Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "CARDI B - IMAGINARY PLAYERZ"

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠Join Analytic Dreamz on Notorious Mass Effect for an insightful segment breaking down Cardi B’s highly anticipated single “Imaginary Players,” dropping August 15, 2025. Explore the track’s deep connection to JAY-Z’s 1997 classic, Cardi’s creative fight for a Hip-Hop sound, and the buzz around potential industry feud implications. Get an expert analysis of Cardi’s rollout strategy ahead of her sophomore album Am I the Drama? releasing September 19, 2025. Stay tuned for fresh, stat-packed music commentary.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Now when it comes to Cardi B releasing a new track titled Imaginary Players, safe to say that she got the blessing from the one and only Jay-Z. As when it comes to him clearing the sample for his 1997 in My Lifetime, Volume 1, track Imaginary Players. Safe to say, that is very interesting because of when I talked about Nikki versus Jay-Z, which, you know, definitely following me on my social media's at every. analytic dreams with a Z because this is a clip from TikTok of me talking about Nikki and Jay-Z. She went on to literally troll Jay-Z. I don't know what type of response that she is looking for, but as far as going at a certain individual in the past, well, it's been like the past two to three weeks. She just been like purposely picking at him time and time and time again.

And then I thought to myself, she's been promoting something. has been Nikki's been promoting Stationhead, which if you don't know, Stationhead is a social music streaming platform where fans and artists

connect and broadcast live. Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to that, now Jay-Z said to him, so, it's time for me to promote something. And by promoting something, he is definitely doing it

as given a cosign to Cardi B to use your track imaginary players. He knows exactly what he's doing. Jay Z and Cardi B is dropping a bomb on Nikki for the same reason that Nicky's been trying to drop bombs on them, right? They are picking at each other for a reason that nobody really knows the real truth as far as why they keep picking at each other. But as far as at face value, Nikki's been talking about Desiree Perez's daughter.

she's been talking about how j z is a snake and a backstabber for leaving out little wayne as far as the super bowl performance so now when you look at that i don't know i had taylor swift oh i just talked about taylor swift that's why she was up there anyways let's get back to it for people not on analytic dreams video on spotify they're probably completely confused what i was just saying but anyways as far as nicky and carty b the main thing you need to know is that this is a direct response because even though Nikki came out and said all of that about Jay-Z as far as the

feud on lot, well, really it was the one-sided. Nicky was saying everything and then some towards Jay-Z, right? And then of course, not only did Cardi B come out as far as the outside track, which is currently the 57th most played track in the world, because if you don't know,

Cardi B is putting out an album. It's not coming out anytime soon, but she's definitely having a phenomenal rollout because, best believe the label that she is under is fed up and how do i know that i mean it just made it up but when it comes to cardi b under the atlantic recording corporation let me just tell you all there's new regime under hopefully i said that right for um atlantic julie greenwall stepped down as elliott grange took charge of atlantic music group

and i covered that all the way almost it's that a year ago oh almost a year ago 20 24 which is why you should follow the podcast you know i'll be i mean i'll be you know saying i'll be saying some stuff nothing too crazy but as far as that ultimate um debacle of atlantic corporation right having lucian grain's son take take over as the CEO and chairman of atlantic records they are looking to do things a little different what's the first thing you want to do get more value out of what you just pay for so you can recruit recoup quicker right one of your biggest Big Dogs under Atlantic is who? Cardi B. So now it seems like everything is the lining as far as Cardi B putting out imaginary players as far as Jay-Z giving her the cosign to sample it right

not right after but like a month after Jay Z went on I mean Nikki went on like a month long tirade against Rock Nation Jay Z and Desiree Perez. A coincidence? Obviously not. Obviously not. This is not a coincidence. When it comes to Jay-Z and Nikki, I don't know what the real feud is. Nikki's making it seem like it's just because of a little Wayne being slighted for the Super Bowl in New Orleans. You already know Cardi B and Nicky's back and forth as far as them just, I don't know, not liking each other for some reason. We really don't know. I mean, a whole shoe like flew at Nikki and we still don't know why they was beefing. So with that being said, Nikki and Cardi just don't like each other for some reason. This makes

all the senses in the world as far as the collaboration between jzy and card even if it is just a sample still phenomenal feed because jZ doesn't really clear a lot of his music if you if you don't notice when it comes to samples it helps out with nostalgia which is basically increasing the percentage of the masses liking that specific track because now it makes them think of an older time where the music they deem was better so now if they listen to a sample the nostalgia factor would kick in now it doesn't mean they're automatically going to like the song but they're more inclined to like the song because it sounds like something they've heard before with uh which is what they attached to good music what they heard before they call that good music so now the sample in your current current music

raises the percentage of them actually enjoying it and of course carty b is claiming that this specific track is a staple in her new era so as far as this particular track she says that the full of hip-hop heads that she played it for absolutely loved it and you already know that had to be one of of um i mean that one of them had to be j-z because he cleared it uh carty b literally said that she had to do a lot to do to get that sample and to use his name and she said literally quote if he didn't approve it i probably wouldn't feel a certain type of way maybe i just had to come a little bit harder but I'm glad that I came hard and he loved it. Cardi also teased that there's an untold backstory about what she went through to release it and that will reveal after the song drops.

