December 20, 2018

Is it real?

A
Contributor

Nowadays, you truly just don’t know what’s real. The power couple that was Cardi B and Offset is now headed toward a divorce after a year of being one of Hip Hop’s favorite items. While Cardi seems to be standing firm in her desire to be alone, the Atlanta rapper is pulling out all the stops to win back his woman. He went from a Tweet in all caps expressing he misses her, to a video describing how he shouldn’t have done what he did and his birthday wish is to have her back, to interrupting her headlining set at Rolling Loud this past weekend. All of which, occurring right around the supposed time his debut solo album The Set Gala was supposed to release. Timely.

Offset and Cardi have done nothing but provide us great music and hilarious moments, so of course we wish them the best whether they end up together or not. The timing does cause us to question the sincerity of it all. Did they really agree to get a divorce? Does Offset really want to save the marriage or save his rollout for the album? Is this entire thing just a stunt to package with the album and ensure it gets all attention? Nowadays, everything is to be questioned.

This business is all about driving consumers’ focus. Where they actively pay attention, they are more likely to pay money down the road. Offset is already part of the most popular group in the world, one of the most coveted features in music, and married to one of the most popular women of 2018. Announcing that he too was stepping out to do a solo LP already drew the intrigue of fans. With Meek Mill‘s Championships still dominating and 21 Savage set to release his highly anticipated album this month, Offset needs a way to stand out and last beyond the first week honeymoon most releases fall victim too.

Cardi already Tweeted out that Offset’s album was very personal, bringing tears to her eyes, so this whole plan could be a plot to play on fans’ emotions. A broken relationship and confusion amongst fans could be the exact things Quality Control would hope to be present upon people hearing the music. That’s what rollouts are strengthened by, the narrative conveyed up until the release. If it’s an album full of vulnerable confessions and repentance by the 27-year-old, he may succeed in winning the fans back.

Cardi’s role in all of this is the x-factor, if you will. She’s been a superstar for about a year now but has never been one to act like anything but herself, regardless of the situation. Her anger at Offset and her stance on the divorce all seems genuine, but she could be putting on the show of a lifetime to assist her husband’s release. She had an amazing year already, and has a Grammy-nominated record in Invasion of Privacy to show for it. Now she can get her husband a bag from his work that they can spend together on baby Kulture, who Cardi coincidentally revealed to the world soon after announcing the divorce. The timing is all too fishy.

As easy as it may be to get wrapped up in the headlines and the drama, we’re keeping our eyes peeled on this one. The album was supposed to drop December 14th and it was apparently pushed back due to all of this happening. A believable narrative, but also very easily a way to drag this out and develop more touch points before the project’s release. The Migos Instagram is continuing ahead promoting as if nothing is unhindered, so more eyebrows continue to raise.

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ITS STILL ON THE WAY

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Our take is there is a lot riding on this final release for Migos, after Culture II was met with much critique and Quavo Huncho didn’t do all that well either. The Last Rocket was solid but Offset has the star status to garner critical acclaim as well as commercial success. They’re doing all they can to ensure he reaches his maximum potential, and having Cardi’s name involved never hurts the algorithms or SEO.

Offset’s solo album is the 4th quarter shot where they group can lay claim to a solid album for the year and finish strong, hopefully with some powerful singles already in motion when 2019 gets rolling. We wish the very best for Cardi, Offset and Kulture, but there is a lot happening here that seems a bit to convenient. In the meantime, enjoy a fun flip of Cardi’s “Motorsport” lyrics talking about the divorce below.


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