Invasion of Privacy is the debut studio album by American rapper Cardi B. It was released on April 6, 2018, through Atlantic Records and KSR. The album is primarily hip-hop, but also includes elements of trap, Latin trap and R&B. It features production from 30 Roc, Andrew Watt, Benny Blanco, Boi-1da, Craig Kallman, Cubeatz, DJ Mustard, Frank Dukes, J. White Did It, Keyz, Murda Beatz, Needlz, Tainy, and Vinylz, among others. The album features guest appearances by Migos, Chance the Rapper, Kehlani, SZA, 21 Savage, J Balvin, Bad Bunny, and YG.
The album debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with 255,000 units earned in its first week, including 202.6 million on-demand streams—the largest female rap album streaming week of all time—and 103,000 pure copies. Cardi B became the first female artist to chart thirteen songs simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album was supported by five singles–"Bodak Yellow", "Bartier Cardi" (featuring 21 Savage), "Be Careful", "I Like It" (with Bad Bunny and J Balvin), and "Ring" (featuring Kehlani). Both Diamond-certified singles "Bodak Yellow" and "I Like It" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Cardi B the first female rapper to top the chart more than once, and making the album the female rap album with the most Hot 100 number-one songs—a record later tied with her own second album, Am I the Drama?.
With over seven million units sold in the US to date, Invasion of Privacy is the best-selling female rap album of the 21st century, according to Luminate. It broke the record for longest-charting album by a female rapper on the Billboard 200, surpassing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and has spent three full years on the chart. In December 2019, it became the most-streamed female rap album on Spotify and Apple Music, and the most-viewed female rap album on YouTube. It has been certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), becoming the highest-certified female rap album of the 21st century, while further in 2022 becoming the first album in music history to have all its tracks certified platinum or higher by the RIAA.
Invasion of Privacy was met with critical acclaim. A number of music publications included it among their lists of best albums of the year, with Rolling Stone and Time listing it at number one. Several publications ranked it among the best albums of the 2010s as well, with Rolling Stone placing it at number thirty-four. Among its accolades, it won Best Rap Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, with Cardi B becoming the first female rapper to win the award as a solo artist. It also became the first female rap album in fifteen years to be nominated for Album of the Year, with "I Like It" being nominated for Record of the Year and "Be Careful" for Best Rap Performance. "Bodak Yellow" was nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance at the previous ceremony. At the 2019 BET Awards, Invasion of Privacy won the BET Award for Album of the Year.
The album was made available for streaming on April 5, 2018, but was not available on any physical format upon its initial release. It would later be released for digital download worldwide, a day later, on April 6. The album was eventually released on vinyl on December 7, 2018, and on CD on February 22, 2019. A deluxe edition was intended to be released on January 25, 2019, and include "Money", "Press", and potentially three other tracks, but was scrapped for unknown reasons. Those two aforementioned songs were eventually included in the 2025 sophomore project Am I The Drama?.
In 2026, it had all its tracks certified gold or higher in Canada.
Background Prior to the release of the album, "Bodak Yellow" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, while several collaborations also reached the top 10. Those singles set multiple chart records, including making her the first female rapper to land her first three entries in the top 10 of the Hot 100, and the first female artist to achieve the same on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. With her collaboration with Bruno Mars, "Finesse (Remix)", she became the first woman to have five top 10 singles simultaneously on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In March 2018, Cardi announced at the iHeartRadio Music Awards that the album will be released in April. She announced the release date and the title posting the album artwork in her social media pages on March 27, 2018.
Recording and production Invasion of Privacy was recorded from 2017 until early 2018, in The Cutting Room, based in New York City, based in New York. It features production from 30 Roc, Allen Ritter, Andrew Watt, Ayo, Benny Blanco, Boi-1da, Cassius Jay, Cheeze Beatz, Craig Kallman, Cubeatz, DJ Mustard, DJ Official, DJ SwanQo, Frank Dukes, Invincible, J. White, Keyz, Klenard Raphael, Murda Beatz, Matt Allen, Needlz, NES, Nonstop Da Hitman, Scribz Riley, Tainy and Vinylz, among others. Numerous notable artists collaborated with Cardi B on the project, including the Migos (whose member Offset married Cardi B in 2017), Chance the Rapper, Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Kehlani, 21 Savage, YG, and SZA.
Music and lyrics Primarily a hip hop album, Invasion of Privacy also comprises trap, Latin music and R&B, while its lyrical themes include fame, success, wealth, sex, and feminism, as well as Cardi B's past. The album opens with "Get Up 10", which speaks about Cardi B's rise to fame. It is followed by a trap song "Drip", which features a guest appearance by Migos, and speaks about jewelry, wealth, and Cardi B and Migos' status. The third track "Bickenhead" has a feminist theme; its title refers to women who work hard for money.
