Rapper Cardi B releases honest record

“Invasion of Privacy,” rapper Cardi B’s follow-up installment to a two-part “Gangsta B*tch Music” mixtape, is a 13-track embodiment of the Bronx native; it’s honest, straightforward, unforgiving. Every track on the record tells the story of her self-discovery, as she’s moved from the strip club across from her neighborhood school to a world-wide platform of self-earned and well-deserved stardom.
Now signed to Atlantic Records, Cardi B used that narrative throughout and after her recurring appearances on VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop: New York, garnering interest among those unable to wrap their heads around her spitfire honesty and those empathetic to her humble pursuit of an unconventional “American dream.”
Through 2017, she championed her story of poverty, physical self-doubt and making a name for first-generation Americans. She became a voice for her community simply by letting her own authentic and accented voice be heard.
On both volumes of “Gangsta B*tch Music,” Cardi’s lyricism situated on sex and stripping. It’s that same sort of honesty – channeled into more personal, evocative sentiments of self-growth, relationships, deserved financial gain and impending tribulations – that establishes “Invasion of Privacy” as a personality-packed effort. Here, Cardi B stays true to her roots in East Coast sound and thought, while using diverse approaches to composition and perfectly tailored collaborations to put skepticism over the longevity of her career to rest, all while engaging with a fan base invested in her rags-to-riches legacy.
That sort of step-by-step development has followed Cardi B over the past year, in and out of the studio. She’s established herself as the first woman to have five top 10 singles chart simultaneously on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart and the first solo female emcee to top the Billboard Hot 100. She’s also the writer of the longest-running no. 1 single by a solo female rapper, a two-time Grammy Awards nominee and the first rapper with their first three singles in the Hot 100’s Top 10 simultaneously.
As her sound has pushed into the industry’s highest echelons, she’s broken barriers by refusal of a “female rapper” identity. She’s a rapper – period. “Invasion of Privacy” makes that unapologetically known.
Most notably, “Bodak Yellow” forcefully served as the lead single off the album, followed by 21 Savage collaboration “Bartier Cardi,” “Be Careful” and the Migos-featured “Drip.” But these tracks, still telling important pieces of the rapper’s story, only let Cardi B’s often unforgotten elegance come to fruition on “Be Careful.” Before the album’s release last Friday, Cardi B only showed us hard-hitting club bangers – which most skeptics chalked her capabilities up to.
Now, she’s showing fans and doubtful listeners that she’s capable of crushing anything from a heartfelt ballad, as heard on “Thru Your Phone,” to dynamic, well-massaged collaborations, heard seven separate times on the album.
Through and through, “Invasion of Privacy” bounces between Cardi B’s authentic New York sound and softer, delicate moments of willing, personal exposure. On “Be Careful,” the rapper serves her love interest a warning of her delicacy, jumping between outspoken sentiments of anxiety in a relationship and hyper-transparent vulnerability on the track’s chorus, admitting, “Yeah, my heart is like a package with a fragile label on it/ Be careful with me.”
Too, Cardi B outsources for those softer compliments to her commanding presence through knockout features with Chance the Rapper on “Best Life” and R&B singer Kehlani on “Ring.” Most surprisingly, Cardi B independently sings most of her way through “Thru Your Phone,” admitting to the hurt of uncovering painful truths.
It’d be a disservice to Cardi B’s expansive artistry not to shed light on the chart-topping party bangers she cranked out of this album, with three of her singles and also on tracks like “I Like It” – offering hyper-confident lyricism over a Latin sound offered by Bad Bunny, J Balvin and upbeat accompaniment. The track also feels like an appropriate tribute to her Dominican background.
With a less traditional sound, “Money Bag” offers that same well-deserved, self-centered commentary over a techno sound, and, featuring YG, “She Bad” breathes an updated Migos-centric sound onto the album, more satisfying than the group’s overdone sound leaked onto “Drip.”
Cardi B serves a final surprise on “I Do,” a collaboration with rising R&B singer SZA, where SZA’s typically sweeter sounds take a backseat to a caliber of forceful self-assurance on-par with Cardi B’s. On the track, an intertwining of Cardi’s bars and SZA’s bold chorus carry the track, ending the effort with acknowledgement of Cardi B’s formative 2017 engagement to Migos member Offset.
From start to finish, Cardi B lets listeners into her experiences in growth, personally and professionally, establishing herself as a voice for those who’ve struggled and the writer of her own narrative. “Invasion of Privacy” makes sure Cardi B’s voice continues to be heard, sonically and as an advocate for anyone who has faced obstacles.
Really, this bold work serves as a reminder of the past, appreciation for the current and warning for what’s to come.