Featured Image: (Pacer Graphic / Darby Self )

Cardi B released her new album, Am I the Drama?, on Sept. 19, 2025, and, based on the ratings it received, it has been a huge hit amongst her devoted fans.

The primary genre of this album is hip-hop, but it features a diverse range of background music that makes it noteworthy. We will be touching on the top three songs from the album: Hello, Outside,  and Pretty and Petty, with an honorable mention at the end.

Hello

I really enjoyed the beat in the background of this song. The beat provided a nice foundation for the rap on top of it, making it an overall memorable song for the album as a whole. It would have been the perfect opener for the album to really say, “I’m back, hello.” With Dead as the original beginning to the album, we can let it slide because it does a fine job at opening the album, but it doesn’t have the same effect as Hello does in weight. 

This song does a good job of giving us an insight into the entire album’s purpose, which is giving Cardi the power to lift herself and her listeners up. She doesn’t leave the listener time to doubt that Cardi herself is, in her own words, “that b*tch” throughout this entire album and has the words to explain it. 

This entire song talks about how she is the life of the party and gives the listener a feeling of being right there with her. Hello does a good job of setting the tone for the entire album and provides that fun party vibe that some people look for with Cardi’s music. The chorus does a wonderful job and stands out really well against the rest of the album. 

Outside

This song was a really cool diss track towards her estranged husband, if you know anything about that situation. She teased this song in 2024 on an Instagram story and left fans with no doubts about who it was about. 

Outside had a decent beat, but that wasn’t what really drew me into the song. The chorus was the biggest standout of the entire song. It really set the tone for the rest of the song and kept the vibe up throughout. If you haven’t listened to it, the vibe feels playful and a little mocking, which keeps it really fun to dance to. 

This is the type of song that you blare in your car after a heavy breakup, but I don’t hate it. This song made it onto the list for its catchy chorus and the fun vibe it brought to the album as a whole. 

Pretty and Petty

Pretty and Petty deserved a place on the list solely because of how catchy it is. This song had a couple of call-outs throughout it that leave you wondering who this song could be about. Her saying that the person was “built like their dad” was easily one of the best bars of the rap and left my jaw dropped. 

That bar was absolutely petty and deserved its place in this review and song. 

The chorus is a serious earworm, and the beat in the background adds another dimension to the song, making it a repeat button necessity. It solidified its place on this list the minute that I heard the bar, “You from Boston, let’s have a little tea party.”

This was only one of the ways wordplay is used in this song, and it made the song memorable and a delight to sing along to.

Honorable Mention

The honorable mention for this album review is Trophies. The background music of this song brought forth the rap with much fire, making this song one of the top four of the entire album. The album overall makes Cardi seem like she’s trying to paint herself as both the villain and the life of the party. The overall album isn’t one of the best that I’ve had to sit down and listen to, but if you have time and want to catch a wicked vibe, I would recommend this album to anyone who likes hip-hop. 

Grade: 6/10