I wonder what Jay-Z had Cardi B doing. So you know what I mean? They get his name on a sample. At the end of the day, I play the wrong drop. You guys. See that's the problem. I'm just saying, you know, there was just a couple things that Cardi B had to do to clear the sample. Nothing too crazy. I'm not insinuating anything. I'm just trying to really figure out what she could have done and got the sample clear because she made an emphasis on how hard it was to get it, you know? And ultimately, for a track title, imaginary players, some would say that Jay Z's one

one the biggest players in a hip-hop game. Oh, my fault. You guys. See, that's the problem. I don't think I was supposed to say that one. I mean, if Salerns didn't tell you, oh, my fault. You know what I'm saying? I didn't say it again.

You know what I'm saying? Anyways, with that being said, the main thing getting into this is the main, what you need to know is a huge moment for hip hop. Not only because Jay-Z's involvement, not clearing a lot of samples to the point where he's not only clearing the sample, he's clearing it from his perceived classic as far as the 1997 volume one in my lifetime, right? So a lot of the Jay-Z fans are already going to be waiting for it. And a lot of the Cardi B fans are insisting that this is going to be the song. I guess summer's already passed. So we ain't really have a song of the summer, honestly. The more I look at it, there was really no song of the summer.

I mean, K-pop ran the summer. And that's it. I can't think of any other track that really ran the summer. I mean, I guess if you want to talk about tracks from last year, I mean, Shibuzis track is still going crazy. and then well no his album is still going crazy and then that's basically it yeah that's literally it as far as the tracks there was really no song or the summer

our bar song tipsy which came out 2024 and lose control by teddy swims is the closest thing you could call to an anthem in the past two months so anyways with that being said the main thing you need to know is that carty b is back again new single for her album that is releasing September 19th of this year

so of course he still has some quite a lot of ways to go but with this particular track being track number two coming out soon I don't like a lot of people saying that Cardi B is not hitting with her latest single outside because it's the 57th most played track in the world like obviously if you look at Drake Drake's track what did I miss that was released

a good amount after to that, right? That's, and I say only, it's still a phenomenal accomplishment, but it's the 40th most played track in the world. So if we're comparing Cardi to the current landscape of hip hop as far as the top performers, because Drake is ultimately, Drake ultimately has the most, oh, no, I staying corrected. Is it big X a plug? Actually, who has the most popular hip hop track right now? Let me see. I think it is big X to plug. If you want to call Shabuzi hip hop, then, you know, I want to be mad at a bar song being quantified at. The track Mutt by Leon Thomas.

He's an R&B artist, but still, I mean, that's the 20th of most played track. That's insane. You have Morgan Wallin, and you have a bunch of white artists, K-pop artists, and then Big X. Okay, so I stand corrected. Big X, the plug, featuring Bailey Zimmerman, which has a country artist on it, right? That's the most popular hip-hop track.

Like we said earlier, as far as the beginning of the year, what Side 7 did the hip-hop was he created a vacuum so that nobody even cares if it's not Kendrick or Drake News. And the masses were saying like, oh, that's not true. Y'all just talk about one thing. Why are you not supporting J.I.D.'s album? Why are you not supporting Pusha T's album? Like there's so many phenomenal albums with masterclass wordplay on it.

That's not topping the charts. And that goes back to my statement that I reiterate time and time again. Just because you make high quality, it does not mean it's going to correlate to high sales. But of course, high sales mean that the engagement is for certain things as far as the objective metric, right? The engagement was for Kendrick and for Drake, and that was it. Now we see in 2025 what they're results in. Everybody else just completely looking like they're flopping left and right,

just falling off like flies, just flop here, flopping everywhere, right? So when it comes to Cardi, I think she's doing good in the current landscape of hip hop is hard to have a top 10 track currently as a hip hop artist. And it's just been like that for quite some time. even Tyler the creator who had a phenomenal first week sales right his most popular track is ring ring ring off of his latest album that is the 58th most played track in the world i'm putting in perspective that hip hop is not as popular as some people think in the year of 2025 now does that mean it's not quality of course not but of course when it comes to engagement consumption is the reason why me as somebody who pays attention to the marketing strategies points out that having a battle in chance somebody calling somebody else a pedophile to the point where it's the most decorated hip-hop track of all time i wonder i just wonder what that does for the ultimate genre of hip-hop when we let the white award shows award a track from hip-hop the most they've ever did the most they've ever done for a particular track and that track

centered around i'ma-missly you know what i mean falsely calling somebody a pedophile so anyways with that being said i mean the serious or so i'm just letting y'all know the landscape of hip hop something has to change kendrick's not i think he's on his sabbatical now right kendrick didn't did what he had to do he's leaving he's never coming back when it comes to drake he's still putting our music trying to encapsivate the masses especially with what did i miss especially with uh which one which is the 48th most played track right now so when it comes to his ultimate hits as far as nukia still being the 42nd most played track but that's been on our charts for about 25 weeks so that's that's been on the charts for about 25 weeks so

is most popular as far as the long-term metric, right? We still have yet to have an artist from hip-hop really and captivate the masses in 2025 and we're eight months in. So with that being said, click my lecture in my bio. Let me know on one of my social medias. What do you think about Cardi B's latest track, Imaginary Players? When you think about it being co-signed by Jay-ZE, even to the point where he's letting her sample his imaginary players track off of his 1997 album?

And do you think this is all a diss towards Nikki? or do you think Jay-Z genuinely wants to help out with the marketing rollout for Cardi B's album Am I the Drama that's released in September 19th, 2025?