Cardi B – The Best Songs To Get You Hyped For Am I The Drama?

Miss B is finally back. After years of waiting, Cardi B has recently announced her long-awaited sophomore album, Am I The Drama?. She dropped the news of her first album in seven years on June 23, 2025, sharing the cover on social media and revealing its release date: September 19, 2025.

The cover sees the Grammy-winning rapper dressed in a red bodysuit with a hood that resembles a crimson satellite dish, ready to beam out bars straight from her brain. Behind her sits a cloudy sky and a flying flock of crows – one of them even perched on those “bloody shoes” she’s known for talking about.

On the Sunday before the announcement, Cardi posted a theatrical video to her Instagram, which saw her in a black dress walking through a courtyard surrounded by black crows. In an exciting voiceover, she said: “Seven years, and the time has come. Seven years of love, life and loss. Seven years I gave them grace, but now, I give them hell. I learned power is not given, it’s taken. I’m shedding feathers and no more tears. I’m not back. I’m beyond. I’m not your villain. I’m your tyrant. The time is here. The time is now.” 

With a darker rollout than her previous poppy, party-ready record, it seems like Cardi’s coming back with a vengeance, ready to bare all on her turbulent personal life and provide a conceptual comeback that may see an elevated level of artistry – she handed us solid album tracks and hot singles with her debut album, Invasion Of Privacy, but this time it looks like she might be reaching deeper. 

Since her highly praised debut album, Cardi’s still kept pretty busy. In the past couple of years, she’s still dipped her stiletto in the music game. She reformed her dynamic duo with Megan Thee Stallion for the spiritual sequel to “WAP,” titled “Bongos.” Her track “Enough (MIAMI)” in 2024 saw her lay down some hard rhymes and skippy flows, keeping her mic skills intact, while rightfully picking up a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance. Besides those, she’s dropped numerous other standalone singles and features, rolled out fashion collabs and partnerships and even made forays into the film/TV world. Why didn’t they bring her back for season two of “Rhythm N Flow”? Beats us. She had more small-screen charisma than all three of the new judges.

Anyhow, fans and critics are feeling the excitement for Cardi’s long-awaited project. Hip-hop’s realest, unfiltered royalty is finally returning, so here’s Funktasy’s favourite songs from Cardi B to get you in the hype for Am I The Drama?….

Outside

The leading single off her upcoming album shows Cardi hasn’t lost any form with a catchy bop containing some choice words that may be directed toward her previous partner, Offset. The two iconic rappers might have made our “Musical Power Couples” list if they stayed together, but we usually hear about them butting heads in headlines nowadays, amidst their messy divorce. It makes us wonder how much she’ll speak about their relationship in the new album. Either way, this is a chest-beater for anyone ready to go all-guns-blazing out of a bitter breakup. 

The beat incorporates the sample from “Drag Rap” by The Showboys, a one-bar bell loop that’s been used in Southern classics such as Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up” and David Banner’s “Like A Pimp,” bringing a welcome slice of nostalgia that never fails to make you want to bounce. And Cardi doesn’t hold back, sending some shots for her ex man — “Royal rumble, this a jungle. Lion and some cheetahs (cheaters)/’Cause clearly you don’t give a f**k, so I don’t give one either.” Yep, there’s enough drama in this one to live up to her new album’s name.

Get Up 10

For the powerful introduction to her Grammy-Award-winning debut album Invasion Of Privacy, there was no hook needed – just a reflective, fiery, confident three minutes of barring, with a delivery almost reminiscent of Meek Mill on “Dreams and Nightmares,” like she’s mad at the instrumental and hungry to devour it. 

The track opens with raw lyrics, like “Look, they gave a b**ch two options: strippin’ or lose. Used to dance in a club right across from my school,” over an ethereal piano intro, delicately decorating her descriptions of a desperate situation and how she made the best out of a hard life. Then, it evolves into a bumping trap beat with Cardi unloading some witty punches: “The thing on my hip whip b***hes into shape. That’s what I call a f**kin’ waist trainer.” This was a perfect mission statement for Cardi. She did everything she could to get where she’s at, and best believe now, she’s got enough heat for the whole game.

Best Life featuring Chance The Rapper

Above a washed-out, watery sample with minimalist drums, “Best Life” sees Cardi ride a different wave than she’s usually seen surfing. A celebratory, summery jam that has her dialling up the introspection, Cardi references her relationship with the controversy-hungry media and online critics before shaking it off and celebrating her newfound fortune and fame.

She brings the smoke for those in her way with some sharp wordplay, like “N***a, you a p**sy and a rat, you like Tom and Jerry.” But she also taps into her transparency with her fans on social media. As an artist in the modern age, she made momentum out of her viral videos in 2013 before picking up the pen, and she’s since used popular platforms to show her most authentic, relatable self: “I said I never had a problem showin’ y’all the real me –  hair when it’s f****d up, crib when it’s filthy.” This one also features a solid verse and hook from Chance the Rapper, who’s also set to drop his comeback album this year in July.

