The latest Cardi B release "Red Barz" is, hands down I think, one of the greatest rap songs combined with a video that i think I've literally *ever* seen and I've seen quite a few of them.
I'm not totally sure if it's because of the manner in which I first listened to it , when I used a large screened kindle to watch it with headphones (something I never do and which made it particularly intense) or if it's just because it's actually that serious and good all on its own. I think it's the latter of course--it is that powerful --- because it was probably about half a year ago when I first found Cardi B, on just a little iPhone with a cracked screen, inside the video for "Foreva" , and even though that iPhone had not just a cracked screen but also horrific speakers , I can remember being nearly just as amazed by her as I was last night with "Red Barz". "Foreva" was a pretty shockingly good find for me at the time, I remember.
This latest April 2017 release is particularly phenomenal however , particularly passionate, and also, quite frankly, unlike anything I've ever seen before, from either a female or a male rapper. I'm a pretty big fan of AZealia banks for instance, and I've tried to write about her numerous times, but even Azealia, sad to say, simply cannot match the absolute firey intensity that is present in both the Cardi B videos I've seen now. The attitude was and is just....otherworldly. Cardi B brings, in my opinion, a strength to the female rap world that I feel we haven't really seen pretty much since what I personally consider the heyday of female rap which was Lil Kims and Foxy Browns peak.
A lot of people might think that Minaj arrives to the table with this same sort of rage but the problem with Minaj is that she almost plays a cartoon character & a parody of a rapper rather than an actual rapper. This song by Cardi B on the other hand goes to show that the aggression is still actually there....at least in some circles. In fact as I think of it now it's almost like she's a bit of a femme DMX, or an angry Tupac, because the entire sensation of the "Red Barz" video really was *that* vicious. It was also of course insanely fast paced. Every time I get done watching the thing I'm so entranced that it's like I just got done having an insanely fast paced work out....
Cardi B basically offers me exactly the sort of stuff I like to dose on most when it comes to the rap world, which is very powerful , very enlivened , very engaged and angry/ vulgar female energy. I am a man and a relatively straight acting one, so I suppose most heads who saw me in public wouldn't think I like femme rap most of all when the Doors are closed (especially because my favorite band for years was the Doors and Zeppelin) but I prefer powerful femme rap to dose on in my solitude, when I'm in that sphere, mostly just because I find it so absolutely different in scope as well as extremely evocative of the "future", which is something that as a "science fiction" Star Wars type writer I am quite passionate about.
And characters like Cardi b sell me this type of futuristic && never before seen sensation, which I find so inspiring for my writings, in a way that literally no one else can -- literally no one ----and that's what is so absolutely Engaging about it: Women in our time period are not necessarily always heard from, and that is particularly the case when it comes to a field like rap, so when you do find a complete "Queen of the hill" like Cardi B , and when you also see that she's really powerful in every sense of the word, both on camera and off, it actually, as Eve once said years ago with Gwen Stefani in another classic for me, "blows your mind". It's something I also said about Azealia Banks, I will admit, but it also applies equally if not , in some sense, even more so to Cardi b: instead of being a blast from the past --- which is what most people often yearn for in songs (and is somewhat problematic)--- Cardi is an absolute blast from the future. As far as I'm concerned we are seeing a style play out with her and others like her that won't really reach full "peak" still for another 10-15 years, in the 20s or even the 30s....
Yes she is a throwback in a certain sense because she does remind me of Foxy and Kim but she's far more futuristic than them in a way too -- a big way--because , quite frankly, I think she's a far better rapper than they ever were. I know it's sacrilege to say but , as far as I'm concerned, I've always felt that Kim and foxy, as much as I enjoyed them, often dull in comparison to male rappers of the same time period . I'd often admittedly rather just listen to biggie in place of Kim or Jay Z in place of Foxy et cetera , if I'm going to even be bothered at all with rap that old. With Cardi b however I can't stress enough: she's not just standing on the same platform as the male rappers of this time period (who I personally find, like many, to be grossly underwhelming) but she is also actually superior to them. She's a better rapper than 9/10 of the males currently out there. She's faster. She's crazier. She's fiercer. She's newer....
It might seem inappropriate in an article about a femme rapper, but the great Beatle Paul McCartney once said, somewhere or other, that he always believed, deep down somewhere, that music can heal not just the spirit but also actual wounds and maybe even sicknesses. As a musician myself I have often believed this, since it has often been during my most musically inspired moments when I have often felt my healthiest and most prepared. Well, with Cardi B, that's really thing I see so much on display with videos like "Red Barz": it's as though there is a hidden , behind the scenes energy capsulized In these songs and these videos which is so powerful that it could probably resurrect the dead. Its so pumped up with energy and i really just can't keep stressing enough now the vibrant energy that's on display in these style songs here simply cannot be found elsewhere. It's ashame but it really can't be. Cardi B Is pretty much one of the only ones out with a product this good. The Iggy azalea release from this month , for instance, "Mo Bounce" (right now at 27 million views after 3 weeks online) absolutrly pales in comparison. I'll admit to digging some of Iggy's past tracks ("Iggy SZN " for some reason had me captivated for a month a year ago) but "Mo Bounce" doesn't even come close to what is in "Red Barz". It's actually almost pathetic how lacking "Mo bounce" is in comparison.....
So all in all I am very much hoping I'll get some more of what Cardi is selling...as I might just be fully addicted now ....
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