Cardi B: I Like It

Let's start by saying that most of the icons featured on our podcast have multi decade careers, but this icon's recent run and simple name recognition got our attention. Ultimately, we had to include her in the lineup because in a few short years, this woman has rewritten the music industry's rule book by breaking rap records left and right and paving a career unlike anyone else's. Today we're talking all things Belgalis Marlenis al Mansar.

Cardi, b in a Half.

He has another talent from the Bronx who played a part in Bad Bunny's success, So it only seems fair that we give her the flowers she also deserves.

Who, like Jlo, also paved her own way.

The self made performer went from stripping in the club to then becoming a full blown superstar better like how.

Well, Joseph.

That's why we're here to help break it all down from the poll to a global stage. This is a woman who is changing the music game and igniting a conversation about feminism for a whole new generation.

Uh oh, don't forget how about our feud with one of rap's biggest names.

Oh trust me, we won't.

This is Becoming an Icon a look at Cardi B's rise to a global stage.

I'm your host Lilianavosgaz.

And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon a.

Weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how today's most famous LATINX stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some extress.

Leble, sit back and get.

Comfortable, because we are going in the only way we know.

How with when I'll be with usunesas, some esney and a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes them so iconic.

Nineteen ninety two The Bronx.

Wait what month?

October?

The full date?

Ugh, October eleventh, nineteen ninety two.

Oh h let me peepeep beep btpepep. She is a Levra's Sun, an Aries, Moon and an Aries Rising. Oh my god, this explains so much, Walter focus. Okay, right right back to the Bronx.

She was raised in the Bronx. Her dad is Dominican and her mother is Trinidadian. But before we get into the episode, I want to know how much he knew about Cardi B. Before we started researching her for this episode.

I knew a lot of her memes and her me music, but I didn't really know anything else before what about You.

I didn't know her memes as much, and I knew a lot of her one liners, but I was actually confused that they were attributed all to one person. I was, Oh, that's a bunch of different people on from love and hip hop. I didn't realize it was one brilliant mind responsible for all of those one liners. And then obviously I knew her music, just because how do you not

About Cardi b mixtape era. That was all new to me.

Agreed. I knew the memes, and all of a sudden she was like superstar exactly.

To be honest, for a long time, I didn't even know why her stage name was Cardi B.

Wait, what's her real name?

Belle Galis Marlenis al Mansa. That's a mouthful.

That literally sounds like a spell from Harry Potter.

It does, but it can definitely be a lot to say so.

Growing up, people gave her a nickname Macarty, like, you know, that's what my friends call me when I was five on the playground Tequila Tequila.

Lily, but Carti Cardi b Wow, her mind was the future.

I think it goes to prove that Carti has always had a really good eye and ear when it comes to branding herself. It's definitely one of the many reasons why she cemented herself as an icon.

But in all fairness, it did take a while for her to get there.

Growing up, she listened to artists like Missy Elliott, fifty Cent and Jah Rule, and she was obsessed with another outspoken and lovingly eccentric artist, Lady Gaga.

Cardi b the Little Monster Yo. I can totally see it in the way she expresses herself now, in the way she dresses.

She's even admitted to looking at god Go for fashion inspo, but she's also cited Missy Elliott and becoming an icon fashion queen Miss Jennifer Lopez I mean Affleck as additional inspo.

The taste, the Taste Cardi, we.

All want to know, how did we get here?

Well, I'm recording at my place and I'm assuming you took a card to the Joseph.

I mean in Carti's journey, how did she get from the Bronx to being called the reigning Queen of Hip Hop by publications like Billboard and Entertainment Weekly, Oh, and the Queen of Wrap by iHeartRadio, our Bosses, Love y'all and Vanity Fair. You know, there's a lot of talent out there, and people have been changing the game for a long time. So what makes Carti one of the kind?

It's just like you're saying her attitude.

She grew up with her sister shout out Hennessy Carlino in the Bronx, but I also spent a lot of time in Washington.

Heights growing up. She was close to her Abuela, whom she credits for her accent and well done.

She says she wasn't the best student and was in and out of school, but then she found a way to make money in a more, let's say, non traditional way.

