Whereas the wider worlds of pop and hip-hop might not have realized it when it was introduced earlier this week, the identify of Cardi B’s lengthy awaited sophomore album, Am I the Drama?, is suspiciously near a viral quote from Scarlet Envy’s time on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season six.
However for the predominantly (if not near solely) LGBTQ revelers at Brooklyn’s annual LadyLand Competition, “am I the drama?” is queer meme canon. So when Scarlet Envy emerged onstage at 1:35 a.m. on Friday evening (technically Saturday morning, however who’s counting) to introduce Cardi’s headlining set, completely everybody knew why she was there.
“Blissful Pleasure, New York Metropolis!” Scarlet shouted, prowling the stage in a shimmering crimson outfit and gigantic wig. “I’m right here each single 12 months — it’s good to be on the stage this 12 months, bitch. My identify is Scarlet Envy: I’m the drama,” she stated to cheers and finger snaps. “I’m blessed to introduce this performer to you. She’s an icon, she a legend and he or she’s a hometown hero.”
“Who’s tucking right now?” Cardi B yelled at the LadyLand crowd as she rolled up on stage in a black-and-white horizontal-striped jumper. “I’m an previous bitch,” she joked. “I’ve like 100 children, I’m prepared for mattress.”
What occurred subsequent was not the handiwork of somebody with one foot in slumberland: Cardi led the keen crowd by means of a breathless tour of her largest hits, regardless of the rising rain. “Let’s get horny y’all!” Cardi shouted at the high of her set, maybe needlessly – the LadyLand attendees, who had been gathering, gyrating, kiki-ing and flirting for hours, had been method forward of her, singing alongside and shaking ass the second her tiny body emerged on the fest’s Fist Stage. (For these , “Fist and Resist” keychains had been accessible at the merch desk.)
Flanked by two big inflatable fists with nails even longer than hers, Cardi B delivered hits like “She Dangerous,” “Cash” and her new single, the Offset-eviscerating “Exterior,” with the easy fervor and personality-drenched movement that catapulted her to fame.
“Imma spill some tea, prepare for the tour,” the five-time Billboard Scorching 100 topper promised the viewers of what was to return. 4 of these 5 chart toppers (“WAP,” “Bodak Yellow,” “I Like It,” “Up”) had been accounted for throughout her present. Regardless of the persistent rain that gathered power all through Cardi’s set, the viewers remained undaunted and rapt; in any case, it’s not on daily basis you get to see a hip-hop famous person carry out underneath the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (LadyLand has referred to as Greenpoint’s Below the Ok Bridge Park dwelling since 2023).
Previous to Cardi B’s headlining set, Ladyfag, the LadyLand founder and a driving pressure in NYC nightlife, instructed the crowd about her historical past with the Bronx-raised rapper. “It’s a full circle second for me and Cardi,” she defined: again in 2017, earlier than Cardi ascended to mainstream success with “Bodak Yellow,” she carried out up at Holy Mountain, LadyFag’s legendary NYC month-to-month throwdown.
“She obtained very enthusiastic about being with the gays,” Ladyfag just lately instructed Billboard of that February 2017 celebration. “She was solely imagined to do a number of songs, however she wouldn’t cease. Inside a number of months, she grew to become certainly one of the largest stars in the world — and he or she all the time remembered it.” That connection and heat was apparent on Friday evening, with Cardi blowing previous her bedtime to offer the gays, the dolls and everybody else an expertise past what every other NYC competition supplies.
Saturday (June 28) is the second and final evening of LadyLand 2025, with FKA Twigs headlining and performances from Pabllo Vittar, Boris, Eartheater, VTSS, Isabella Lovestory and Kevin Aviance.
