Cardi B Is Releasing A New Album In 2020 And She Just Posted A Sneak Peek

Cardi B’s career has absolutely skyrocketed since she exploded onto the scene in 2017. Of course, she had already been around for awhile before releasing “Bodak Yellow,” appearing regularly on VH1’s reality series Love and Hip Hop: New York in pursuit of big music dreams (she also released two mixtapes long before her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 2018). In 2019, Cardi B took her career up a notch, serving as a judge on Netflix’s Rhythm + Flow and making her acting debut alongside J Lo and Constance Wu in Hustlers.

And although fans are excited that she’s been exploring other creative opportunities, several folks are starting to get restless for more music. Fortunately for them, the NYC rapper confirmed that a new album is due to arrive sometime in 2020, sharing a brief clip of her upcoming single on Twitter last week.

While Friday, January 10 is Global Release Day for music, few artists actually participate, and Cardi B’s album is no exception—while little is known about the upcoming LP, it is unlikely to appear right away. In the meantime, fans have enjoyed the two singles she’s dropped since Invasion of Privacy: “Press” and “Please Me,” though Cardi B told Billboard that she’s hoping to embrace a different sound with her new album.

“It has evolved a lot, especially because I’ve been listening to different types of music,” she said. “But . . . there’s the challenge of it. Because there’s certain types of music that I want to do, but I feel like—is people interested in that? I feel like things have changed . . . but I cannot just go with what’s hot. I still gotta do what I want to do.”

That approach seemed to work out for Cardi B’s first album which, in addition to topping the Billboard 200, earned her a Grammy for best rap album (and making her the first solo female rapper to win in that category). But even if the rapper is trying to stay true to her vision, she’s not trying to replicate what she achieved with Invasion of Privacy. Referring to that record, she told Billboard: “I was going with what I want people to hear, and what I like, so that’s what I’m doing now,” adding, “I’m just having fun in the studio, because if you think, ‘My first album was like this, I gotta have the same recipe,’ it’s just not gonna work.”

And in spite of another acting role in Fast and Furious 9—as well as another lead film role that the rapper mentioned, but wasn’t at liberty to describe—Cardi B is devoting as much time as possible to the production of her new album.

“My album is on my mind 24/7,” she said. “It’s practically all I’m focusing on.”

The news of Cardi B’s upcoming album is also accompanied by another major milestone: Invasion of Privacy currently sits at No. 56 on the Billboard Top 200, meaning that Cardi B is tied with Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill for the longest-charting debut album by a female rapper in history. Miseducation occupied its place on the charts for 91 weeks, and it appears as though Invasion of Privacy just might break that record.

In addition to winning Cardi B a record-breaking Grammy, Invasion of Privacy also earned a nomination for Album of the Year. The single “I Like It” won a nomination for Record of the Year and “Be Careful” earned a nomination for Best Rap Performance. With such a hard-hitting debut, Cardi B’s sophomore album has a lot of hype to live up to—but when asked about the legacy of “Bodak Yellow,” the hit that started it all, Cardi B seemed proud of her past success, alluding to great optimism and enthusiasm for what’s to follow.

“It’s just the littest song of ever,” she said about the song. “Every party, every New Year, every Cinco de Mayo, every Thanksgiving, it’s just that type of song that you want to play to turn the party up . . . It’s that song that makes you feel like that b–ch, that girl. ‘Bodak Yellow’ is that girl.”

So if “Bodak Yellow” is “that girl,” what kind of bops can we expect from album number 2? The sneak preview above gives us a bit of an idea, and Cardi B’s statement last fall about naming her next album Tiger Woods—which she has since dismissed as a joke—might also offer some clues about the vibes of her upcoming record.

“I think I’m going to name my album Tiger Woods . . . because, remember when everybody was talking sh*t on Tiger Woods . . . and then he f*cking came and won that green jacket? That’s what I’m going to name my album.”