Cardi B Said Perfectionism Is the Cause of Her 7 Year Gap Between Albums

Seven years after the release of her first album, Cardi B is finally releasing the follow-up, Am I the Drama? Cardi has put out music in the interim, but fans have been clamoring for an album for years. She has faced criticism for the time between album releases, with some fans accusing her of not caring about her music. She said this was not true. The long strech between albums was because she cared so much about her music.

Cardi B is releasing her second album, ‘Am I the Drama?’ 

Cardi said that when she works on new music, she lets her mood guide her. 

“I’m a different person every single day,” she told Rolling Stone in 2024. “When I’m in a good mood and I’m with my friends, [I’m] like, ‘Damn, I want my s*** 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 s***.”

She’s excited about her upcoming album, but she’s aware of criticism out there. She said a TikTok about her made her cry. In it, a person accused her of “cosplaying a rapper.”

“Because you don’t take it seriously,” the person said. “That’s why you don’t put out your music.”

Cardi said she actually had the opposite problem. If she didn’t care about her music, she would pump it out as quickly as possible. Instead, she agonized over it for long periods of time. She wanted to get it perfect.

“It’s like, I take my music so f***ing seriously that that’s why I don’t put it out,” she explained. “Because if it’s not perfect to my ear, if every f***ing word doesn’t sound like it’s pronounced right, if the beat is overpowering the words or the words is overpowering the beat, I don’t want to put it out.”

Am I the Drama? comes out on Sept. 19.