It’s the three year anniversary of the Cardi B song, “Press!”
“Press” was released on May 31, 2019; while the music video had a long wait, of being released on June 26, 2019. The song would end up at No 16, on the Billboard Hot 100 spending about a total of six weeks on the charts. So, with that kind of success for a single song, why do some call “Press” a flop?
Coming off a very successful debut album with, “Invasion of Privacy,” Cardi had took somewhat of a break from music for while. It wasn’t until after the 2019 Grammy’s when Cardi started to release single songs again starting with, “Please Me” (featuring Bruno Mars) which would debut at No. 5 & then peak at No. 3 and was a Top 10 Billboard Hit for both Cardi and Bruno.
After the release of “Please Me,” came “Clout,” which was Offset’s song that featured Cardi, from Offset’s solo album, “Father of 4.” “Clout,” would be the next song released before “Press,” and would show that Cardi’s name does have impact on features, as “Clout,” would debut at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and would make this a Top 40 hit for both Cardi & Offset. This at the very least showed that Cardi’s name definetly holds weight and has impact on feature songs, and that you will more than likely chart with her on a song.
After the release of “Clout,” came “Press,” for those that don’t know, “Press” by this point, was an unreleased song, that BardiGang wanted as an actual released song. It started out as a viral clip that went around on Instagram in 2018.
So, after the success of some great hits, what happened? Well, even I can admit that maybe the song did come about maybe a year too late. Sometimes you do just need to strike while the iron was hot. The song, would’ve been too good to come out around the time of weird Cardi x Nicki back and forth that was going on around the time. Though, there were fans that didn’t want her to release the song, during that time as it would seem like she was dissing somebody.
Here’s what Cardi had to say about fans calling “Press” a ‘flop’:
“I thought “Press” was fun and it was gangsta, and then because it didn’t perform as good my other songs, people was like, ‘Oh, she’s a flop; oh, she’s dying out. I feel like people are just so tired of me winning. I will look for my name on Twitter, and it’s like hate tweets, hate tweets, hate tweets.”
Cardi in her 2019 Vogue cover interview on ‘mild success’ of “Press”
Now, to be fair to the fans, there was much hype around this song when it was coming out. The viral clip on Instagram made it seemed like it was going to be much more. Personally, I do like the song, but do I think of it as one of Cardi’s best songs? NO!
Do I think it had a good music videos? YES!!! The music video for “Press” did actually save the song for some fans. Some may even call it some of Cardi’s best music videos within her videography as an artist. The thing is, the music video also kind of came a little bit too late. Have to remember, the music video came out almost about a month later! Another thing that was also going on when the time “Press,” released, Cardi was also going through on going court trial, that deal with her fighting charges that she had brawled with two batertenders back in 2018.
The music video did capture what was currently going on in Cardi’s life at the moment, and it was a great music video concept. Many people praised the music video, and it’s still one of her most critically acclaimed music videos still. So far since it’s original release, “Press,” is at over 104 MILLION VIEWS on YouTube!
So, to the question, “was ‘Press’ a flop? Honestly, no! I don’t think that “Press,” was a flop. Did it maybe a get a bit too overhyped? Sure. I would not at all consider “Press,” a failure! It still ended up charting within the Top 20 which was still great for Cardi at the time, not everything is going to be big hit Top 5 hit or a even a BIG No. 1 hit! It’s for now, a certified PLATINUM single by the RIAA, and it still has big YouTube numbers.
For a song to be considered a failure at least to me, has to either not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 at all or even be on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart, (even then you’d still have a chance to still chart). It may have not have been the type of success that some BardiGang were hoping for at the time when it released, but I would still say that “Press” was indeed a HIT and not a flop, maybe you have a different exposition on how a song is counted as a hit, but for now I would consider the song as a success and so should BardiGang!
Invasion of Bardi 