Cardi B -Invasion of Privacy
Released: 6 April 2018
Cardi B drops her debut Invasion of Privacy on Atlantic featuring Migos, 21 Savage, Chance the Rapper, YG and more.
Favorite songs: Get Up 10 (Meek Mill “Dreams & Nightmares” vibes), Bickenhead (a throwback interpolation of Three 6 Mafia and La Chat’s “Chickenhead” record), Be Careful, Best Life (feat Chance The Rapper), I Like It (feat J Balvin & Bad Bunny), and I Do (feat SZA…SZA sounds amazing on this record).
Least favorite: Drip (feat Migos) and She Bad (feat YG…destroy the hook and never let it see the light of day again)
VERDICT
6/13 songs: Good album and good debut! This debut seemed to require tons of effort and budget considering it’s star studded feature list and production from industry heavy-hitters like DJ Mustard, Boi 1da, Needlz, Murda Beatz, Keys and more.
IS INVASION OF PRIVACY OVER-PRODUCED?
Atlantic invested heavily in Cardi for this album and will likely want to do the same with her Sophomore follow-up. It will be interesting to see how this plays out considering Cardi B’s pregnancy, her personality dynamics and her rampant fanbase built on the fact that she was being herself RAW 100%.
Cardi B will have to juggle maintaining a fanbase that loves her for speaking up and out about any and everything, with being treated as an investment by Atlantic, who will desire certain controls over Cardi’s behavior and/or content in order to further secure their investment.
If Cardi cannot secure this investment and Atlantic decides to cut budgets as a result, I am not how quality the next Cardi B project will sound – without all the star studded producers, features, and engineers. I’m not sure that Cardi perfected her craft in that manner with her Gangsta Bitch Music Vol mixtape series to release Invasion of Privacy-quality music at an independent or DIY level; so ultimately I’m not sure how satisfied her audience would be with her music if the album didn’t have the massive effort from Atlantic behind it that it did.
Nonetheless, a good album. Not top 5 for the year, but certainly nowhere near the bottom 5.