Cardi B answered her own question with her appearance at Easton’s Palmer Park Mall on Saturday as part of the promotion of her second album, “Am I the Drama?”

“I’m gonna be here all day, even if I’m here until 3 a.m.,” the rapper, whose legal name is Belcalis Almánzar, announced to her teeming crowd of waiting fans.

Fans who purchased an “Am I the Drama?” CD in exchange for a photo with the rapper lined up as early as 6 a.m. outside of host record store Spin Me Round. Nearly a thousand people, in a line that wrapped all the way around the mall, waited through the heat and sun for the A-lister’s scheduled 2 p.m. appearance.

Cardi B showed up a fashionable two-and-a-half hours late. While some fans could be heard grumbling about the wait, others didn’t seem to mind.

“She’s pregnant, so she gets a pass,” said Saran Diallo from Allentown, one of the first 10 fans in line. Diallo said she had been waiting since 8:30 a.m.

Security was ready for the arrival of the Grammy-award winner, with representation from a private security team, police and fire departments, K-9 units, drones and a CSI truck.

The camaraderie built among those waiting in line quickly evaporated as a black car with heavily tinted windows pulled up to the curb; fans pushed and shoved, phones preceding them, to catch a glimpse — and a photo or a TikTok — of the star exiting her Cadillac Escalade chariot.

One reporter was knocked to the ground by the heaving crowd of phoneholders. A man in line stood on a gas meter to see over the swarm and video the arrival.

When asked if the entrance went as planned, one security guard answered, “Pretty much.”

Olga Guerrero, who had traveled from Lititz, Pennsylvania, nearly 80 miles with her two children, was one of many caught up in the mob that swarmed the parking lot.

She described helping a young girl, whom she did not know, navigate the dense crowd to get a bouquet of flowers to Cardi B.

“I’m a fan of her as a person,” Guerrero said. “How authentic she is. Like, right now, she knows she was late, and she was like, ‘I’m gonna take care of everyone.’ That was really cool.”

Many fans wondered why the rapper was doing an appearance in Easton, specifically.

“Hearing that she was going to be in Easton, I was like, ‘Why?’” said Destiny Friday of the Poconos. “Most people don’t come to Easton, and especially Palmer Park Mall.”

“Who thinks about Easton?” Nick Carey from Phillipsburg said.

Some fans showed up looking ready for the runway, sporting red outfits, dresses and heels. One person was draped in a black veil, carrying a fake crow, while his companion hid his head with a large crow mask. A few already donned “Pretty & Petty” merch based on a diss track from the album.

One fan from Cleveland brought a large, handmade Cardi B doll, enclosed in a detailed wooden box.

Wrap’D Tight Fully Loaded, a sandwich shop at the mall, had a food truck in the parking lot serving “Am I the Drama?” mac and cheese bowls and wraps — with chicken and hot honey, alleged favorites of Cardi B.

The event appeared to be Spin Me Round’s first time hosting a celebrity of Cardi B-caliber. The store has over 150,000 followers on TikTok.

“We were absolutely thrilled that Cardi B and her team chose the Lehigh Valley—specifically Palmer Park Mall—as one of the stops on her promotional tour,” wrote Wendy Morales, assistant general manager of Palmer Park Mall, in an email. “It was a fantastic opportunity for the community, and we’re proud to have supported Spin Me Round in hosting such a memorable meet-and-greet.”

The release of “Am I the Drama?” comes at a dramatic point in the rapper’s life, off the back of her divorce from rapper Offset, a recently-cleared assault case and pregnancy with boyfriend NFL player Stefon Diggs.

Easton was one of six cities visited by the rapper, including New York City and Long Beach, California. Other promotions for the album included new marketing for her vegan spiked whipped cream line and an episode with the popular podcast “Call Her Daddy.”

The last appearance from Cardi B in the Lehigh Valley was a performance in Bethlehem in 2022.

Elisabeth Seidel ‘26 contributed reporting.

This story was originally published on The Lafayette on September 26, 2025.