Oh, I don't know. The oppressed finding recompense from a culture built on a foundation of misogyny and toxic masculinity that encourages men to obfuscate when presented with opportunities to express vulnerability. In Versity creates incentives to treat women's bodies as products to be bid, bought, and sold, but most importantly controlled. Well, that seems as traditional as apple pie. Sorry, I went somewhere.

Back to Cardi, Okay, well, back to the podcast.

At only nineteen years old, she started her career as a stripper.

Many of judges are for which, first of all, it's very techy of y'all, but to each their own listen.

Carti owned it. She saw a way to make a living, and she took it.

She needed that money, honey.

She's gone on to call it a positive moment in her life, saying it really saved me from a lot of things. Stripping gave Carti financial freedom to escape poverty and an abusive relationship, and to put herself through school.

Don't be out here judging haters. You build the life you can with the tools you have. You don't have to answer to no one but yourself.

Phreach, and Carti did what she had to do.

She recalls, when I first entered the strip club, I was really shy. I felt really uncomfortable. I felt very ashamed. There were times when I was crying, like, oh my gosh, if my mom or dad found out, they'd be so humiliated.

But I needed the fucking money.

That attitude, you know, for her, that's where she harnessed it.

Yeah, she says, stripper's talk a certain way. The stripper attitude is I'm not ashamed of being a stripper because a lot of these bitches don't have shit. A lot of these bitches don't have a place to stay, don't have no car, can't afford this, can't afford that. During an interview with Cosmopolitan, she admitted that quote. She doubts the me Too movement will change much in the hip hop world, especially for women whose sexuality is at the

So what, you're a hoe, It don't matter.

Wait, I'm a hoe. No no you co Cardi.

And just two years after she started stripping, she became a social media hit on both Instagram and Vine, rocking up thousands of views and followers.

Oh my god, Vine, A wait, macop to dead Vine. I don't know her.

Yes, yes, Vine might have died, but it gave her a career because people loved her vibe, her videos, and her signature Cardi Tude, so much so that she earned a spot on Love and Hip Hop New York. This regular Degula Shmegula Go from the Bronx was making waves on social media with her one million plus followers, so naturally, the execs behind the VH one show thought, let's bring

Had to say about the experience.

Yo, it's so crazy, Like the motherfuckers the producers really doubted me. It's like, why would y'all doubt me? Like I have seven hundred thousand, bajillion followers, she told The Fader in February twenty sixteen. I'm telling them, like, yo, I have a brand. I'm not even an artists and I fill out clubs three thousand whatever the crap.

I filled them shits out. But they didn't care about that.

They just wanted to make me look as a stripper, a struggling stripper.

I could totally hear Cardi in that.

I feel like I didn't do my best Cardi impression, like no I could.

I could really hear her in that, though. I felt that.

I could see her doing the movements because so much, so much of her delivery is like the physical delivery of what she says, so animated.

So you watched the show, so I've watched Okay, wait a minute, whoa.

Okay, hold on wait you are.

A Love and Hip Hop season one through six?

Or First of all, I will watch any reality TV. People that know me know that there is nothing too low brow for me to watch.

Wow.

I love television.

And this is obviously before I had a baby and I had lots of hours in a day to spend watching crappy TV. But I love reality and I I love raw reality TV. I used to like the house.

You were a Jerry Springer girl?

Yes, Oh my.

God, Yes, and I loved like Mari, like Who's the Daddy? I love all that shit, The messier the better, and so yes. Occasionally I would watch Love and Hip Hop and I had caught it early in the seasons, stopped watching it, and then I actually got sent a link to Cardi b on the show, and I was like, who is this girl? And that's when I watched it on VH one on the actual TV. But I remember watching it and thinking, I just want a whole show

Like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I want a whole show just about Bethany. To me, Carti was the Bethany of Love and Hip Hop. You just wanted more. And what I was saying about Carti is the reason she popped on screen was obviously because she's just got natural commie timing, but she's also very physical in the way that she presents her thoughts and ideas and who she is. And I always thought about her and I think this is the ultimate compliment. I see a lot of Lucille Ball in Carti what.

