The first rapper Cardi B ever heard and how it changed her life: “I didn’t understand it”
Rappers don’t get much bigger than Cardi B, which is remarkable considering she only has one album to her name. The Bronx artist began her career in 2015 after previously working jobs as a stripper and at a grocery store in Tribeca. Since then, she’s had a chart-topping LP and various number one hits, including ‘Bodak Yellow’, ‘I Like It’, ‘WAP’, and ‘Up’.
Growing up in New York City, Cardi was exposed to hip-hop music on a daily basis. Her first time coming across a rapper was a time when she was so young, she didn’t know what she was listening to. All she knew is that the vocals blasting out of cars and speakers belonged to Biggie Smalls. Cardi wasn’t even two years old when Ready to Die came out, and just four when Life After Death dropped. Still, his legacy was everywhere.
“I’m from New York, so I heard Biggie outside every single day,” she told Mariah Carey for Interview Magazine. “But since I was so young at the time, I didn’t understand it. My mom always wanted to keep me really childlike. She wanted me to listen to Barney and Disney music, so I was only interested in Barney and Disney.”
Despite Cardi’s mother trying her best to keep her away from explicit lyrics, hip-hop was always going to find a way to her. Like so often in a child’s life, her grandparents were a bad influence, going against her parents’ wishes. Her grandma playing BET on the television exposed her to Missy Elliott and changed her life forever.
“We used to go to my grandmother’s house, where they would always play BET and shit,” she said. “When I saw Missy Elliott take off her head in a music video, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so strange. I want to do that when I grow up.
“And then I started seeing girls like Trina, and I was like, ‘She’s so sexy. I want to talk like that when I grow up.’ I always wanted to be what my mom didn’t let me be. I wanted to wear small shirts and have my belly out and wear little kitty heels.”
Rap music also paved the way for her to swear for the first time, thanks to Khia’s 2001 hit, ‘My Neck, My Back (Lick It)’. “When [it] came out, my aunts would be like, ‘I know y’all not supposed to be listening to that,'” she recalled. “So when I used to sing it with my cousins mad loud, I knew I shouldn’t say it because my aunts were like, ‘You can’t listen to that,’ even though I didn’t really know what the fuck it meant at the time.”
Cardi was once asked to pick between Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, and Biggie, opting for the latter for a couple of reasons. “I’m gonna go with Biggie,” she said. “I would go with Jay-Z, but Jay-Z would go with Biggie. Tupac is cool, but you know, I gotta keep it home.” It’s truly New York over everything.