Bodak Yellow

The single that set off the Cardi craze and caught everyone’s attention, “Bodak Yellow,” is a colossal sounding, stiletto-stomping anthem that captured the spirit of her as a rapper: bossy and braggadocious, with boundless self-confidence that will empower anyone within hearing distance.

Even just the opening lyric is a perfect mantra for whoever or whatever is pissing you off today: “Lil bitch, you can’t f**k with me if you wanted to.” While interpolating Kodak Black’s “No Flockin’” flow into the infectious refrain, she effortlessly slides through this track with enough attitude to make any fan feel inspired and any hater consider early retirement. This song was inescapable when it dropped, becoming a summer anthem of 2017. It made hip-hop history, too, becoming the first solo No. 1 single from a female rapper since Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing)” in 1998, and it went on to be certified as a Diamond record, which is 10x platinum, becoming the first female rapper to do so.

WAP featuring Megan Thee Stallion

It might be an obvious choice, but we think it still stands to this day as not only one of her greatest works, but also as one of the best sex songs to come out in hip-hop since 2 Live Crew’s music.

While artists like Sexxy Red might have turned the risque-rap-o-meter up to new heights over the last two years, “WAP” set a new standard for sex-positivity within female rap when it came out in 2020. As well as topping charts and becoming a club banger, it sparked conversations about female sexuality and empowerment. Sure, there were some prudes along the way, like conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who rallied against it on YouTube. But male rappers have been writing about getting laid even before the turn of the century. Either way, both rappers  turned up the heat here, with Cardi dropping some side-splitting sex bars: “I want you to touch that lil’ dangly thing that swing in the back of my throat.” One of the most hilarious, horniest hits in hip-hop history, this one will be remembered for years to come.

Red Barz

This one’s an important entry from earlier in Cardi’s career. Before her breakthrough later in the year, this April 2017 release put Cardi on the map for a lot of rap listeners. Exclusively released through urban media blog World Star Hip Hop, it didn’t find the same traction that “Bodak Yellow” would in June, but it added a stamp of credibility for her as a hip-hop artist and showed she could really rap.  

With a low-budget video production that matches the slightly rugged mixing and the menacing sampling beat, this is one of her toughest tracks. It’s teeming with the New Yorker swag that’s manifested in the same era’s tracks from Young M.A. and Bobby Shmurda. She confidently calls the shots, commanding the rhythm with hurtling flows and bars like “That Cardi B gutter s**t. Everytime I catch a hating b**ch, she on her stutter s**t”. “Bodak Yellow” might have been the club-ready sing-along that was destined to launch her into a new stratosphere, but if we’re talking rapping, “Red Barz” takes the cake.

I Like It featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin

With an infectious beat that samples the ‘60s boogaloo classic from Tony Pabon and Manny Rodriguez, Cardi delivers a playful party jam that sonically nods to her Afro-Latin heritage. Backed up by two of the brightest stars in reggaeton, Bad Bunny and J Balvin, you don’t need to be fluent in Spanish to understand that it’s time for a fiesta.

Over the instrumental’s playful piano riffs and Latin horns, Cardi floats over the track with some catchy lyrics: “Yeah, they call me Cardi B. I run this s**t like cardio,” while the guest stars deliver some smooth, syncopated flows. The sampled chorus of “I Like It Like That” by Pete Rodriguez was seared into our brains, solidifying it as a summer anthem. The accompanying video shot in Miami was a beautiful sight, with a colourful Cardi clad in traditional beautiful rumba-esque clothing. The track was mentioned by numerous publications as one of the best songs of 2018, claiming the No. 1 spot for the Billboard, LA Times and The Guardian lists. As the sun starts shining again and the parties start popping up, it’s time to put this banger back in rotation.

Up

Another Billboard No. 1 for Cardi, this 2021 single is fun, fearless and fully hilarious when it wants to be. This one also became the fourth-best-selling hip-hop hit of the year and won the American Music Award for “Favourite Rap/Hip-Hop Song,” and that’s only the accolades. Here, we have her dropping caption-ready cusses with barely enough time to catch her breath.  

Right out the gate, she’s hitting us with instantly quotable quips: “Once upon a time, man, I heard that I was ugly/ Came from a bitch who nigga wanna f**k on me”. With a simple, three-note piano and bass production that gives space for every syllable she drops, we get some more lovably silly bars like “Hoes speakin’ ‘Cap-enese,’ hit ’em with karate chop”.The bare-bones beat gives all the backdrop needed: some drums, 808s, keys and Cardi conjuring all the confident statements she can. This is another older joint that’ll join the tracklist for Am I The Drama? and honestly, it’s a welcome addition. 

The Hype Is Alive For Am I The Drama?

It’s been a hell of a wait for Cardi’s new album. In between press peering into her personal life and her non-musical ventures, a lot of hip-hop fans were wondering when the next full-length effort would be coming. But with a tracklist of 23 songs, we’re sure Cardi will have enough material to serve us for the coming years. Our Funktasy selection of tracks shows she has all the weapons in her arsenal to pull a hit out of the hat: the bars, the humour, the reflection, the catchiness and the capabilities to make hit records. So when September 19 comes and she asks the world, “Am I The Drama?”… we’ll definitely be tuned in to find out.