I don't know that anyone has ever made that connection or said.

That in the world.

Am I alone here?

If you are a Lucile ball fan, which I am, there is so much physical comedy to who she is. Her face moves in a certain way, her body moves in a certain way, she waits for the laughs, and I see so much of Lucille in Carti. And I could be the only person that has ever thought this in my entire life, but that is what I thought when.

I watched her on for Love and Hip Hop Call.

Me Crazy, Listen, Carti is now definitely going to want to chime in on the show because this is one of the craziest things. Do you think that she could have gotten anywhere without this exposure of the show?

Yes, because I think that at that point in time, she had such a huge loyal audience on Vine and she was growing her numbers on Instagram that yes, I don't think. I think it would have taken her a little bit longer. I think that VH one gave her more of an audience because people that maybe weren't on social media in the same way that her audience was might catch her on late night on VH one.

So I think she multiplied her audience by being on Love and Hip Hop.

And I think she got to where she got faster, but I don't think she necessarily needed it.

Well, the good news is she joined Love and Hip Hop in season six and stayed for two seasons before leaving to pursue her music career.

You know, most people on that show completely doubted her, even her fake DJ Mann's in the series.

But guess what, CARTI didn't give a fuck.

She was too busy earning the show views and imparting all of her cards wisdoms.

Her lines were iconic, y'all.

To this day, people always be quoting her.

I be quoting her like a hoe never gets cold. I mean I can't.

I actually never get cold.

So I even own a sweater, Joseph, I do I have a vest.

I have a vest, So.

You're like a half ho because you get cold half the time.

It's true.

Now, if you go back and watch, there's a really great YouTube link that has her greatest hits from the show.

She's pure comedy gold.

It's almost as if they had hired the best comedy writers in Hollywood and the best actress to play this role.

But this was just Carti being Cardi, and the one liners just flowed from.

She just has that.

She absolutely does, and even The New York Times has credited her popularity on the show to her ability to just rattle off these one liners.

But beyond that, she had already had this dream of making it in the music business, and we see it throughout the show. Yeah.

She made her music debut on a remix of a Shaggy song, Boom Boom.

You remember Shaggy.

I have never heard of him.

I caught you listening to him the other day.

It was to me.

You were listening to him on the sofa. It was me and you were singing it in the shower.

It wasn't me.

I even have it on camera.

It wasn't me.

Right, listen, this song was fantastic.

It mixed up reggae with dancehall and Carti's trademark vocals. A year later, she released her first official mixtape called Gangsta Bitch Music Volume One. Then then she even joined the cast of BT's Being Mary Jane as Mercedes. But well, the whole TV thing just wasn't doing it for Cardi anymore. She was one hundred percent certain she wanted to stick to music.

And odd she did because she has saved my workout playlists.

But to do that, she had to leave love and hip hop New York. So she did and followed her departure with Gangstavich Music Volume two, her second mixtape, and that's when things really started to shift.

She was about to get that breakthrough baby.

She was even getting noticed by more global mainstream brands like Matt Cosmetics.

She was attending events at New York Fashion Week?

Wait wait, wait, wait wait? Are we going to talk about her brawl with Nicki Minaj at New York Fashion Week? That one time that somebody I know leaked the footage?

Are you kidding?

That moment went a viral online and guess who captured the whole fight on their iPhone? That's me, because you know I always get the exclusive.

That's one hundred my boo.

In late February of twenty seventeen, Cardi B signed with her first major record label, Atlantic Records.

Oo. Our girl is on her way to becoming a star.

Indeed, she was Joseph thanks in part to her love for bloody shoes. Carti is the kind of performer that feeds off other people's energy.

Wait, like an energy vampire.

No, like a hype woman.

Oh well, that's why she's a team player. She's always making collapse at chart and that's just a fact.

After signing her contract with Atlantic Records, Carti started collaborating with rappers like Little Kim.

And Remy Ma.

Let's get a boatac yella already, Okay.

I was just setting the scene.

Be patient, these expansive these is red bottom zesus bloody shoes.

Okay, okay, we're there, We're there.

