The explicit Cardi B song that caused controversy for being “freaky and nasty”
Cardi B knows how to ruffle some feathers. She’s never afraid of speaking her mind, and even causes controversy without intention. That was the case with one of the biggest singles of her career, which received backlash for its explicit nature.
‘WAP‘ became her fourth single to top Billboard Hot 100 in 2020 and ended up being one of the sounds of the pandemic. The title is an acronym for “wet-ass pussy,” and saw her collaborating with Megan Thee Stallion for the first time. With a name like that, they knew exactly what they were doing.
The lyrics find Cardi and Meg explaining how they want to be pleased by men, with lyrics like, “Beat it up, n*gga, catch a charge/ Extra large and extra hard,” and, “Let’s roleplay, I’ll wear a disguise/ I want you to park that big Mack truck right in this little garage.”
While on one hand, the song was praised for empowering women, many people criticised it for its strongly worded lyrics. The negative discussion was largely due to the song reaching a market that isn’t their target audience.
In response to the controversy, Cardi told Apple Music, “I was really surprised. I was so surprised because everybody was raving, being like, ‘Oh my god, this song is so freaky and nasty.’ Even when I hear it, this song isn’t so nasty and freaky to me because I grew up listening to freaky-ass rappers, and I feel like this is very mild compared to them.”
She continued, “I don’t know, nowadays people want to rave about everything. I think it’s because people have been wanting me and Megan to collab, and they didn’t expect the record to be so freaky. Nowadays, people are a lot more open about their sexuality, but when ‘WAP’ came out, the people that were criticising it the most and saying it was nasty and freaky weren’t even religious people.”
Cardi believed it was mostly republicans being critical of her due to her heavy support of Bernie Sanders and then Joe Biden when Donald Trump was running for president. The Bronx rapper was the one laughing in the end, with ‘WAP’ topping the charts for four weeks off the back of the largest opening streaming week in US history.
Megan, who is equally as bold when it comes to speaking about who she truly is, claimed the bad response came from men who felt uncomfortable about woman detailing their sexual preferences. She believes that, after a long time of men feeling like they owned sex, the tide was changing.
“Some people just don’t know what to do when a woman is in control and taking ownership of her own body,” she said to GQ. “I feel like for a long time, men felt like they owned sex, and now women are saying, ‘Hey, this is for me. I want pleasure. This is how I want it or don’t want it.’ It freaks men the hell out. It just comes from a place of fear and insecurity, like, why would anyone be mad about my WAP? It belongs to me.”