Few people know that besides her edgy, rebellious appearance, Cardi B’s music carries many valuable messages about racism, gender equality, feminism…

Cardi B’s real name is Belcalis Almanzar, born in 1992 in New York, USA. She has Trinidadian and Dominican blood, so she has had a rebellious personality since childhood.

At the age of 16, Cardi B joined the Bloods street gang. While studying at the Renaissance School of the Arts, Cardi B worked at a small supermarket in Manhattan. When she was fired from the supermarket, she was offered a job as a pole dancer. At that time, Cardi B lived with her boyfriend in an apartment in the Bronx, New York. The new job helped her escape poverty and her boyfriend’s fights. To serve her career, Cardi B had several cosmetic surgeries such as breast augmentation and butt augmentation. Although she worked as a pole dancer, Cardi B always lied to her mother that she was a babysitter to earn money and knew that this was a “low-class” job. However, at that time, she needed to do this job to have money to escape her evil boyfriend.

In 2013, Cardi B suddenly became famous when she released a video of herself dressed in cool clothes, having fun in the cold weather of Canada. She became an Instagram phenomenon with millions of followers. Before entering the singing field, she spoke out many times about gender equality, racism and criticized those who often ridicule other people’s bodies.

The “WAP” hitmaker admits she could make a lot of money from Instagram ads. However, she still dreams of creating songs that “make girls dance.” She loves high-energy, inspirational music.

Cardi B started her career in 2015, she continuously released several mixtapes and performed with many other hip hop artists. However, it was not until the release of the hit Bodak Yellow that the name Cardi B became popular in the rap music community.

2017 was considered the explosive period of Cardi B. The hit Bodak Yellow was ranked second in Billboard magazine’s list of 100 best songs of 2017. She even made it into the list of the top 10 most searched artists in the world in 2017. Not stopping there, this hit was also a resounding success when it helped Cardi B receive two 2018 Grammy nominations for “Best Rap Song” and “Best Rap Performance”.

Cardi B is also the only female rapper in the past 19 years to have a solo rap song top the Billboard charts. The last person to do so was Lauryn Hill, in 1998.

It is known that Bodak Yellow is just a song with simple lyrics, but it tells the story of Cardi B’s own life. In the song, the female rapper admits that she is a gangster, used to be a pole dancer. Cardi B also “taunts” those who look down on her, and affirms that success does not come to her randomly, it is a process of effort. In this hit song, Cardi B also condemns racial discrimination and attacks those who are “jealous” of other people’s success. The arrogant, naked, street-spirited lyrics make the song attractive and easily capture the hearts of listeners.

Continuing her winning streak, Cardi B continued to release the album ” Invasion of Privacy “, which is considered the final moment that helped Cardi B transform from Cinderella into a real princess. To this day, this album is still considered the best debut album by a female rapper since the 1996 blockbuster Hard Core by world-famous female rapper Lil’ Kim.

In 2019, Cardi B became the youngest person on the list of 20 “big names” in the US-UK music industry, won a Grammy, reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100, her MV reached 1 billion views on YouTube and earned her 5 nominations at this year’s Grammy Awards.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Cardi B is like “Cinderella”, because in such a short time, her fame has skyrocketed, easily comparable to Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift . Cardi’s name is also mentioned with as much admiration as her idols when she was young, such as Madonna or Beyonce.

Becoming a global superstar, Cardi B moved from New York to Atlanta to live. Her love life, marriage, having children and then breaking up with rapper Offset became a hot topic every day in the media. Cardi’s breastfeeding scene was also featured in the Money Money video, becoming a message for milk companies to call on women to “breastfeed their children together”. For the sake of her child, Cardi gave up a tour with Bruno Mars, a lucrative career development opportunity that few music stars would dare to sacrifice.

However, at present, although she has become a superstar, Cardi B is still self-aware and understands who she is, where she comes from, and also knows how to find a reasonable emotional balance to deal with the illusions that too much success often brings. In the past, Cardi B has indeed let her emotions control her many times. She was once accused of assaulting two female bartenders at a pole dancing club.

However, if we talk about the most shocking scandal, we have to mention the “fight” with Nicki Minaj in 2018, when both attended an event organized by Harper’s Bazaar magazine. This fight became a topic of discussion for many months, until now, Cardi B – Nicki Minaj still show no signs of reconciliation.

It can be seen that Cardi B is an artist with a rather rebellious personality in the European and American entertainment industry, but it cannot be denied that her success has greatly influenced popular music culture. Up to now, Cardi B’s music has gradually become a source of inspiration for many new generation female rappers.