On June sixteenth, twenty seventeen, Atlantic Records released Cardi B's commercial debut single, Bodak Yellow. She performed the single on The Wendy Williams Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Oh God, take me back to Bodak Yello. The first time I heard that song, this is terrible, but okay. So the first time I heard it, I was like, it sounds like Niki, but that's.

Not Nicki whoa.

Not the voice, but the tone and the delivery. There's not that many female rappers. I can listen the monk one hand right. So you've got Remy mag, Cardi B, Lil Kim, and Nicki Minaj that are real artist when it comes to rap that can rhyme like.

That, And I was like, this isn't Nikki. Who the hell is this? It was Cardi.

I knew it wasn't Nicki because it just seemed a little darker. There was just something more. I don't know hardcore about the song, but it was definitely a bop. It was definitely something that I wanted to hear, but it did just feel a little heavier.

I think that's why people responded to it.

I think we had been served so much, for lack of a better term, bubblegum rap from share from female EMCs.

And not that there's anything wrong with bubblegum rap.

I bopped that too, but I think for so long our ear has listened more poppy rap from female EMCs. Right right, I missed the days of Miss c Ellie. I love that and I think to hear her, especially with her signature Cardi sound, it made everyone stop and listen, which is exactly what you want when you are a new artist. And not only did it make you stop and listen, but then she hit you with that video and then you stopped, you listened, and you watched.

You stopped, listened and got lubitons.

Well, if you could afford them.

I know.

The song generated a two hundred and seventeen percent spike in search traffic for Christian lubatant shoes and get this, four point five million dollars in media value according to Business of Fashion. So if people were questioning whether Carti could make it and whether or not Carti was going to be big, their questions stopped right here because the song climbed the charts for months on end.

It even reached the number one spot on the Billboard Hot one hundred chart that year.

It made Cardi b the first female rapper to do so with a single since nineteen ninety eight, when Lauren Hill's duop that thing.

Wait what happened to Lauren? That album was amazing.

The miseducation of Lauren Hill. That is my freshman year of college. I would do an entire podcast on that album, can we?

But wait there's more. She also became the first person of Dominican descent to reach number one in her story of the Hot one hundred since it launched in nineteen fifty eight. That's insane.

Yeah, she was even tying with your miss Taytay the number one spot with look what you made me?

Do you leave the Reputation Era out of this?

Okay, fine, I don't want to fight you or the Swifties, well unless I have Cardi on my side. But back to Carti. Soon enough, she was everywhere. I'm pretty sure everyone and their mamas and baba's were listening to Bodak Yellow.

It was a rap anthem of the summer. Lubton should have been paying her for the deal. I wonder if she gets unlimited Lubtons.

Well, she can buy unlimited lubatons now, so it does not matter.

She doesn't even need them for free anymore.

That song went on to receive nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song at the sixtieth Grammy Awards. It also won Single of the Year at the twenty seventeen be Et Hip Hop Awards.

Vindication take that Chance the.

Rapper No, I love chance?

Okay, so do I, but just felt good.

Then she dropped Motorsport and No Limit, and soon she was the first female rapper to land her first three entries in the top ten of the Hot one hundred, also.

The first female artist to achieve the same on the Hot R and B hip hop chart.

She went on to headline and Power one oh five point one's annual Powerhouse music celebration, where she met Mi Gos you.

Mean her baby Daddy and future heavy Offset for those wanting the tea. According to a magazine, not much as known about their first meeting.

But Carti has said they first met at an industry event and Offset pursued her. He was very consistent, Cardi said in a video on our Twitter account recapping the night they met. He really wanted to talk to.

Me and they're still together. My heart.

Did you know that Offset and Carti actually got secretly married?

Oh my god, like benefit.

Yup, right before they announced her first pregnancy. But we'll get into all that very soon.

Carti's for success was simple, keep up the collabs. Wait, didn't you do a song with Osuna?

See she also collaborated with another Bodikua.

Well half Bodikua.

Okay, well my people claim him either way. I'm talking about Bruno Mars.

Yes, sir, Cardi b was featured in the remix of Finesse, appearing in the music video, but also went on to release Please Meet.

