Cardi B Explains Sophomore Album Delay In New ‘Rolling Stone’ Cover Interview

In 2018, Cardi B put out her debut album Invasion of Privacy which went on to break records, win a Grammy, and shift the landscape in Hip-Hop — especially amongst women rappers. Six years later, fans are still awaiting a follow-up to the masterpiece, one that has been looming since Cardi announced and retracted the LP’s release multiple times.

In a new cover with Rolling Stone, the 31-year-old addressed the hold-up of her sophomore album while revealing that she has been adding the finishing touches in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York recording studios. Reportedly, the “Bodak Yellow” star has been spending a lot of time perfecting the project’s intro and title, while also adding more songs, gathering features, and thinking of a master rollout plan.

“Until I have the album ready, I’m not going home,” the mother-of-two told Mankaprr Conteh of RS. Speaking to why it’s taken so long to formulate a focus for the album, she added, “I’m a different person every single day. When I’m in a good mood and I’m with my friends, [I’m] like, ‘Damn, I want my sh*t 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 sh*t.”

The last time Cardi promised her fans of her next musical coming was in March.

In an Instagram video, the Global sensation told her following that the album would be out this year. However, she retracted that update as well earlier this month. Even her husband, Offset, encouraged her to “Stop being scary and drop the album.”

More recently, she celebrated four of her songs (“I Like It,” “Taki Taki,” “WAP” and “Girl Like You”) hitting a billion streams on Spotify, but was hit with backlash.

“This is a big accomplishment for me, and of course here comes Bardigang complaining like Damn I can’t celebrate sh*t,” she said as fans called out her album delay instead of her good news. “I tell myself this all the time..and I hate that I fall back and start interacting again and it bites me in the a**.”

She then went on to declare, “Anyway NO album this year I don’t care I’m relaxing this year.. Dropping these features I already committed to and traveling and enjoying my summer.”

Shortly after, she deleted her post and her rep confirmed to Rolling Stone that a 2024 album is still underway.

Although Cardi has delayed her album, she’s put out one-off singles and collaborated with many artists, including her husband. In her cover with RS, she made it clear that no matter her consistency, she’ll always be a reason that doors opened up for new women rappers.

“These labels was not believing in repping new rap artists,” she claimed. “People from every single label have f**king told me this sh*t in my face. They started signing new female rappers after I got signed. Whether some bi**hes could be the greatest rappers [or] they just make good music — at the end of the f**king day, guess what? They’re in your playlist right now.”

Over the last six years, Cardi has proven to be an asset to music and a chameleon when it comes to her sound. She’s already made waves in both Hip-Hop, Pop, and Latin music although she did admit that she has trouble catching a Drill beat.

However, Reggaeton might be her next full-on sound after her sophomore album, as she admitted that she wants to make a Spanish album.

“[In] my country (Dominican Republic), they listen to merengue, they listen to típico, they listen to bachata. I’m really into that,” she expressed. “As soon as I finish this album, I am going to f**king Puerto Rico.”

Read Cardi B’s cover story with Rolling Stone in its entirety here.