A hip hop and trap song "Bodak Yellow" follows, on which Cardi B confronts her enemies and makes statements such as "I don't dance now, I make money moves", referring to her past, as she used to work as a stripper before rising to fame. On the fifth track "Be Careful", Cardi B performs the hook using a softly sung vocal style over a "laidback" beat. The song also comprises "flickering" hi-hats and "slick" synths. Lyrically, "Be Careful" is a song about infidelity, where the protagonist warns her cheating partner and asks him to treat her better. During an interview, Cardi B stated that she drew inspiration from past relationships, while denying that the song was directed at her fiancé Offset.
The sixth track "Best Life" features a guest appearance by Chance the Rapper; the lyrics discuss the power of God and positive thinking. It's followed by "I Like It", a bilingual (English and Spanish) latin trap song featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin. Invasion of Privacy also contains two R&B mid-tempo songs–"Ring" (featuring Kehlani) and "Thru Your Phone"–which both lyrically show Cardi B's emotional vulnerability.
"Ring" is followed by three hip hop and trap songs: "Money Bag", "Bartier Cardi" (featuring 21 Savage), and "She Bad" (with YG). On "Bartier Cardi", Cardi B raps about her attraction to diamonds, sports cars and sex, while 21 Savage raps about a similar theme from a male perspective.
Release and promotion Prior to the release of Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B promoted its lead single "Bodak Yellow" in several live performances, including at the BET Awards 2017 afterparty on June 25, 2017, during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards pre-show on August 27, at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards on October 6, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 18.
While accepting her iHeartRadio Music Award for Best New Artist at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 11, 2018, Cardi B revealed that Invasion of Privacy would be released in April 2018. On March 27, 2018, she revealed both the official artwork and title for the album. The album was made available for streaming on April 5, 2018, through Atlantic Records, and was released for digital download worldwide the following day.
On April 7, 2018, Cardi B performed the first three singles on Saturday Night Live. On April 9, she co-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, becoming the first person to co-host the show. Cardi B also performed during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 15 and April 20, 2018. She also performed at the Broccoli City Festival 2018 on April 28, 2018; she was also supposed to perform at the Wireless Festival in July, however, the performance was cancelled due to her pregnancy. Her summer tour in support of the album, which would run from May 4 until July 29, 2018, in the United States, Norway and Ireland, and all performances until September were also cancelled.
Cardi B was also originally scheduled to be the opening act on Bruno Mars's 24K Magic World Tour in North America during September and October 2018, however, she withdrew as she just had her daughter, Kulture. A deluxe edition including "Money", "Press", and potentially three other tracks was intended to be released on January 25, 2019, but was scrapped for unknown reasons.
Singles The album's lead single, "Bodak Yellow", was released on June 16, 2017. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks. Cardi B became the first female rapper to have a song certified Diamond by the RIAA when "Bodak Yellow" received the certification in March 2021.
"Bartier Cardi" was released on December 22, 2017, as the second single and features rapper 21 Savage. It peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA.
"Be Careful" was released as the third single on March 30, 2018. It peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA.
"Drip" featuring Migos was released as a promotional single on April 4, 2018, despite being released to Australian radio on April 6, 2018. It peaked at number 21 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song has been certified platinum by the RIAA.
"I Like It", with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, debuted at number eight on the Hot 100 following the album's release. It was distributed to urban contemporary and contemporary hit radio as the album's fourth single on May 25, 2018, and several days later, the song's music video premiered on Cardi B's YouTube channel. After being released as a single, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making Cardi the first female rapper with multiple number one singles on the chart's history. The single has been certified Diamond by the RIAA, becoming the second song from the album to receive this certification, following "Bodak Yellow, and making Cardi B the first female rapper with three Diamond songs. "I Like It" and "Bodak Yellow" made Cardi B the only female rapper to have two videos on her YouTube channel with more than 1 billion views.
"Ring", featuring Kehlani, impacted US urban contemporary radio on August 28, 2018, as the fifth single. Previously, it had entered at number 28 on the Hot 100 as an album track following the album's release. The single has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.
Critical reception
Invasion of Privacy received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 84, based on 24 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian gave Invasion of Privacy four out of five stars, and called it "a magnificent debut that fuses vulnerability, sexual voraciousness, paranoia, and party music" and wrote that the album "shows the rapper is capable of far more than punchy put-downs". For Exclaim!, Erin Lowers scored the album a 9 out of 10, noting that her softer singles add "a new dimension" to her artistry, and adding that the release "feels like her 'Lemonade' moment, one that magnifies her insecurities for public consumption."