The world has changed significantly since 2018: the COVID pandemic upended daily life, TikTok took over social media, and AI is the acronym everyone’s talking about, to name a few things. But one thing hasn’t changed: Cardi B is making some of the best rap music in the game.

Cardi proved that again with the release of her second album — and first in seven years — Am I The Drama? and fans responded in kind: this week, Cardi’s new album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 200,000 equivalent album units, the biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman this year so far, making her two-for-two with chart-topping albums. And while things may not have changed too much for Cardi on the charts, seven years is an interminably long time in the music business, meaning she largely had to reintroduce herself to fans in a world that has changed so much. And helping her do that has been Darrale Jones, the A&R and executive producer for Am I the Drama? who originally signed her to Atlantic Records in 2016 — and now earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.

Here, Jones discusses the process of crafting Cardi’s second album, how they were able to capture fans’ imaginations and attention after so long between full length projects, the state of hip-hop in 2025 and honesty in storytelling. “The thought was: if she’s gone through it, someone else out there has, too,” Jones says about Cardi’s songwriting process here. “So we wanted to create something honest and relatable, something that connects on a human level.”

This week, Cardi B’s Am I The Drama? debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 200,000 equivalent album units. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?

The goal from the beginning was to create incredible music. We weren’t focused on chart positions; our mindset was about making a hit project and a classic album. That’s what drove every decision we made throughout the process.

What was your approach to making a full album this time around, and what was your role in creating it?

I’m the A&R and executive producer on both Invasion of Privacy and Am I the Drama?. My role is really about bringing hot producers to the table that align with her vision. Cardi has lived, experienced, and gone through a lot, so there was no shortage of topics to explore.The approach this time was to tap into all of that and make sure the music reflected exactly where she is in her life right now.

After such a long time since her first album — albeit with a handful of big singles in between — how did you want to reintroduce her, in a way, to her audience?

Cardi wanted to approach this project from a real, human perspective. It was important to her that the music reflect her actual life — the highs, the lows, everything she experienced in the time since Invasion of Privacy. So the process started with sitting down and really talking through what she wanted to say, what she’d been through, how she’d grown. The thought was: if she’s gone through it, someone else out there has, too. So we wanted to create something honest and relatable, something that connects on a human level.

What was behind the decision to put both “Up” and “WAP” — two No. 1 singles, but from four and five years ago, respectively — on the album, and how did that help its first week?

I honestly wasn’t thinking about whether it would help the first week or not. The decision came from a creative place. With this body of work, both “Up” and “WAP” fit the overall messaging Cardi wanted to express. So it wasn’t about any kind of monetary or chart gain — it was about making sure the album told the full story she wanted to tell.

How has Cardi evolved as an artist since you first signed her to Atlantic?

Cardi has always been able to speak from the heart, but over time she’s come to really understand the value of truth-telling in her music and how powerful that can be. She’s lived a lot of life since her first album, and that growth shows. When it comes to marketing and promoting her music, it’s not about strategy or personal gain — it’s about sharing her truth. That authenticity has always been there, but now it’s more intentional and grounded in experience.

Hip-hop has always done well on streaming services, but its share of the market has been slipping lately. How do you assess the health of the genre in the marketplace right now?

I believe the genre is still healthy, the foundation is there. The issue isn’t with hip-hop itself, it’s with the quality of the output. There just isn’t enough great music being made right now. I think the entire genre needs to raise the bar and bring back the competitive spirit that hip-hop was built on — without the violence. That energy, that hunger to push boundaries and outdo each other creatively, is what made hip-hop so impactful in the first place.