Cardi B says she’s ‘very proud’ of the response to ‘Am I the Drama?’

Cardi B is pleased with the performance of her Am I the Drama? album thus far. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 after earning 200,000 album equivalent units in its first week — a number she says she’s proud of, despite what others think.

“It’s been such a drama with the numbers. First of all, I’m very proud of my number. … We’re in a very different era when it comes to music,” she tells Paper. “There’s people that have never even seen 100,000 sales calling me a flop. … [B]ut clearly, they don’t discourage me.”

“That’s what people will try to do, but it fails,” she continues. “It fails when [thousands] of videos are being made to your music. And then there’s [thousands] of people doing memes to your songs.”

Beyond being proud of the album’s reception, Cardi notes she’s proud of all the work she put in.

“I have worked so hard these past two months, nonstop, and I’ve been doing it all while I’m carrying [a baby],” she says. “I just feel like nobody really understands when you say, you working your a** off, and you see the results. You see the love. You feeling the energy of your hard work.”

Cardi also praised her own strength in the interview, which she says was on display as she went to bat for her daughter Kulture Cephus after she was mentioned in a heated exchange with Nicki Minaj.

“My mother warrior came out,” she says, noting she “showed the world that I will get the most nasty about mine.”

“This has been one of the moments I got tested the most about being a parent. But it just goes to show me how strong I am,” adds Cardi, who is pregnant with her fourth child. “I will really take it to hell for mines: mentally, physically, anything.”

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