Cardi B isn’t easing her means into her long-awaited sophomore period—she’s coming for hip-hop’s crown with a swagger-heavy new single, “Imaginary Playerz.” Launched August 15, the observe flips Jay-Z’s 1997 minimize “Imaginary Gamers” right into a Cardi-sized flex, setting the tone for her upcoming album Am I The Drama?, due September 19.
Constructed on Jay-Z’s pattern and produced by DJ SwanQo, Sean Island, and OctaneThisThatGas, “Imaginary Playerz” is Cardi B at her sharpest: punchline-driven, brash and humorous in the best way solely she will be. “My flop and your flop will not be the identical/ If you happen to did my numbers, y’all would pop champagne/ If I did your numbers, I’d hop out a aircraft,” she sneers, earlier than stacking extra bars that place her not simply as rap’s reigning chart-crasher, however as somebody who is aware of she doesn’t even belong in the identical league as her doubters.
The place Jay-Z’s authentic skewered wannabes, Cardi B makes use of the canvas to reassert her dominance over a rap world nonetheless ready for her follow-up to 2018’s Invasion of Privateness.
The Bronx star has stated she wouldn’t have launched the observe with out Jay-Z’s blessing—a nod that underscores each her respect for hip-hop lineage and her personal standing inside it. “If he didn’t approve it, I in all probability wouldn’t even really feel a sure kind of means neither, as a result of it’s like, ‘OK, perhaps I simply needed to come somewhat bit more durable,’” she admitted on X Areas. As a substitute, Hov’s stamp of approval makes this a generational handoff second: Cardi placing her spin on a traditional and proving she will be able to maintain her personal with the icons she grew up idolizing.
The accompanying video, co-directed by Cardi B and Patientce Foster, is pure spectacle. She struts throughout an airport tarmac prefer it’s a couture runway, slips into crimson ballgowns, boards personal jets, dines oceanside on lobster, and caps all of it off in Parisian couture. The visible is much less about delicate storytelling than about picture—Cardi B reveling in extra, reframing luxurious as survival and success for a lady who as soon as danced in golf equipment to pay her payments.
“Imaginary Playerz” is the second style of Am I The Drama?, following “Exterior,” and it positions the report as each unapologetically hip-hop and unafraid of maximalist popular culture spectacle. With a 23-track sprawl promised, Cardi B appears able to make good on the five-year hole between albums with one thing loud, daring, and unimaginable to disregard.
If this single is any indicator, Am I The Drama? isn’t simply Cardi’s comeback—it’s her declaration that she by no means actually left.
Take heed to “Imaginary Playerz” beneath:
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