Later on, they were charting like crazy all of it, making Cardi B the first woman to have five top ten singles simultaneously on the Billboard Hot R and B Hip Hop Songs charts.

After all of these collabs, wasn't you ready to drop her own album?

She was? Invasion of Privacy was released on April sixth, twenty eighteen, to universal acclaim. Before we get into the album, as promised, we got to talk about New York Fashion Week. Oh shit, Nicki versus Carti bing bing B.

Nicki versus Carti ing bing B.

For those of you guys who don't know, Lilliana is fucking everywhere and she just so happened to be there at the night of this fight.

Okay, So I was covering the red carpet at the Harper's Bizarre Icons event, which.

Is no big deal, no big d eel.

It's one of the most well attended and well respected events during New York Fashion Week.

It happens every year.

It features all of the icons from their Icons issue, and let's just say it's a very classy affair. This year, it happened to be at the Plaza Hotel, and somehow both Carti and Nicki weren't just invited but were within minutes of each other during arrivals. On the red carpet, I interviewed both women. I can tell you this, They were both in great spirits. Carti's interview with me was so sweet. She was raving about being a new mom. She seemed really peaceful, honestly, And what was she wearing?

Like? What did she look like? Oh?

God, she looked gorgeous.

It was a big red carpet moment for her because she was in Dulchangabana cauture head to toe. She had on all of these beautiful jewelry pieces, the gorgeous necklace, had these big earrings, and then she had this beautiful red dress. It was almost kind of very Flamento inspired, lots of ruffles, and she looked very regal. She stepped up her fashion game for this night by Iconic. Yeah, well it's called Bizarre Icons and she was working with Dulceangabana.

And she said so many ways.

I'm just more at peace, I'm more relaxed, like I just want to be with my baby. It was a very different version of Carti than I think the public expected of her. Well fast forward minutes later, that's four minutes later, and what happens the brawl to end all brawls.

Nicki and Carti had beef.

We all know this, right they did, and in the beginning, and then it escalated because Nicki was being a little shady about Carti being a mom. She was liking tweets on Twitter and on Instagram, liking posts that basically said that Carti was a bad mom. And I can tell you this as a mom. Don't come for me, and don't talk shit about me as a mom, and worse, don't talk shit about my kid. And Carti had had enough, and I think when she saw Nicki in a small room close to her, she lost it.

It was like the stripper locker room all over again. Bitch.

All of a sudden, I think Carti was like, you've been saying all this shit about me. Now you're in a small room with me. I'm going to let you know exactly how I feel. And I think we can all agree that if there's one thing that Carti is not going to do, it is mint or hide how she feel.

She is out there.

So I happen to hear some commotion, so I ran from the carpet to right.

Below the second floor where you could see.

He called your camera man right away. Okay, first of all, held my hand. I was not wasting time with a camera crew. I was like, oh, no, something is about to go down. You just have this feeling, you have intuition as a journalist, like something is about to happen. So I whip out my iPhone, I aiming up, and Carti's ass just happens to be right on top of me, like you can exposed ass, like exposed ash.

The skirt of the dress tour right.

Yeah, So she was in a little bit of like a scuffle the dress tour. So she was just in her spanks underwear and Colin Carter, her stylist, is standing right next to her, grabs the dress or try and cover her back up, and then you see Cardi bend down and you're like, what is she doing? Girl was taking off her shoe to throw it at Nicky's face, threw her shoe. In the video you see her throw the shoe. And then that's not all. Cardi's no bitch.

Do you think I listened?

Obviously, not. That's how we got some major footagee.

Bad Zobe got the footage. So she gets escorted out, Nicky stays at the party. I don't see Nicki leave until maybe an hour later. But it was a scuffle.

I am telling you.

There has never been a fight or a brawl like that at any Bizarre Icons event.

It was insanity.

That is amazing, and I'm just so glad that you were there and got to see it. I feel it wasn't premeditated, only because she was dressed up with those earrings and all of that.

So I love that you think that some fancy ascatur is gonna stop Carti from being Carti. You clearly don't know our girl, Belle galis. If Carti had some scores to settle, she was about to get them. On Invasion of Privacy, listen, Carti is sensitive. She may seemingly let things slide, but she's admitted that a lot of what people and people online say does get to her.

