Music listeners, many of you love or at least are well aware of the iconic rapper Cardi B and her very rapid rise to stardom. According to Insider, she went from being a “regular, degular, schmegular girl from the Bronx” on the show Love & Hip Hop: New York in just 2015, to just two years later having her breakthrough hit, “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” reach the top of the 2017 Billboard Hot 100 Charts, it was that moment when her career skyrocketed. Just from that song alone she was already making history, being the first female rapper to release a solo hit that made it to the top of the chart since 1998, and the 2010s is built on a whole new style of rap. Now, in 2020, she has had a few recent interviews with well known magazines and music industry affiliated companies such as Elle, Sirius XM, Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM, and Apple Music, in which she has unapologetically shared her insights on political events, her stance on women’s empowerment in relation to music, and, much to the excitement of millions, her new and upcoming releases.
These interviews highlight the fact that although Cardi B’s expertise is undoubtedly in her bold, unfiltered, and exciting rap, she is still keeping herself updated on current issues going on in the US. One key point she addresses in her interview with Elle is that she is still affected by the recent tragic death of Breonna Taylor at the age of 26 at the hands of police and is still advocating for justice for her. According to Billboard, she called the cause of the death “insane” and was appalled that there seemed to be no show of regret or accountability from the officers involved, yet proper action has not been taken. She is also disappointed in much of the rap community which is highly dominated by males, for a vast majority of them not advocating for justice for Breonna Taylor to the same extent, as she outrightly has told male rappers that they should be sticking up for the young woman. Men need to be supporting women.
In addition, she touched on what makes her music unique, original, and proudly expressive of herself. A significant part of that is her emphasis on women’s empowerment in her music. She stated in the same interview with Elle that to her, female empowerment is making a woman “feel like she’s the baddest b**** in the room”, and her music focuses on that. This has been very apparent since the start of her career with her first big hit back in 2017. From that alone, one of the most well known lyrics of that song is “I don’t dance now, I make money moves”. This, complemented by lines like “If I see you and I don’t speak, I don’t f*** with you/ I’m a boss, you a worker b****” tells a woman to not be afraid to have her own opinions about people, stand out, and take charge and initiative. She tells women to be proud of getting to the top and not be afraid to be the boss. In her latest release, her collaboration on the song “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, they both confidently rap similarly proud and unfiltered lines like “Certified freak, 7 days a week” in reference to women in the middle of passionate affairs with men. Cardi B wants to continue conveying that message and supports more women getting involved at the top level of the music industry. In fact, many other women were featured in cameo appearances in the “WAP” music video, such as Rosalia and Kylie Jenner. She also mentioned at her new album about to be released, which may feature “WAP” and is a sequel to her 2018 Grammy Winning LP, “Invasion of Privacy”. She hinted at her album talking more about her personal feelings and relationships, as she as a woman is ready to comfortably express her emotions to the public. We love Cardi B for being an icon of female empowerment in the music industry, and we are looking forward to her album release this year!
