"One day she’ll realize 444 is bad luck":Internet reacts to Cardi B revealing Jay-Z texted her at 4:44 pm to approve his sample on 'Imaginary Playerz'

Cardi B's sophomore album, Am I the Drama? consists of a track called Imaginary Playerz, which samples Jay-Z's 1997 song Imaginary Players. During her recent appearance on Apple Music 1, posted on August 25, 2025, the rapper opened up about Jay-Z's approval of her song.

She told interviewer Zane Lowe:

“When it was time to submit it to get approved, I was a little scared. I was a little shaky. ‘Wait a minute, Jay-Z got to approve it.’ I mean, I always knew that he got to approve it, but it was like, how about if he don’t approve it? How about if he f*cking likes it? And he did like it. And it’s so crazy, the text message of him approving it, it was at 4:44 pm.”

Netizens quickly took to X to express their opinions on Cardi's statement concerning Jay-Z's approval for her latest single, wherein an X user called out her obsession with the number 444, tweeting:

"One day she’ll realize 444 is bad luck."

🚬🫦HAZARD

@HazardMcqueen

One day she’ll realize 444 is bad luck

In August 2020, Cardi posted a lengthy caption addressing her obsession with the numbers 444 and 11:11.

"So if you know me my lucky number are 444 and 1111.I believe in 11:11 sooo much cause I was born on the 11 and my grandma passed away on 11-11-11," she wrote.

Cardi's statement on the Apple Music 1 interview sparked more reactions from fans who questioned how the precise timing of Jay-Z's text was possible, and some downplayed the same:

Judas

@insiderJudas

nothing holy about it, just a new covenant signed over text at 4:44

Bulletproof Dad

@bullet_proofdad

Prolly like 4:42 she just wanna be trendy

allegedly

@TweetsStolen

He scheduled send. Next

सौरभ मिश्र

@Saurabh89851634

Maybe he just set an alarm for 4:44 so people keep the myth alive 😂

Additionally, fans put forth their mixed reviews of Cardi B's Imaginary Playerz:

KINGBASIX

@OLIOLTMATE

That song is so off beat that its hilarious

𝔇𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔫ℜ𝔢𝔭𝔩𝔦𝔢𝔰 💬😈

@JoaquinMQ7

Cardi got Jay-Z’s 4:44 PM text to greenlight “Imaginary Playerz” sample! 😎 Is this her hardest track yet?

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Cardi B claps back at critics of Imaginary Playerz in latest X Spaces stream: Details explored

One of the singles in her upcoming sophomore album, Imaginary Playerz, was released on August 15, 2025. However, the song ended up receiving mixed reviews and was criticized by many, including prominent podcasters.

During one of her recent X Spaces sessions, Cardi clapped back at those questioning her entire career over one song, referring to their criticism as a "dog pile." Commenting on how the criticism has impacted her, Cardi B said:

"And when it comes to dog piling, it's not even just like, 'Oh, I don't like this song,' because if you don't like a song, fine. But to come at the way I speak, to make narratives of how I think I am and who the f*ck I think I am, to talk about every single piece of me, to bet on my downfall is crazy."

Additionally, the WAP rapper addressed "grown men" who were betting for her to lose, adding that these were men who she hadn't done anything wrong to, and yet they were betting on her downfall.

"And my thing is with these people, it just be like, when my record do good, when 'Outside' did good, people couldn't believe it." Cardi added

While Cardi B did not name the "grown men" in her statement, it is speculated she was talking about Joe Budden, who criticized her flow on Imaginary Playerz on one of his recent podcast episodes. Joe Budden asked Cardi not to attempt a track like Imaginary Playerz again, stating:

"That delivery, those punch-ins, how choppy that was… ‘Imaginary Players,’ for y’all that wasn’t there, Hov, when that dropped, was a much better rapper than that. It was just fly because of the cadence and the flow and what he was saying, his aura and voice control.”

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Cardi B's upcoming album Am I the Drama? is scheduled to drop on September 19, 2025, and consists of 23 tracks, including her previously released WAP and Up.