Cardi B says her battle with depression kept her from dropping her sophomore album last year.
The Grammy-winning rapper, who finally released her long-awaited second album Am I the Drama? last month, opened up about the struggle during her appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast on Monday (October 6).
Around the 23-minute mark of the episode, Cardi shared that she had originally planned to release the follow-up to Invasion of Privacy in 2024, but her mental health struggles ultimately put those plans on hold.
“Last year, I was planning to drop an album,” Cardi shared. “I was ready to put it out, but I just couldn’t focus. I fell into the deepest depression I’ve ever experienced. And in that depression, I couldn’t function.”
In August, Cardi welcomed her third child, Blossom, during her separation from Offset, whom she married in 2017. She’s now expecting her first child with NFL player Stefon Diggs.
“When I say I couldn’t function, I mean I couldn’t do anything — not even eat or sleep,” she continued. “Everything I had going on just stopped.”
The “Safe” rapper went on to explain that her depression was fueled by the growing “pressure” in both her career and her marriage.
“I felt the love fading — from me, from him,” she said about her relationship with Offset. “I was really lonely, but it was because I chose to be. I told myself, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I need to stop.’ But saying it and actually being ready are two different things. You can stay away from someone for a month, but it only truly ends when your heart says it’s time.”
Cardi also revealed she could feel the relationship “dying” while she was pregnant with their third child.
“And while it was dying, I had a human growing inside me,” she recalled. “I kept thinking, ‘What’s life going to be like without this person? Without raising my last child with them? Without having them as my friend anymore?’”
“When you start having those thoughts, it breaks you down. It makes you sad, it makes you lost. But I overcame it. And now, I’m the strongest I’ve ever been.”
