For artists of any genre, switching up their style can be a risky proposition. This probably goes double for hip-hop, with its quirky subgenres and fickle fans; taking a creative left turn can hurt as often as it can help. Cardi B is learning that now with the split reaction to her latest single, “Be Careful.”
While Cardi has become known for massive, trappy, club anthems, “Be Careful” is a departure in more ways than one. It displays tenderness and vulnerability, a far cry from “these is red bottoms, these is bloody shoes.” Rather than a speaker-shaking, drunk-all-night-in-the-club, street anthem, “Be Careful” is stripped-down and self-contained, inflected with hints of the Latin music Cardi grew up on as she reflects on a past, broken relationship.
She also borrows the bridge from Lauryn Hill‘s 1998 The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill single “The Ex Factor” for her hook, intoning, “Care for me, care for me / Always said that you’d be there for me, there for me / Boy, you better treat me carefully, carefully.” While she shows intriguing growth on the new track, stretching her boundaries beyond the pop-oriented material she’s released since “Bodak Yellow” blew up the charts, not everyone is happy about the new direction of “Be Careful” or the homage to Lauryn Hill. The claws came out on Twitter, with fans on both sides angrily dismissing any opposing views.
https://twitter.com/Eteboomin_/status/979357324304437248
https://twitter.com/quitfeenin/status/979578594061004800
Cardi B "Be Careful" was dope, gave me Lauryn Hill Ex factor vibes.. yall be hating for no reason lol
— Yung Jules (@iHateYungJules) March 30, 2018
MY THOUGHTS: ‘Be Careful’ is perfect but raw. Y’all expecting trap music, that’s too easy. Glad Cardi B is showing variety. It has Jamaican undertones, it’s so New York, lyrics has substance & it’s a song you play & vibe to. I love the Lauryn Hill reference. #BeCareful @IAmCardiB
— Jerome Trammel, M.B.A (@MrJeromeTrammel) March 30, 2018
https://twitter.com/FOXBOOGlE/status/979418111832133633
https://twitter.com/ardiphithecus/status/979725463164784642
https://twitter.com/XavierDerrell/status/979730471725817858
https://twitter.com/BFGscotty/status/979596350240141312
Do we really need/want a Cardi B album?
— Lo (@solodeauxleaux) March 30, 2018
Okay! So I listened 2 be careful a few more times. What I do appreciate about the song is the beat, the Lauryn Hill inspired hook, and the way Cardi put her feelings out there. The song is still a lil dry but I found some high keys about it.
— ⅄ԀS∀ſ (@jaspyology) March 30, 2018
Judging from some of the reactions, it appears to be worth noting once again how sample credit works. Because Cardi interpolated lyrics from Hill’s single, Hill needed to be credited as a writer. That means that she also receives a percentage of the revenue from the track, depending on whatever deal negotiated for the split. The same goes for the Wu-Tang credit on Lauryn’s song, which naturally transfers to Cardi’s credits as well.
Lauryn Hill is credited as a co-writer on Cardi B's "Be Careful" because it samples "Ex-Factor" from 1998's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." https://t.co/6pHWHlabd1
— Andrés Tardio (@AndresWrites) March 30, 2018
Wu-Tang Clan members are also credited as songwriters on Cardi B's "Be Careful."
I believe it's because they were credited as songwriters on Lauryn Hill's "Ex-Factor." That song borrowed from Wu-Tang's "Can It Be All So Simple." https://t.co/Y0fF7xtByp
— Andrés Tardio (@AndresWrites) March 30, 2018
Growth within hip-hop can be difficult to accomplish. While it can expand a rapper’s range and even change the genre as a whole, as it did for Drake, you can also get a Common Electric Circus situation, where you grow too fast for a fanbase’s tastes and have to hope to recapture them with a later return to form as he did on Be. Of course, “Be Careful” will get plenty of spin, so fans will have lots of chances for the track to grow on them, but it also changes the expectations for Cardi’s upcoming debut album Invasion Of Privacy. Anyone expecting ten more songs like “Bodak Yellow” might end up disappointed, but for fans who were ready to see Belcalis Almanzar finally spread her wings, “Be Careful” is the first indication that we might get to see more of the real Cardi, which is what made us love her in the first place.
