If Cardi B’s new song finally ushers in her sophomore album, it will definitely be some “Hot Sh-t.” Cardi dropped her entry for “song of the summer” on July 1, a track featuring verses from none other than Lil Durk and Kanye West. While listeners had to wait for the third verse to get to Ye, the Chicago native got personal on the bumpy track, produced by BanBwoi and Tay Keith.
“I’m just sayin’ now I start to get used to the pain,” he rapped, seemingly making a reference to his divorce from ex Kim Kardashian. “‘Til one day I say, “f– it”, brought my masseuse on the plane,” he then added for some humor. He also dropped a line about his four kids with Kim, North, 9, Saint, 6, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 3. “‘Where you done that? Where you live at?” Another headline, ‘Where your head at?’ ‘N—, go home, where your kids at?’,” he said, noting the press “be on my nerve.” Ye has had no shortage of said headlines pertaining to his split and kids, notably around Chicago’s fourth birthday party in January when he alleged he was not invited but was eventually given the address by Tristan Thompson.
“Hot Sh-t” might finally jumpstart the rollout of Cardi’s eagerly-anticipated follow-up to 2018’s Invasion of Privacy. The record established Cardi B as one of the biggest rap stars of her generation, and the singles she released after the album – 2019’s “Money, Please Me” and “Press,” 2020’s “Wap,” and 2021’s “Up” – built on that success. Cardi has also been featured on tracks by Lizzo (“Rumors”), Normani (“Wild Side”), Anitta (“Me Gusta”), and a handful of other artists, Meaning that: though she hasn’t dropped an album, Cardi hasn’t been MIA.
Still, fans have wondered openly when the new album would arrive.
Cardi dished on “Hot Sh-t” during a Twitter Spaces session. “I have this record already for almost three years. I think this record is actually older than ‘WAP.’ It is everyone’s favorite,” she said, adding that the record “is very masculine, too” (per Complex). “I feel like I haven’t put out a record in a year and a half. It’s a lot of pressure on me,” she said. “I’ve seen tweets of you guys said this before. You guys be feeling like no other fan bases be having your back. Everybody is scared to stand up for Cardi, but I stand up for a lot of people.”
Cardi’s fanbase won’t have to wait long for her next song. “I’m already working on the next record,” she said. “I’m already planning the rollout for the next record. It’s not gonna be a couple of months, this and that, after this record. I know I’ve been really lowkey with sh-t, but I’m ready to be ‘outside, outside, outside.’”
When on Instagram Live, Cardi said she wanted to “cancel [the] release” of “Hot Sh-t” because a music video wouldn’t be ready for a simultaneous rollout. However, Cardi admitted that while she used to go extra with the rollout of new music, she was just dropping the song this time. “I will not be releasing a music video with this song. I just don’t feel like …doing too much this time around. I’m just exhausted with everybody. … I’m just over it.”
Cardi said that “Hot Sh-t” would be music that people hadn’t heard from her before. She clapped back at her critics who said she makes “TikTok records” and “slutness” tracks. “It’s fun, it’s a great record…it’s great for the clubs.”
Fans got their first tease of “Hot Sh-t” on June 26, when Cardi posted what appeared to be a scene from the scrapped music video. In a 15-second teaser, Cardi stood atop a skyscraper in her native New York City against a peach-colored sky. She followed the release of the teaser with a look at the single art, which featured a semi-naked Cardi lounging in the back of a luxury car. The second shot showed Cardi covering her bare breasts with a giraffe-print glove. The matching hat she wore drew comparisons to Mortal Kombat character Raiden…from Cardi herself. “Round 2…..FIGHT!” she captioned the shot.