with our first listen to Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy.
Sorry Haters: Cardi B Is Here to Stay
For the detractors who thought that Cardi B was a one-hit wonder who lucked up with “Bodak Yellow," we regret to be the ones to inform you that you were wrong. Dead wrong. Belcalis Almanzar is here to stay because Invasion of Privacy is sonically engaging and stuffed with one-liners that will surely reverberate throughout conversation for some time. Aside from “Bodak Yellow” and “Bartier Cardi” there are a number of songs that will surely be rattling trunks and stripper poles across the 50 states. From the sly nod and wink to Project Pat on “Bickenhead” to the relentless thump of “Money Bag,” Cardi made sure that she had bops that will earn repeated listens. If Cardi B isn’t your cup of tea, that’s fine. But to deny her charismatic approach to music would be downright ignorant. And it would also be naive to think that Cardi wasn’t going to address this on her debut album.
“They said by now that I'll be finished, hard to tell/My little 15 minutes lasted long as hell,” she says on the SZA assisted “I Do.”
Well played, Cardi B.
She Delivers The Women’s Version Of “Dreams & Nightmares”
Whether this was purposefully done or not, Cardi B opened the album with the estrogen rendition of Meek Mill’s “Dreams & Nightmares” with “Get Up 10.” From the haunting piano opening to the aggressive manner that the song builds momentum, this is the way you welcome listeners to your world and show them that you mean business. It was also wise to push the humor to the side, pull the earrings out, slide the mouthpiece in and go straight to battle. And although she says everything is love between her and Nicki Minaj, you can’t help but wonder just who she is aiming these lyrics at because somebody has drawn her ire. Her haters, perhaps?
Oh, and once a DJ decides to play this and “Dreams & Nightmares” in the club, it’s almost a guarantee that it will be the rowdiest moment of the night.
You’re Going To Hear This Rags To Riches Story
Look, Cardi B wants you to know that she wasn’t supposed to be here. But now that she is, her story is going to be told. And you’re going to hear it. You will certainly feel it. And you most definitely won’t forget it. Cardi’s life has been an open book for the most part. Between her Love & Hip Hop tenure, her social media presence and her music, her cards are put on the table. The authenticity is undeniable and she has no problem letting you know what has changed since her come up.
“Real bitch, only thing fake is the boobs,” she riffs off on “Get Up 10.” All you can do is appreciate that level of honesty from a woman in a culture where people live in hyperbole and fabrication.
The Social Media Captions Are Plentiful
If Cardi B’s aim was to see her lyrics flood the Internet in a variety of memes and Instagram captions, then the mission was most certainly accomplished. No less than an hour after the album dropped, social media turned into a tsunami of Cardi B quotes. And there’s a little something for everyone to use. Here are a few choice lines that immediately jumped out.
“Shorty said it’s all hers, why her thighs don’t match?” (“She Bad”)
“Boujee, bad and thick, I could buy designer, but this Fashion Nova fit” (“She Bad”)
“Leave his text on read, leave his balls on blue, Put it on airplane mode so none of those calls come through” (“I Do”)
“it’s gonna hurt me to hate you but loving you is worse” (“Be Careful”)
And there is certainly more lines scattered throughout the album.
“Thru Your Phone” Is Going To Start A Lot Of Fights
Invasion of Privacy is an album that will certainly resonate with the ladies. But one song that will most certainly elicit emotion and rattle a few relationships is “Thru Your Phone.” This is the rap equivalent of Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows” where Cardi’s bars about cellular infidelity and retaliation might hit a little too close to home for some. Fellas, the next time you wake up and ask your lady “Why you got an attitude?” Be careful what you ask for.
