Cardi B has announced her long-awaited sophomore album, Am I the Drama?, by revealing its cover art and release date across social media. The follow-up to her Grammy-winning, four-times platinum debut 2018 album Invasion of Privacy has been hotly anticipated in the years since, often stoked by Cardi teasing a completed project herself. She was even hard at work on the album for a 2024 release when Rolling Stone shadowed her at studios last spring for the June cover story. However, she’s now made it clear that the real thing is ready, sharing a pre-order link for an album due September 19.
The cover art finds Cardi in a striking red body suit surrounded by crows, with one large bird perched on her massively-heeled shoe. Per Apple Music, the album will have 23 songs, including “WAP,” “Up,” and her latest single “Outside.”
On Sunday, she teased the album announcement with a video of herself framed by fake crows in a black gown, narrating in a voice over that, “Seven years and the time has come. Seven years of love, life and loss. Seven years I gave them grace, but now, I give them hell. I learned power is not given, it’s taken. I’m shedding feathers and no more tears. I’m not back, I’m beyond. I’m not your villain, I’m your karma. The time is here. The time is now.”
She’s been punctuating the posts with emojis of black birds and feathers, marking a new symbol for the rapper. Similarly, artists like Megan Thee Stallion and Doechii have defined their musical eras with animal avatars as well: leading up to the release of her self-titled third studio album, Megan was into snakes, and Doechii’s imagery around her Grammy-winning mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal (which made her the first woman to win the Grammy for Best Rap album since Cardi won for Invasion of Privacy in 2019) has included tons of the swampland creatures.
When Rolling Stone spoke to Cardi B about the forthcoming album last year, she was still looking to finalize an intro, at least three more songs, a title, features, and a rollout plan for the album. At the time, she wanted the album to have a wide reach, but also reflect her many moods. “I’m a different person every single day,” she said. “When I’m in a good mood and I’m with my friends, [I’m] like, ‘Damn, I want my shit to be played in this club.’ But then I might be mad with my man, so it’s like now I want to do this song. But then I want to do a pop record. I want to do my sing-y shit.”
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However, she was also balancing pressure from fans and critics, unrelenting travel, and a difficult family life while contemplating the future of her relationship with her now-estranged husband, Offset. She filed for divorce less than two months before she announced the birth of their third child last September.
On June 20, Cardi released the raucous single “Outside,” where she slams certain men and celebrates others, and promises to have a wild time. “Well, let’s go wrong for wrong/let’s go lick for lick,” she raps. “If I can handle that/ let me see you handle this.”
