A year ago today, Cardi B. released the third single from her debut album being “Be Careful.” The song was written by Cardi B, Jordan Thorpe, and its producers Boi-1da, Vinylz, and Frank Dukes. It contains an interpolation from “Ex-Factor”, written and performed by Lauryn Hill, which itself samples “Can It Be All So Simple”, written and performed by Wu-Tang Clan.
The song itself was about infidelity in a relationship. “Be Careful” was inspired by her past romantic relationships in New York City, which annoyed Cardi when she was finishing recording Invasion of Privacy there.”
“Be Careful” peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and reached the top 40 in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The song received a nomination for Best Rap Performance at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
MUSIC VIDEO
The music video for “Be Careful” was directed by Jora Frantzis, the song’s music video premiered on May 21, 2018.
The clip opens with a wedding in a church filled with Jesus statues and crucifixes located in the middle of the dessert. Cardi B walks down the aisle in a wedding dress. The clip shifts to a darker hue as the rapper returns to the church, this time for her husband’s funeral.
When this song first came out, I wasn’t that much of a fan, but when Invasion of Privacy got released, and I was able to listen to it more as time goes on, it’s definitely one of her more emotional tracks that she’s put out. When she first put out this song, you can tell that she was still growing into her own voice: trying out different cadences and styles and that’s all on display again in.
The song had a great concept behind it, a scornful and melancholic warning to an unidentified man (who may or may have not be Offset) that has done her wrong.
“Be Careful” displayed a different angle of her persona, one that is removed from the uber-confident swaggering of her other records and instead drips with a sincerity and unrestrained emotion that flips gossip on its head. Cardi’s willingness to lay out everything she feels on her own terms with little-to-no filter hints at a far more interesting and complex artist than she sometimes gets credit for being.
Invasion of Bardi 