Despite maintaining her cultural presence most of the while, Cardi B has gone a long time without a new LP – until now. ‘AM I THE DRAMA?’ proves to be a worthy follow-up to ‘Invasion of Privacy’ and preserves its predecessors key strengths in the production, guest features, and attitude departments.

Stream: ‘AM I THE DRAMA?’ – Cardi B

When a major music artist goes a friggin’ long time without releasing a new album, all sorts of explanations tend to abound as to why.

Have they lost their creative spark? Are they out of song ideas? Is their personal life getting in the way too much? And so on and so forth.

It’s not so often that this one ever emerges from the clutter: maybe it just took them quite a while – years, even – to settle on the 15-odd songs that they wanted to consider their album ready for release. But that is just what Cardi B has been claiming in the buildup to AM I THE DRAMA? She’s had her fair share of rocky times over the lengthy interim since her 2018 debut album, Invasion of Privacy – a divorce and assault charges among them – but ultimately, she’s not attributing the delay of her sophomore effort to any of that. Simply put, she was just very selective about what songs would make the cut and it took her the better part of a decade to land on the tracklist that best matched her vision.

AM I THE DRAMA? - Cardi B — AM I THE DRAMA? – Cardi B

That may seem somewhat far-fetched, but given the age range of these songs – some were recorded six years ago; others, merely a few months back– it seems reasonable to take her word for it. And that’s even more true because the music here is impressively high-quality; Cardi reportedly had 60 songs to choose from for this album, and the victorious 25% can be readily enjoyed by hip-hop fans far and wide.

Ms. B’s attitude, delivery and capability on the mic remain as commendable now as they were when she first ascended into the game in the late 2010’s. Immediately on lead track, “Dead,” she informs all of her would-be competitors to not even bother making the attempt. “Can’t compete with me, I’m not the one,” she declares. “Never smart to beef with me, what can I say?” This is just one of many instances where Cardi B lays to rest any doubt that she may have gotten “soft” in any way during her time off.

Sometimes, she calls out her detractors in general (“I mean truthfully, what can these b****es even do with me?”) and sometimes, her rage is directed more pointedly at a handful of particular foes. Bia, a recent foe of Ms. B, is subject to a particularly scathing diss track on “Pretty & Petty”– “I’d rather die on the surgery table before I gotta walk around her looking like you.” Plus, her cheating ex-husband is shown no mercy (why would he deserve any?) on the song “What’s Goin’ On” (“What’s goin’ on? I ain’t never knew you. Didn’t think about givin’ up too soon”).

While all this venom and braggadocio arguably gets stretched a little thin over the course of 20+ tracks, Cardi B has enough MC skills to make it all a compelling listen throughout most of its 70 minutes. The album’s production – carried by the likes of seasoned Cardi collaborators Pardison Fontaine and Vinylz, along with some new members of her inner squad like TM88 and Smash David – elevates the enjoyment value of Am I the Drama? as well.

From the “Fitness” remix with Bruno Mars to her bilingual team-up with Bad Bunny and J. Balvin on “I Like That,” fiery and innovative vocal collaborations were always among Cardi B’s strong suits throughout Round I of her career.

Rest assured, that very much has remained the way in Round II. Kehlani, who previously partnered with Cardi on Invasion of Privacy highlight “Ring,” returns for a worthy follow-up on “Safe.”

Emerging South African singer Tyla stops by for a memorable feature on “Nice Guy,” one of the most lighthearted numbers here, on which she invites the man she’s deemed “Mr. Right Guy” to “come stay for good because I want all of you for tonight.”

On the other end of the fame spectrum, Selena Gomez delivers a melodic refrain on “Pick It Up,” on which she offers valuable advice to an artist seven years removed from her last LP: “Pick it up, where we left off. Can’t give it up, I’ve been missin’ ya.”

One of the more surprising features here is Janet Jackson – once one of the major titans of pop music, but now 20-odd years removed from her last smash hit. But J.J. does her part on the pleasurable “Principal,” even if her presence mainly consists of some “oh-uh-ohs” as opposed to a complete verse. It was enough to make her the rare artist to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades, at any rate.

Like Lady Gaga did earlier this year with “Die With a Smile,” Cardi B takes what were initially meant to be standalone singles and tacks them on to the end of her new album, basically as bonus tracks.

Plenty of ink has already been spilled about “Up” and “WAP” (especially about “WAP,” oh man), so for now, let’s just say that these #1 singles from the early 2020s fit in well with the provocative atmosphere of AM I THE DRAMA?, and also contribute the “here’s the best stuff Cardi has recorded over the last six years” theme of the album.

If you go with the “ErrTime Edition,” you’ll also be treated to one last track in the form of a fiery remix with Latto, who emerged as one of the most compelling female MC’s in the game during Cardi B’s absences, and seems likely to retain that title now that the latter has returned at last.

**“I’m Cardi B, shorty, who you wanna be, shorty,” Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar raps.**

Seeing how she’s just proven what a supremely gifted MC she remains, and how she’s just pulled off a successful comeback record, all of those shorties’ envy seems to have been well-warranted.

Hopefully it won’t take until 2032 for her third album to come out – but however much time is needed for her to land on the next 15 songs she wants to go with the most, it’ll likely prove to be worth it once again.

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