Album Review: Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy

There was disappointment for Cardi B fans in Ireland recently as it was confirmed that her headline spot at Longitude was cancelled owing to her pregnancy, writes Ed Power.

But her debut album is more than adequate compensation, as it confirms the former stripper and social media star’s status as one of the most thrilling new artists in hip hop.

Cards B — born Belcalis Almanzar in the Bronx in 1992 — announced her arrival last June when ‘Bodak Yellow’ dethroned Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ from the Billboard 100 (making her just the second female rapper after Lauryn Hill to have a solo number one).

The song was an onslaught of attitude, wit and beats, elevated by Cardi B’s playfully direct style. So it goes for the rest of Invasion of Privacy, a bouncy affair as bright and brash as her Instagram feed, but buoyed by music of considerable dexterity and invention (as you might expect of an LP with 28 producers).

The biggest thrill, though, is just how emphatically Cardi B creates her own persona — one completely distinct from those of previous female rappers.

She doesn’t pander to the mainstream — but nor does she position herself as emblematic of every woman to have ever broken through music’s glass ceiling.

She just wants to communicate how much fun it is to be a pop star, a goal achieved with a wink and a swagger.

Cardi B leans into her take-no-prisoners persona on ‘I Do’, a saucy, explicit number in which she stridently owns her femininity and the Latin-flavoured ‘I Like It’.

There’s vulnerability too, with Cardi B pleading to a miscreant paramour on ‘Be Careful’.

Throughout her personality — bawdy yet clever about it — burns brightly, suggesting pop’s latest sensation may have just been minted.