Cardi B Is Bringing the Drama to the Season 18 Premiere of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
It looks like Cardi B has finally answered her sophomore album’s titular question — yes, she is the drama, and the drama is headed to RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Related
On Tuesday (Dec. 9), MTV revealed that Cardi will serve as the guest judge for the premiere episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18. Taking place Friday, Jan. 2, the premiere will see 14 new contestants begin their competition for the crown, with Cardi helping her fellow judges decide the winners and losers of the first episode. Alongside the news, MTV also shared the entire slate of guest judges for season 18, including stars such as Teyana Taylor, Zara Larsson, Benny Blanco, Dove Cameron and Atsuko Okatsuka.
Fans also got a sneak peak of what to expect from the new set of queens and from Cardi herself when MTV dropped the trailer for season 18. In the clip, Cardi enters the work room to surprise the new batch of queens, and later offers a high compliment to one of the contestants on the runway, saying, “I would wear this outside.”
Despite Cardi’s longstanding love of drag, the “Outside” rapper has yet to appear on the series, either as a guest judge or even as a featured artist through the show’s iconic Lip Sync For Your Life format. But that hasn’t stopped her from spreading the love to her favorite drag performers. When Drag Race season six alumna Trinity K. Bonet gave a double-take worthy performance to Cardi’s “I Like It” in 2018, the rapper reposted the clip and gave Bonet her props. “Yaaaaaass QUE PERRA,” Cardi wrote at the time.
Even on her latest album, Am I the Drama?, Cardi paid homage to an iconic Drag Race meme when season 11 and All Stars 6 alum Scarlet Envy asked the question to the viewers at home. Speaking to Billboard earlier this year, Envy said that having Cardi reference and revere drag artistry so publicly was extremely validating for an art form under political attack.
“It’s bridging a bigger gap in some way than when bubblegum pop girls reference drag queens. We are across genres,” she said at the time. “And I think it’s important, especially in the times we’re living in right now, to remember the power of the queer people behind drag.”
Season 18 of RuPaul’s Drag Race premieres Friday, Jan. 2, at 8 p.m. ET on MTV. Watch the full trailer for the new season above.
Powered by Billboard.