Jay-Z’s “Imaginary Players” has spiked in popularity since Cardi B sampled it on her new single, “Imaginary Playerz.”
Spotify announced that Hov’s classic 1997 song saw a 305% increase in streams from Aug. 15-17.
Bardi put out “Imaginary Playerz” on Aug. 15 as a pre-release single for her upcoming sophomore album, Am I The Drama? She also shared a music video depicting her living the high life her haters can only imagine — a similar conceit as Jay’s original, with its now-iconic Range Rover comparison.
The day before “Imaginary Playerz” came out, Cardi explained the significance of when Jay-Z cleared the sample for the song during an Instagram Live session.
“When he texted back my manager [that] the record was clear[ed], it was at 4:44 PM,” she said.
Cardi has described “Imaginary Playerz” as a “very hip-hop record” that she now considers to be a “staple” in her discography. However, the rapper explained that she felt pressured to make sure it was right.
“The song is kind of long and I took my time with [it] because this song is like a staple for me and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I got to make sure that this song is good’ because I have to fucking to get it approved by the one and only [Jay-Z],” she said.
“If he didn’t approve it, I probably wouldn’t even feel a certain type of way neither, because it would have been like, ‘Okay, maybe I just had to come a little bit harder.’ But I’m glad that I came hard and he loved it and everybody else love it,” she continued. “Somebody came up to me and they said, ‘Uh, I’m not even going to lie. When you announced that you was doing ‘Imaginary Players,’ I was a little nervous, but you ate that.’”
Cardi’s Am I The Drama? Is set to drop on September 19.
