Cardi B is catching some heat from Joe Budden over her new song “Imaginary Playerz,” which samples JAY-Z’s classic track “Imaginary Players.”
On a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the rapper-turned-podcaster shared his thoughts and made it clear he’s not a fan of her choice to use such a legendary beat. “She shouldn’t do that again,” Budden said, explaining that sampling a well-known song from one of the East Coast’s top rappers is risky. He did give props to Cardi’s writers, saying the lyrics were solid, but felt that wasn’t enough to carry the track.
The podcaster added, “That delivery, those punch-ins, how choppy that was… ‘Imaginary Players,’ for y’all that wasn’t there, Hov, when that dropped, was a much better rapper than that.” He pointed out that the original song stood out because of JAY-Z’s flow, confidence, and voice control, while Cardi’s version lacked smoothness and had a flat tone. “Bars are there,” Budden said, “but this is not the beat for that.”
The track is part of Cardi B’s upcoming album “Am I the Drama?*” which also includes her hit singles “WAP” and “Up” from 2020 and 2021. Some fans questioned why those older songs were added, but Cardi defended the decision on X, saying her fans wanted them on the album and they deserved a proper place.
“This will be the last and only time I’m gonna address this,” she wrote. “WAP and Up are two of my biggest songs, my fans have been asking me to put them on an album, and people search for them on IOP all the time… they deserve a home.”
She also said she skipped submitting “WAP” for the Grammys because of critics, but now she’s just focused on giving her fans what they want. *Am I the Drama?* is Cardi B’s follow-up to her debut album *Invasion of Privacy* and is set to drop on September 19.
