I don’t take pride in the fact that I left myself behind with the experience of Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy, I mean just the title freaks me out a little. Truth is I’m very selective with what I raise hype around musically and Cardi B’s brand has not been anything close. Not only that but she’s the mere competition of Nicki Minaj (for the moment being that is), and that's just being a frankly honest as I can be as to why am I so late to Invasion of Privacy. I care a lot about Rap & Hip/Hop so I do take it to heart what these musicians claim their about so I can clearly dodge the bullet or bless my music experience. One thing that has been working for Cardi B though, is the team behind her music meaning co-writers and her producers. A lot of times these co-production folks get left out of the hype when everyone is so busy trying to commercially uplift the star. Another thing that has worked for her commercial consumption is her gang related background (specifically the ‘Blood’ gang culture), past mixtapes, and her stripper past which have all been documented in a proliferate fashion. She was already very present online for a lot of people before her “Bodak Yellow” single even jumped off because she had already been so well relatable with her different lifestyles. Those are mostly a lot of the elements that has kept me away from the content, embarrassingly enough, as I’m not into celebrating “pussy popping” or popping pills I mean come on “pussy popping in a church” that’s on a whole nother dynamic and I just can’t. Also Cardi B in this album had to prove her part that she could compete with the guys (not really sure if she succeeded) because that’s something Nicki Minaj is known for in which Cardi B wants to be like so bad

One thing that New Yorkers are definitely known for is their unapologetic, don’t give a shit, unfiltered attitudes in which Bronx native Cardi B takes no shame and hesitation in carrying over into the tracks. She’s found a perfect symmetrical balance between ratchet and that Cardi B brings with her A-Game, and when I say A-game it’s all about the attitude that she uses to make things work for her image & brand. Clearly she knows that she has a lot of female fans that love to feel themselves in a sexual way which is probably why they enjoy her overly sexualized lyrics. Her album Invasion of Privacy is another way that she made the main contributing factor to her success, work in her favor, in my opinion just because of the visualization of the lyrics. I just feel like the conversation that she is having through the art of the music is very one dimensional and isn’t pushing any boundaries. Sex is cool and everything but, I just feel like I need some other things to sink my teeth in besides that, the gangs fixations. It turns me off because I know that I have elevated myself into higher thinking realms and Invasion of Privacy would be very regressive if I choose to take her album serious.

A lot of us were very taken by surprise by the consistency in Invasion of Privacy production-wise musically, and more so by the Grammy it swept up defeating the Legendary Lauryn Hill. I don’t know if it was just the low quality in the moral department of Cardi B’s head when she was first starting off or of it was the fact that “Bodak Yellow” was the only cut from the album’s tracklist to spin for so long plaguing the town like a bloody repeating virus. She is very unexpected with different elements of her delivery through her songs as she did switch up her flow decently which is the delivery in the rhythm of her raps. Not only that but she did put some vulnerable isolated bars in the opening of the album which just defies the odds of her being alleged of not writing her own raps, even if it is true. Regardless Cardi B and her team lead their way to the ultimate gold of one of the highest accomplishing award ceremonies in the music industry ‘The Grammys’, in which many music lovers will never understand and will forever question.

Even though I have my difficulties in the consumption of Invasion of Privacy It’s extremely difficult to miss the fact that people are majorly in love with the vibes that Cardi B gives in her music since the commercial success of “Bodak Yellow”.. I could tell through time that people were definitely making their memories with the album and even though I wasn't I could still envision a lot anthemic house cleaning songs or before the party jams through Invasion of Privacy. It was hard for me digest the cultural injections that the album did undergo (I want to say ‘suffered’ but it was commercially successful) in songs like the track “I Like It.” When I hear this song I want to like it so bad, I feel the heatwaves, the sunrays, I smell the salt water from the ocean, taste the salt and lemon, I feel the alcohol running through my veins, and I can feel the infectious good time that the caribbean inspired song is supposed to give me. Yet from this song I just feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia but not in a good, or familiar way, which really turns into a mysterious thing that I just am never able to get comfortable with no matter how random of a moment it comes on the radio or at an event. A part of me feels like the song belongs in the bucket that my mind wants to put it in but then there's the seasoning of the song which is the Salsa infusion. I love Salsa, I like the dancing and I even like Salsa cuisine but I just can’t imagine attempting to dance ‘Trap’ while trying to Salsa at the same time, its just weird and I feel there’s nothing wrong with it. My brain is taking some kind of protective measure here. Now the “I Like it Like That” song that was sampled in “I Like It” actually belongs to Pete Rodriguez’s half a century old hit that was also a Summer radio’s favorite back in1960’s, and relaunched back into Pop radio consumption through a Burger King campaign in 1996. The sample is no doubt a well documented hot streak for this newer Island, Spanish, Trap infusion to live up to.

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