Are we the drama?
[Video]
[5.38]
Al Varela: There is a lot of fat that could have been cut from Am I The Drama?, especially considering how long it took to come out, but “Safe” isn’t one of them. Cardi B and Kehlani have natural chemistry that shines through even brighter than on “Ring.” Cardi’s bars are aggressive and assertive, but it’s one of her more vulnerable songs where she comes to grips with wanting a relationship that more than anything makes her feel safe, which hits harder after the constant betrayal and mixed emotions that her marriage to Offset brought. She’s still tough, but she’s also being honest in a way that’s refreshing, especially from someone known to get very confrontational. Kehlani’s softer, flowier voice singing throughout the song and on the hook emphasizes the intimacy of this song too.
[8]
Ian Mathers: Seeing that Cardi says this song is just straightforwardly about her current partner in a positive way is nice! I’m glad that’s a good situation and I hope it stays that way for them both. But knowing that, the music video (where by the end she’s… murdered?) hits even weirder, making the song feel subtextually pretty bleak in an unreliable narrator/the bar is in hell kind of way. I’m not saying that the video etc. means the real life inspiration is actually fraught or anything, but as sweetly as it’s sung it the video does make “I just need someone who can make me feel safe” come across as more plaintive than triumphant.
[7]
Andrew Karpan: It’s the big, domineering bounce of the Cardi sound turned inward, introspective and yearning, bringing to mind deep-cut curios like “Be Careful,” but here elevated by the finely-tuned pleading that perhaps only Kehlani can sing in her sleep, which she does and that’s fine too.
[6]
Katherine St. Asaph: Cardi and Kehlani’s voices play so well off each other, and off the lush arrangement, that this hits even though it feels like the two were never in the same group DM, let alone the same room.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Look, I know pop maturity requires homegrown sentiments like this, but at her best Kehlani has convinced me she records her strongest work when anxiety pokes its head from above the frame. Cardi B has no excuse.
[4]
Oliver Maier: Pathetic, subzero-effort showing from absolutely everyone. Sounds superficially like the Lonely Island for a minute and a half, then sounds literally like The Lonely Island when Cardi B and Kehlani start describing other situations where you might be “safe”. You know, like in baseball. 1 point for having a “facts” ad-lib in 2025.
[2]
Will Adams: Cardi and Kehlani’s continuous back-and-forth lends to the theme of feeling secure with another. It works less so when the lines they’re trading are clunkers like “safe like we playing tag and you home base.”
[4]
Nortey Dowuona: Very disgusted that Sean Island and DJ SwanQo made a better Cash Cobain song than FNZ and Vinylz. The problem is that Pardison handed Cardi some limp punchlines (or worse, Cardi turned in these weak lines herself with Pardison giving the nod), while Kehlani continues to be a perfect angel who indulges Cardi’s desire to work together. At least it’s short.
[5]