Joe Budden says that he isn't a fan of Cardi B's newest single, "Imaginary Playerz," which samples Jay-Z's iconic song of the same name from his 1997 album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. Discussing the track on his eponymous podcast, Budden noted that he didn't think it was the right beat for the song.
"She shouldn't do that again. Don't do that again," Budden began. "Don't take any East Coast, top 3 or 4 rapper, beat, classic song, and redo that... We're gonna shout out the writers. The writers killed. This is not about the writers. The writers killed... That wasn't enough. 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. It was just fly because of the cadence and the flow and what he was saying, his aura and voice control. Cardi's in the same pitch, same tone, sounding choppy, not smooth, bars are there, but this is not the beat for that."
Users on social media have been sharing their own criticism of the song in response to Budden's take. "She just reworded his whole song. That’s why she need clearance. She did more than sampling it, she damn near covered it," one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Another countered: "Joe sound like a barb talking a whole bunch of nothing - u like it but u don’t like that’s he did it on a jay z classic mind you this man never had a hit to be talking or commenting- so he saying Jayz is less knowledgeable than him ? Bc he cleared it !! So yea ima listen to Jayz a real rapper not no Joe."
Cardi B "Am I The Drama?"
Cardi B dropped "Imaginary Playerz" as the second single from her upcoming sophomore album, Am I The Drama?. Cardi is planning to drop the project in September, finally following up her critically acclaimed debut, Invasion of Privacy, which she released back in 2018.
She put out the lead single, "Outside," in June. Fans will be able to hear the entirety of Am I The Drama? when it releases on September 19 through Atlantic Records.
