Joe Budden has weighed in on Cardi B‘s latest single, “Imaginary Playerz,” and he isn’t holding back.
On the newest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the veteran rapper-turned-podcaster critiqued Cardi’s decision to sample Jay-Z’s classic Imaginary Players, arguing that the song’s legacy made it the wrong canvas for her delivery.
“She shouldn’t do that again,” Budden said. “Don’t take any East Coast top three, four rapper beat, classic song, and redo that. … We gonna shout out the writers. The writers killed. This is not about the writers […] The bars are there. That wasn’t enough.”
Budden explained that while Cardi’s lyrics held up, her execution didn’t match the weight of Jay-Z’s original: “That delivery, those punch-ins, how choppy that was … ‘Imaginary Players,’ for y’all that wasn’t there, Hov, when that dropped, was a much better rapper than that.
It was just fly because of the cadence and the flow and what he was saying, his aura and voice control. Cardi is in the same pitch, same tone, sounding choppy, not smooth. Bars are there, but this is not the beat for that.”
During his explanation, Budden even played an alternate fan edit circulating on X where Cardi’s vocals were laid over Junior M.A.F.I.A.’s “Get Money” instrumental, which he said sounded “much better.”
“That’s because ‘Get Money’ doesn’t come with the flow and the aura, it’s very different,” he explained. “It’s only the ‘Imaginary Players’ beat that’s making her sound like you shouldn’t be on here. I used to have a rule when I was rapping, some beats just stay, you got it, we don’t need to do that.”
Budden also suggested that the commentary around Cardi’s new song wouldn’t be as strong if it had been released as a freestyle rather than as a single for her new album.
Despite Budden’s feelings, “Imaginary Playerz” has Jay’s single spiking in popularity. Spotify announced Hov’s classic saw a 305% increase in streams between Aug. 15 and 17.
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