The wait is officially over — Cardi B dropped her “Like What (Freestyle)” Friday (March 1).
The rapper teased the new track via her Instagram Story earlier this week. “I ain’t even got dressed / Any L that I took come after YS / Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man,” she rapped in the snippet. The teaser arrived a week after her estranged husband Offset took to his own Stories to encourage the “WAP” rapper to drop her new music. In the video, the Migos star was bobbing his head with a satisfied stank face, writing, “Stop being scary and drop the album sh– goes crazy” with a line of fire emojis.
“Like What (Freestyle)” marks Cardi’s first solo record since 2021’s “Up,” which earned the MC her fifth Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. “Up” also earned a 2022 Grammy nomination for best rap performance.
The anticipation for her sophomore album has increased over the years since she dropped her critically acclaimed debut album Invasion of Privacy in 2018. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and produced two Hot 100 No. 1, diamond-certified singles: “Bodak Yellow” and “I Like It,” featuring J Balvin and Bad Bunny. Invasion of Privacy also won best rap album at the 2019 Grammy Awards.
Last August, following her features on Offset’s “Jealousy” and “Freaky,” GloRilla‘s “Tomorrow 2,” Latto‘s Put It On Da Floor Again” and FendiDa Rappa‘s “Point Me 2,” Cardi promised in her Vogue México y Latinoamérica cover story that she wasn’t going to release any more collaborations until she dropped her next solo single. But “Bongos” with Megan Thee Stallion dropped a month later, a sequel to their 2020 Hot 100 smash “WAP.”
“I’m going to put out my next solo single. Right now, I’m working on the cover art and ideas for the next record because it’s definitely coming up,” she told the publication at the time. “Everyone always tells me I should put the record out now. They did when I released ‘WAP’ and when I released ‘Up,’ but I always let them know I’m not going to wait long after all these singles. So stay tuned because it’s coming out very soon.”
Listen to Cardi B’s “Like What (Freestyle)” below.
This story originally appeared on Billboard
