Featured Album: Invasion of Privacy

Cardi B wears her past like a superhero origin story. The twenty-five-year-old Bronx rapper went from stripping at a club to self-made social media fame, then from reality TV to hip-hop stardom. She may still be known better for her firebrand personality and wacky sound effects (“okurrr”) than for number-one singles like “Bodak Yellow,” but on Invasion of Privacy (Atlantic), her debut full-length album, she gracefully transitions from meme to master. With help from Chance the Rapper, SZA, Migos and more, Cardi plows furiously through thirteen rap, trap and Latin tracks that admonish men who screwed her over and women who glossed her over. Her ruthless rapid-fire verses are equal parts headstrong and insecure; she quips, “I got enough bras, y’all ain’t gotta support me,” only shortly before admitting, “my heart is like a package with a fragile label on it.” Truthfully, she ...