Cardi B Implies That Jay-Z Approved Of Her New Single “Imaginary Players”

PARIS, FRANCE – JULY 09: Cardi B attends the Balenciaga Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 09, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)

Cardi B will be dropping “Imaginary Players” as the second single from her upcoming sophomore album, “Am I the Drama?”

Cardi B hinted that Jay-Z approved of her new single, “Imaginary Players,” during a livestream on social media, this week. While she didn’t mention the legendary rapper by name, she referenced getting the song greenlit by “the one and only.” Jay-Z famously has a track of the same name on his 1997 album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. In turn, fans have been speculating that she’ll sample the song with her new effort.

“If he didn’t approve it, I probably wouldn’t [have] even [felt] a certain type of way [either], because it’s like, ‘OK, maybe I just had to come a little bit harder,’” Cardi explained on X (formerly Twitter) Spaces, as caught by Hot 97. “But I’m glad that I came hard and he loved it.”

When Live Bitez shared Cardi’s stream on Instagram, fans expressed their excitement for the single in the comments section. “Getting an approval from Jay (out of respect) is a big deal. Can’t wait to hear her version, Imaginary Players is one of my faves,” one user wrote. Another wrote: “Im excited for her actually
Nobody takes risks nowadays so this is cool.”

Other fans have dragged Cardi into Nicki Minaj’s feud with Jay-Z after the announcement of the single. Nicki has spent the last several weeks going off on countless rants on social media about both Jay-Z and Roc Nation. “So after months of Nicki Minaj dragging Jay Z online, he clears a song for Cardi B out of spite and y’all still think Nicki is crazy?” one user recently wrote on X, as caught by AllHipHop.