Drag Race Season 18 Episode 1 Recap & Results — Cardi B Vs. Kenya Pleaser

Cardi B may not cook or clean, but she made a meal out of her debut on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” leaving nary a crumb to pick up.

Friday’s Season 18 premiere welcomed Cardi to the judges’ panel, where the rapper earned the title of “villain judge.” Was it a title she gave to herself? Yes. But in her defense, it was absolutely deserved — and thoroughly entertaining. While some guest judges tread lightly, offering mild criticisms amid generally neutral statements, Cardi came out swinging, leaving at least one queen slack-jawed in disbelief.

The season’s first main challenge required the 14 new queens (learn more about them here) to design runway looks using unconventional materials inspired by contestants from years past. But while some queens understood the assignment — like Nini Coco, who gave LaLa Ri’s infamous bag dress a proper Ru-demption by reimagining it as a couture piece made entirely of paper — others failed in spectacular fashion, and you’d better believe Cardi let them know.

No queen got it worse than poor Kenya Pleaser, whose head-to-toe look was eviscerated by Cardi. “The skirt is terrible,” the guest judge told her, something none of the other judges denied. But she didn’t stop there. “If you know your outfit is not great, you just gotta go nice up here,” Cardi added, gesturing to Kenya’s underwhelming makeup job. “Glam is very important. … If the outfit ain’t great, the glam gotta give.” Kenya also caught a stray during Cardi’s praise of fellow contestant Jane Don’t, whose look she loved. “I really love the hair,” Cardi told Jane. “I love when people put effort,” at which point the camera cut back to Kenya, mouth agape.

Cardi also had harsh critiques for Juicy Love Dion, whose “ugly” skirt rubbed her the wrong way. “Girl, what was you thinking with that skirt?” Cardi asked. “I really hate that skirt.” And Mandy Mango didn’t get off easy either, with Cardi calling her “insane” for adding hanging flowers to the bottom of her skirt. “Oh my God, I hate it,” she said. “It’s bad, but you’re so pretty.” She then dropped our personal favorite critique of the night: “It looks she had a time at Michael’s.” (True, but still… ouch.)

To Cardi’s credit, though, she wasn’t a total Negative Nelly in her “Drag Race” debut. She sashayed into the Werk Room ahead of RuPaul’s final judgment, where she gave the queens some words of encouragement before explaining herself a bit.

“I’m not even going to lie to you girls, like, I might be the sweetest girl in the world, but I am a very tough judge,” Cardi said. “I don’t want y’all to think that I’m b*tchy or anything, but it’s like, look at my teachers,” referring to her makeup artist Erika La’ Pearl and wig stylist Tokyo Stylez, both transgender women. “Don’t get discouraged from it,” Cardi concluded. “Learn from it.”

On a more positive note, several contestants really showed out in this first episode — most notably Nini Coco and Vita VonTesse Starr, who were named the top queens of the week. In keeping with tradition, no one was eliminated in the premiere, leaving Nini and Vita to lip sync for the win. 

Cardi’s “Enough (Miami)” provided the soundtrack for the season’s first face-off, and while both queens were understandably nervous about performing one of the rapper’s songs in front of her, you wouldn’t know it from their stellar displays. Both served pure attitude as they commanded the stage, baiting one another to keep the energy levels up. It was far from the wildest lip sync we’ve seen on that stage, but it was a strong reminder that you don’t always need splits and death drops to get the job done. 

The win could have gone either way, but Mama Ru hath spoken, and the first winner of Season 18 is… Nini Coco! “That was so much fun!” Cardi told RuPaul after the lip sync concluded. “Can I be a judge forever, like permanently?”

What say you, “Drag Race” fans? Did you enjoy Cardi enough to bring her back to the judges’ panel someday? And which of the 14 new queens do you now have your eye on as we move into Season 18? Cast your vote in our poll below, then drop a comment with your full review of the premiere.