In the seven years since Cardi B left an indelible mark on hip-hop and pop culture with her Billboard 200-topping, Grammy-winning debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, two U.S. presidential administrations passed, Taylor Swift’s re-recordings project began and presumably ended, and Cardi went from expecting her first child to awaiting the arrival of her fourth. In this era of instant gratification and constant consumption, each passing year without Cardi’s sophomore album felt more mind-boggling than the last. The interim between her two studio LPs, of course, was anything but quiet: She added two more Hot 100 No.1s to her collection with “Up” and the Megan Thee Stallion-assisted “WAP,” dropped several singles that bricked by her standards (remember “Hot S—t?”) and cemented her near-incomparable cultural pull with film cameos (Hustlers), buzzy co-signs via ace guest verses (GloRilla’s “Tomorrow 2”; Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor Again”), successful product lines (Whipshots), and, most notably, her major moves in the fashion world. Invasion of Privacy had been a perfect storm. Cardi and her team harnessed the momentum of her “Bodak Yellow” breakthrough into a succinct 13-song set that introduced a new leading voice in the rap arena, one who prioritized slick-mouthed humor, trademark Bronx bravado and the urgency and drive of a person whose survival instincts evolve with each new chapter of life. Following up a beloved modern classic and a near-flawless rollout was always going to be a daunting task, especially seven years later. While Cardi’s position in the rap game was hardly questioned in earnest, questions abounded. Should Cardi pull a Lauryn Hill and never drop another studio album? Is her position really secured off of one album? Could a second album actually hurt the legacy that Invasion has accrued? Now, just as the first autumn breezes sweep through her New York City hometown, Cardi has put every question to bed with her behemoth of a sophomore album, Am I the Drama? Housing 23 tracks and clocking in at over 70 minutes, Drama arrived on Sept. 19 after a blitz of an album campaign that truly kicked off in July around Paris Fashion Week. Armed with a half-baked crow aesthetic and stacked with A-list features including Selena Gomez, Janet Jackson and Summer Walker, Drama attempts to synthesize the past seven years of Cardi’s marriage, industry tiffs and emotional maturation into a coherent narrative arc. An overstuffed tracklist and slightly sloppy sequencing prevent the record from fully realizing its potential, but over the course of an hour-plus, Cardi sufficiently reminds us why the crown was hers to return for in the first place. “Dead,” on which Summer Walker delivers a surprisingly solid SZA impression, opens Drama with a smattering of fictional, Makaveli-era 2Pac news reports quickly giving way to a single, fiery verse from Cardi. When she spits, “Tell a b—h, ‘You better use your head ‘fore I come there, put a hole in it’/ Like, baow, baow, baow, now she can bowl with it,” Cardi spins the ferocious ambition of Invasion of Privacy opener “Get Up 10” into a snarling, more vicious tone. She’s almost annoyed that she has to take time out of just her second album to remind people who exactly she is. If “Dead” has one shortcoming, it’s the lack of real news snippets; if we’re going to get into all of Cardi’s Drama, let’s really do it and immediately root the album in that reality. The ominous feel of “Dead” continues on “Hello,” whose whirring Halloween-evoking synths and foreboding hook herald the biting JT-aimed disses littered throughout “Magnet,” one of Drama’s instant standouts. Confusingly, Cardi gives us three songs to settle into her Drama persona before calling Selena Gomez for a pop number that’s either ridiculously catchy or immediately forgettable, depending on your mood. Perhaps slotting it closer to the other pop girl collabs — like the atrocious, Lizzo-assisted “What’s Going On” and the smooth Tyla-featuring “Nice Guy” — near the end of the record would have worked better instead of stunting the momentum of the first three songs. When contextualized with the following two New York-tributing tracks, pre-single “Imaginary Playerz” and smash-in-waiting “Bodega Baddie,” the placement of “Pick It Up” is even more befuddling. Although “Playerz” arrived to mixed reception and a soft Hot 100 debut (No. 70), it plays much smoother as an album track, working as a foil to the Cash Cobain-assisted “Better Than You” on the album’s second half. If the Jay-Z-sampling “Imaginary Playerz” is Cardi nodding to the storied past of New York hip-hop, then “Better Than You” is her wink at the region’s present and near future. Am I the Drama? may not always play as a traditional New York rap album, but Cardi makes sure to situate herself in both the city’s history and its present hip-hop ecosystem, which she doubles down on with the celebratory, El Prodigio-sampling “Bodega Baddie.” Even though its sub-two-minute runtime is frustrating, the inevitable “Bodega Baddie” remix is sure to dominate whatever season it arrives in. The TM88-produced “Salute” brings the Drama from the Uptown clubs and into Cardi’s diary. She enters a stank face-inducing pocket on the track, reminding us that she’s always shone brightest when she’s on a track by herself. As she raps in the first verse, “I am the reference, yeah, I am the vision board/ I put that shit on these bitches, they can’t ignore.” After making a pit stop to inspect everyone’s salutes, Cardi kicks off a four-track run (“Man of Your Word,” “Safe,” “What’s Going On” and “Shower Tears”) that serves as the emotional crux of Am I the Drama? Plainly put, it’s a shame someone who allegedly treated Cardi as awfully as Offset did is the subject of a career-best song like “Man of Your Word,” but that’s what turning pain into power is all about. Built around a somber hook, courtesy of prominent R&B/hip-hop songwriter Dougie F, “Man of Your Word” finds Cardi taking stock of her tumultuous marriage, its heart-shattering demise and