So when she gets on that mic, girl addresses what she's heard. You heard. This wasn't just collapse. This was Cardi b telling the world that she wasn't going anywhere.

Invasion of Privacy was a hip hop record, but it also included trap, Latin drop, and R and B sounds.

It featured vocals from Me Goes Chance, the rapper Kalanie Sizza, twenty one, Savage YG and J Belvin Gone Bad Bunny.

It became the most on demand audio streaming week ever for an album by a female artists. It also opened the door for an unapologetic expression of culture. Carti an artists who followed her wouldn't have to water themselves down to appeal to the general market.

The title itself also sent.

A message, Yes, Carti has a public persona, and yeah she built her brand on social media, but it's still got to be on her terms.

She chooses what or what she doesn't want to share.

Girls entitled to some privacy, so get up out of her business.

If you're a hot item, the tabloids know no boundaries, kind of like a Latino household d D. Let me live my life and Carti is smart and strategic. She knows how to always stay one step ahead of the press. Rmor started swirling that she was expecting her first baby with Offset. She went on SNL and put an end to the rumors by showing off her beautiful bomb right in the middle of her performance.

Looking fire and very innocent and maternal.

I am, I add but if you thought a baby in her belly was going to stop her conquest of the biz, think again.

The fourth single off the album.

I like dollars, I like diamonds, I like stunning, I like shining.

I like million dollar deals. Where's my bend, bitch? I'm signing? Wait, can we sign a.

Million dollar please? I heart it.

I like it was about to change everything we talked about.

I like it back in the Bad Bunny episodes.

Episode two for those of you taking notes, and if you missed it, make sure you go back and listen.

This song was everywhere.

It's a legacy defining hit, and you know it is because you're probably singing it right now.

I like those Balan the ones that looked like.

Sucks flexing on bitches as hard as I can eat. The lamb told that bitch. I'm sorry though, about my coins like.

Mario, Yeah, they call me Cardi b I run this shit like Cardio.

That song is just so good.

Are we gonna have to pay to use that? Because I sounded so much late?

Literally, I was like, dude, is Cardi on right now?

Wait, did we just invite Cardi into the studio?

She's going to be here. She totally is okay. So did you like the album? Yes? Or no? God?

Is that even a question? It was so good and just her lines in it. Who raps about eating fucking Hallal?

Someone who lived in the Bronx bitch there.

I always wondered with that line, like, did my friends in Texas listening to that go eating Hallal?

Hey? Google, what's Hallal eating Halal? Driving the lamb a lamb?

Because here's and you know what I love about that line. It's first of all, just poetic. But I love the mix of highbrow and lowbrow. And that is why Cardi is so authentic in everything that she does. Because she is going to roll up to the Halal guys on fifty first and sixth.

Avenue in her Fendy Firs Verstachi.

In her in her Versachi furs, dripping in Jacob the Jeweler, and she's going to step out and buy Halal and then eat the Halal in the neon green Lamborghini.

I love her, Am I wrong? No, No, Everything about that album was just born to be.

Everything every touches turns to gold.

Yeah, Carti had a Midas touch, so much so that even Maroon five wanted in.

Oh, I have a quote from them, Adam Levine said, and I quote, it is truly unreal how fucking hot you are. It truly blows my mind.

Wait, Joseph, I don't think that was about the song they did with.

Car Oh, I didn't say it.

Was girls like you made it onto the Hot one hundred and the music video received more than three billion views. Then she received the most nominations at the twenty eighteen MTV Video Music Awards twelve to be exact, including Video of the Year, and she took home three awards. A few years earlier, Carti was just a woman from the Bronx waiting for a big break, trying to find a path, And now here she is dominating the VMAs.

And opening doors for other badass low mama fitas out there.

Cardi b has paved the way for so many of today's top female rap artists, Doja Cat Lizzo, Meganie Stallions. Speaking of Yes, Yes, we are going to be discussing the song that cemented Cardi as a musical sensation.

On that wop wop woah on.

The next Becoming an Icon.

Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Guda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you