Cardi B’s latest single ‘Up’ has arrived with a fresh new video, which has already racked up close to three million views on YouTube.
Directed by Tanu Muino, the shot opens with Cardi in a black lacy mourning ensemble, with her stiletto on a gravestone that reads “RIP 2020.” Later, we see her wearing a wig full of Barbie doll heads, lying on a table wrapped in a plastic wrap bodysuit, and leading a troupe of dancers all in black leather dominatrix attire – showing us she is still at the top of her game.
The new single is Cardi B’s follow-up to her raunchy hit with Megan Thee Stallion, ‘WAP’. which became the first number one single on the inaugural Billboard Global 200, topping the chart for three weeks.
Drawing inspiration from the Chicago drill scene, Cardi told Zane Lowe from Apple music that she wanted to make a song that was like her first mixtape. She said, “If it’s up, then it’s stuck, and that’s where I wanted to take it with this record.” Quoting the central phrase of the chorus, she refers to having unsettled beef with someone.
Although Cardi made a conscious decision to pivot away from overtly sexual themes in writing this song, she still celebrates sexual liberation and empowerment by stroking a vibrator and locking tongues with her dancers in the video.
Cardi has also said she plans to put out an album later this year and has “like 50 songs” recorded. She explains that her recent experience on social media, both positive and negative, have influenced her songwriting and have been documented in her upcoming album.
Following the incredible success of her previous releases, fans are hotly anticipating the new album. Cardi says, “I just feel like I’m just not satisfied anymore, because it’s like the expectations be so high […] I feel like I have no choice now. Now, I feel like I exceeded my limit of holding. I just need to stop with the fear.”
READ MORE: Cardi B’s new album: everything we know so far