With ‘Am I the Drama?’ Cardi B hopes to bring back the era of superstar rap albums

It’s been seven years since Cardi B released her debut solo album, Invasion of Privacy. The project marked Cardi’s arrival as rap’s newest household name. She emerges in 2025 with her long-awaited follow-up, Am I the Drama?, as an even bigger star. 

The album is explosive, expensive and full of talking points only Cardi can provide. Yes, it’s a worthy follow up to Invasion of Privacy, but more importantly, Am I The Drama? is a statement about what it means to have a blockbuster album in the post-anthem, post-radio era. 

Cardi B’s rap career began in earnest much like her fame did: with a viral video. 

The 2017 Instagram clip was ostensibly innocuous: Cardi rapped along to a new song while in the studio. The minute-long video showed Cardi riding the beat like a veteran, looking like a natural. Suddenly she went from a reality star promising to drop music to someone who could actually make good music. That moment showed that Cardi wasn’t just trying to extend her 15 minutes of fame — after all, plenty of her Love & Hip-Hop castmates had promised music after their seasons ended, but hardly any produced anything substantial — she was putting in work.

Of course, the song she recorded in 2017 turned out to be “Bodak Yellow.” The single became the first solo rap song by a woman to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 since Lauryn Hill’s 1998 juggernaut, “Doo Wop (That Thing).” Cardi’s catchy tune would also reach diamond status, selling over 10 million units. “Bodak Yellow” was also an unstoppable club hit, one that entered the annals of instant-rap-along status for any outing in 2018. The single also propelled Invasion of Privacy into becoming one of the most-anticipated albums of the year. 

And it didn’t disappoint. The album was full of massive singles, such as “I Like It,” “Bartier Cardi,” “Drip,” and “Ring” that all went multi-platinum. Invasion would land Cardi a Grammy award for Best Rap Album. 

For the next seven years, Cardi B would enjoy the spoils of her success — becoming an unlikely political voice during Covid; releasing “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion and causing an uproar as one of the most controversial songs in rap history; feuding with Nicki Minaj; marrying and separating from her husband, rapper Offset — all while raising her profile to become one of the most famous celebrities in the world.

Despite her massive rise, fans would repeat the same chorus as the years went on: Where’s the new album?

Am I the Drama? answers that question. 

It’s a 23-track behemoth that capitalizes on Cardi’s newest headline-grabbing moments — she’s releasing the project in the midst of a divorce from Offset and new relationship and pregnancy with NFL wide receiver Stefon Diggs. The buzz for this project alone can propel it into being another blockbuster. 

Still, a big-budget album looks vastly different in 2025 than it did when Invasion debuted in 2018, and Cardi had to adapt. First, summer anthems like “Bodak Yellow” are mostly a thing of the past. Maybe it was Covid that did them in. Or maybe it was the decentralizing of where we get our music. Whatever the case, across the industry, musicians are failing — if they’re even trying at all — to create songs that dominate the monoculture for months at a time. An early single to Drama, a bop called “Outside,” had all the makings of a club banger. And while the song did give Cardi yet another No. 1, it wasn’t as omnipresent as “Bodak Yellow” and quickly tumbled down the charts.  

Cardi, though, flooded Am I the Drama? with a number of songs that can raise its overall replay value. “Hello” and “Magnet” are bass-driven ear worms, the former especially, as its chorus is infinitely repeatable. “ErrTime” creates the same feeling, beckoning listeners to clubs that may or may not exist anymore. 

When Cardi isn’t driving her own boat for catchy tracks, she’s relying on high-profile guest features, another hallmark of the superstar album. Lizzo, Selena Gomez, Kehlani, Summer Walker, Tyla and more lace her hooks. Over the last few years, rap’s biggest stars — the Kendrick Lamars, J. Coles and Drakes of the world, especially — have become their own solar systems, creating albums that demand listens and replays simply on the power of their musicality and popularity. In that sense, Cardi’s album feels like a throwback to when guest appearances and big budgets helped propel songs to hit territory. 

None of the duets feel like Cardi was actually collaborating or in the studio with the hook-makers (she has two songs featuring Janet Jackson that had to be sent to the illusive star). Yet she works to make every song feel as original as possible. That’s a testament to Cardi’s charisma and a seeming refusal to copy and paste verses onto generic hooks. 

Cardi also leans into another aspect of what makes an album a blockbuster: the newsworthiness of her own personal life. She’s innately aware that fans want her to spill the tea and she does so on multiple occasions. “Man Of Your Word” is an open letter to Offset, recalling his alleged cheating and their subsequent split. Again, Cardi could have gone for a track that revels in its salaciousness — and she’d have every right to straight-up pen a diss record to her ex-husband.

Instead, she carves out a sincere rumination on divorce and its fallout. The song is a moment of tenderness that’s honest and open, it also echoes back to the warning she gave her husband on her debut album on “Be Careful.” She doesn’t hold back, though. The next song on Drama, “What’s Going On?,” is a more straightforward barrage of insults aimed in Offset’s direction. The album is full of other newsworthy nuggets, like disses aimed at rival rappers and hints at her burgeoning love with Diggs. It’s enough to entice listeners just for the tidbits themselves.

One striking difference between Cardi’s two albums is the difference in production, or more accurately, the producers themselves. Again, this is a statement on what makes a superstar album in 2025. Seven years ago, Cardi leaned on famed producers like DJ Mustard, Benny Blanco and Boi-1da — because that’s what albums used to sound like. There was a time when every major rap release needed beats from the likes of Kanye West, Pharrell, Timbaland or Just Blaze. Now we live in an era of devalued producers —  so most of the production for Drama comes in-house from DJ SwanQo, who holds his own admirably through the various tapestries woven on the project. It’s just disheartening that we seem to have entered a stage where major album releases don’t lean on the production luminaries of our time. 

Cardi B knew that her second album, a follow-up to a Grammy-winning, record-breaking smash hit, would need to be just as grandiose. And in creating a worthy sophomore offering, she also reestablished what a major blockbuster album looks like. 

In a world where hit songs are fleeting and super producers feel like a relic, memorable bars and an undeniable hook from an R&B diva or two is essential. Cardi’s final product says as much about her own creativity and desire to push her music beyond the surface level as it does about what it takes to make event albums these days.

Still, these types of albums are household-name-type projects, and no one is positioned better to pull it off than Cardi B.