“Money”

It may take years to fully measure the impact of Cardi B’s 2018 coup. Amidst other rappers’ torrents of too-streamable-to-fail prostrations before the algorithmic gods and garish event albums, Cardi B stuck to her bona fides. Drawing from her singular résumé as a stripper, reality star, vlogger, and shit-talker, April’s Invasion of Privacy introduced the Bronx rapper as an impish and cutting force of nature. It’s dizzying to note that between now and last summer, she’s bested her performance on “Bodak Yellow”—which was once her best song—at least 10 times.

“Money,” Cardi’s third team-up with “Bodak Yellow” producer J. White, coasts on the momentum of this breakout year. Built around another bass-heavy, pounding beat, the track is familiar yet fun. As far as flex raps go, it’s not as animated as “Bodak” nor as transcendently brazen as “Money Bag,” but it cuts harder. Cardi remains a direct and parsimonious writer, paring ideas down to their essence. Dropping the bag, “Money” gets to the point quickly and cleverly: “I got a baby/I need some money, yeah/I need cheese for my egg.”

Cardi’s steely menace as she waxes about cash saps some of the color from her sharper boasts (“Bitch I will black on your ass/Wakanda Forever”), but she still packs a punch. Followers of her beef with Nicki Minaj will notice a few tough swipes (“All y’all bitches in trouble/Bring brass knuckles to the scuffle/I heard that Cardi went pop/I did go pop/That’s me bustin’ they bubble”). The true treat, though, is in the final bridge. Cardi raps, “I like morning sex/But nothing in this world/That I like more than Kulture,” breaking the established rhyme scheme to replace “checks” with the name of her newborn. Cardi remains a titan of flexing, but now that she’s made it, money isn’t the motive; it’s just the means.