Cardi B at Kadetten 2019

At her only concert in Norway this year, Cardi B leaves something to be desired, with a lack of her own material.

The audience had been waiting for the main act for more than an hour when, fifteen minutes after schedule, Cardi B finally appeared on the stage for her only concert in Norway this year, completely surrounded by flames and dressed head to toe in purple. She looked stunning, accompanied by a crew of dancers that left no doubt who was in charge of this festival. The sun was going down but the expectations and energy of the crowd were rising.

«Beast, mode, that’s how I give it up.» Cardi B kicked-off her concert with «Get Up 10», the lengthy rap rant that opens her debut record Invasion of Privacy from 2018. The audience was listening carefully to the lyrics, and soon after began to dance at the rhythm of «Press», her latest single which was released this year. Despite her short career Cardi B is able to show a repertoire that goes way beyond her debut album, going back to her mixtapes with songs such as «Back it up» from Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 2. She jumps from one song to another and presents a handful of her collaborations from the past three years.

Lacking in her own material

Showing all her force and energy Cardi B drops «No Limit», a collaboration with G-Eazy and A$ap Rocky (The latter was originally set to be closing the festival on the second day of Kadetten as a replacement of Chance the Rapper). Dropping hit after hit, from «Motor Sport» her collaboration with Nicki Minaj and «Taki Taki» with Selena Gomez and Ozuna, and «Clout» together with Offset on the stage. Other additional songs during her Blitzkrieg concert were «Money», «I like it», «Bartier Cardi» and closing her presentation with the infamous «Bodak Yellow».

However, while dropping staggering sounds and good flow, moving through her impressive hits collection, the rapper keeps cutting each song after only a few seconds. The audience kept loosing it every time they heard one of the rapper’s famous singles, only for it to be annoyingly cut short thirty seconds later. The Bronx-born star addressed the audience continuously reminding them “oh, you know this one”, but as people started singing along the song would be cut.

It seems like Cardi B hasn’t realised that she has an album of her own, and that she isn’t stuck with only her mixtapes or her collaborations. While the performance was good, the format was therefore a bit frustrating, and it was very disappointing to have each hit cut so quickly, not being allowed to experience any of them fully. As the concert finished and the rapper left the stage, there is however no denying that the audience was left with an ambience impregnated by the aura of having seen one of today’s most famous music stars.