It’s one thing to be naturally as charismatic and magnetic as Cardi B — her testimony during last month’s assault lawsuit was as compulsively entertaining as any binge watch — yet it’s another to marry it to skill. It’s been eight years since the rapper left smoking stiletto prints in her wake with her titanic breakthrough single “Bodak Yellow,” and seven since she released her debut album “Invasion of Privacy.” That record was a mission statement, a flag-planting arrival that showed the breadth of her talent was more than just the sum of her reality TV and viral parts.

Cardi hasn’t exactly been out of the music game since then, releasing maintenance singles like “Enough (Miami)” and “WAP” featuring Megan Thee Stallion. But a sophomore album after this long can make or break a career, e

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