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Cardi B was recently accused of launching a subtle dig at fellow rapper and friend Megan Thee Stallion. Recently, the 31-year-old rapper announced the release of her much-anticipated sequel to 2017's Invasion of Privacy. However, fans believed an autumn release would not help the album sales.
"The album is definitely not coming in summer, an album in autumn/winter will have MUCH LESS chances of getting viral hits and will earn much less streams and sales. +6 years of waiting is worth at least a good release date," commented a user in a now-deleted X post.
However, the subtle dig didn't please Cardi, and she replied that the general trend has been albums performing underwhelmingly this summer.
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“Please tell me which album been doing good this summer? Since you got your degree and act like you [expletive] know everything,” Cardi B tweeted.
However, fans quickly construed the explanation as Cardi B shading Megan Thee Stallion, who released her eponymous album, Megan, on June 28.
"Not Cardi shading Megan Album sales," commented one user.
The Bodak Yellow rapper fired back at the accusations on July 16 in her now-deleted tweet. She explained how the underwhelming performance of the music albums this season is connected to the enormous volume of musical numbers that are dropping every day. She further implored her fans to stop making everything a shady conspiracy theory.
“Shady wat [expletive]? It’s the [expletive] truth albums are not performing as good in the summer as the ones dropping in the other seasons …The music traffic is insane, there’s thousands of songs releasing and you can’t barely get placement for more then 2 weeks because of so many dropping at a time is STATISTICS,” explained Cardi.
Despite the explanation, some fans still believe the dig was directed at Megan Thee Stallion. Many argued that Megan Thee Stallion's album is the only candidate Cardi B can logically target because of the stellar success of other bigshot releases like Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter.
"Whose album would she be talking about if not Megan’s? Cowboy Carter? TTPD? Let’s not play stupid," explained one fan on X.
In other deleted tweets and chats in her X Space, Cardi even threatened to shelf the release of her new album in 2024 and do it directly in the summer of 2025. She clarified that she wanted everything to be inch-perfect when the album launches and didn't believe in long pre-order timelines for her fans to finally get hold of the record.
However, the record label for Cardi's upcoming album, Atlantic Records, alluded in a May 16 tweet that her next album will be released in 2024. Quoting a Rolling Stone tweet about Cardi B's legacy, Atlantic Records wrote:
"Cardi B’s upcoming album is one of the most anticipated this year. We can’t wait [to] put it out, even if we have to sneak into her studio and take it!”
Atlantic Records released Cardi's Invasion of Privacy in 2018. The album has won a Grammy for Best Rap Album and has been accredited with 4x-platinum.
Cardi B and Glorilla made special appearances during Megan Thee Stallion's Hot Girl Summer Tour
Megan Thee Stallion welcomed Cardi B and Glorilla on stage during the New York leg of her Hot Girl Summer Tour on May 21, 2024, at the Madison Square Garden. The three rappers recently collaborated on the remix version of the chartbuster Wanna Be from Glorilla's Ehhthang Ehhthang mixtape. It was also the first time they officially confirmed the collaboration.
"Wanna Be’ the remix is about to drop, y’all. Be ready,” announced Megan Thee Stallion.
Before the announcement, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B performed their 2020 hit collaboration, WAP, and were met with resonating applause from a packed Madison Square Garden. The Wanna Be collaboration will be the third joint venture of the two rappers after WAP and 2023's Bongos.
