Cardi B review – ambitious spectacle and sizzling choreography

2026-02-17 - 19:23

Kia Forum, Los Angeles Grammy-winning Bronx rapper electrifies LA with pugnacious lyrics and vivid set pieces on her first arena tour As anticipation mounts in Los Angeles’s Kia Forum for the first of Cardi B’s first of two sold out shows at the arena, the rapper plays an extended visual depicting a murder of crows. The image nods to the cover of her latest studio release, 2025’s score-settling Am I the Drama?, in which the birds surround the rapper behind a storm-laced sky ready to burst. The reference is intentional: crows are whip-smart, cunning and capable of clinging to deeply held grudges for decades. Cardi’s arrival on stage tonight further underscores the ominous feeling; she appears with a long shadow behind her as a slice of album opener Dead plays: “I’m collecting body bags like they purses / I don’t even rap no more, I drive hearses.” She emerges in a haute couture trench coat resembling battle armor and with a shock of white in her dark hair, like Cruella de Vil if she’d grown up in the Bronx. Cardi then launches into braggadocious Hello with pyrotechnics and smoke effects, the message clear: when someone crosses her, she doesn’t just want to embarrass them. She wants them in the ground. Continue reading...