Photo: John Shearer/Getty
Cardi B‘s meteoric rise to fame has not come without some troubles.
From her recentNew York Fashion Week brawlwithNicki Minajto her candid interviews about her upbringing and background, the rapper, 25, has never shied away from the events that have occurred in her life.
A Star Is Born
Born Belcalis Almanzar in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx, she adopted her more famous moniker at a young age in a jokey tribute to her sister. “Her name is Hennessy, so everybody used to be like Bacardi to me,” she said during an appearance onThe Wendy Williams Show. “Then I shortened it to Cardi B.” What’s the “B” stand for? Sometimes it’s “beautiful” and other times it’s “bully” — “depending on the day.” (During the same interview, she promised to clean up her act for impressionable youths: “I’m gonna change for you, little girls, because I deadass love ya.”)
While attending Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & Technology, the star showed off her musical talent in a school performance but she eventually ventured on to a different path. “I used to know how to sing, but, you know, I started smoking and sucking d—,” shepreviously tweetedin a since-deleted post years ago.
Instagram/ @iamcardib
After high school, she studied at Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City but only completed three semesters. She also found work at the local deli, called Amish Market, but was fired from her job after giving friends too many discounts, which led one of her managers to suggest she get a job as a stripper. “He was like, ‘You’re so pretty, you got a nice body.’ He told me to go across the street to New York Dolls, the strip club. That’s when I started stripping,” she toldThe Fader.
Cardi Bwas 19 when her career as a stripper began and she quickly became a local celebrity on New York City’s club circuit.
Offset/Instagram
Before Bardi Gang… She Was in a Gang
Cardi Brevealed she was a member of the Bloods (a.k.a. the Brims) since she was 16. “When I was 16 years old, I used to hang out with a lot of Bloods. I used to pop off with my homies. And they’d say, ‘Yo, you really get it poppin’. You should come home. You should turn Blood.’ And I did. Yes, I did. And something that—it’s not like, oh, you leave. You don’t leave,” she toldGQin April 2018.
“When I was younger, I used to go very hard. … After you’re in your 20s, why would you join a gang? That’s something that you do when you’re young. … There was a point when I was like 20, 21, 22…I was repping it,” she recalled, adding she would advise the younger generation to not follow in her lead.
“If somebody was to tell me right now, ‘I want to join a gang,’ I would tell them that it’s a waste of your money, it’s a waste of your time,” she said.
Cardi Bpreviouslytweetedabout the affiliation in February 2017, writing, “Cardi F—ing B and the B stands for Brim.” And in her song “Red Barz” she says she’s “flyer than a big big B with a Blood tie.”
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
On her 23rd birthday in October 2015,Cardi Bquit stripping and made her music debut one month later with herremixof Shaggy’s “Boom Boom.”
Though she was gaining a large following on social media with viral Instagram and Vine videos, it wasn’t until December 2015 when she broke into mainstream media and was cast on the VH1 reality juggernautLove and Hip Hop: New York.
“Hey America! What’s poppin? My name isCardi B, you might know me as that annoying dancer on social media that be talkin’ hella crazy with the long nails and big ole titties,” she said in her introduction on season 6.
With Success Comes Strife
With her smash “Bodak Yellow,” Cardi B bumped Taylor Swift from the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and made history as the second solo female rap artist ever to top the charts. She followed in the footsteps ofLauryn Hill, who scored a No. 1 in 1998 with “Doo Wop (That Thing).”
But along with her chart-topping success, a series of controversies emerged.
RELATED VIDEO:Cardi BTurns Herself in to Police, Arrested and Charged for Alleged Attack on Strip Club Bartenders
Lawsuit
VH1
LGBT Backlash
In May, singer Rita Oracame under firefollowing the release of her pop single “Girls,” which featuredCardi Bas well asBebe RexhaandCharli XCX.
Fans and fellow artists, including Hayley Kiyoko and Kehlani, called Ora out for the lyric “Sometimes, I just wanna kiss girls, girls, girls/ Red wine, I just wanna kiss girls, girls, girls,” which many noted contributed to stereotypes about same-sex female love being a phase.
She further apologized for her past use of gay slurs in atweet: “I know I have use words before that I wasn’t aware that they are offensive to the LGBT community. I apologize for that. Not everybody knows the correct terms to use. I learned and I stopped using it.”
However, in September,Cardi Bwas in hot water after atransphobic memewas shared to her Facebook page. She attempted to clarify the controversy, saying she’s not responsible for any “offensive posts” made on her official account.
Cardi Bhas previously come under fire over using a term referring to the trans community, according toEntertainment Weekly. During aPeriscope videorecorded in January, Cardi said that at the time she “did not know that that was a bad word ‘cause trans people use it.”
Parody Gone Wrong
She joked about Dr. King’s contributions to the civil rights movement while the other actors, who played the wives ofMalcolm Xand Jesse Jackson, referenced King’s alleged infidelity. The timing was also criticized as the skit surfaced on the same day as the 55th anniversary of King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
King’s youngest childBernicetook offense toCardi B’s parody, revealing that the rapper contacted her to discuss the skit. “Thank you, @iamcardib, for reaching out to me and apologizing for the skit that aired on @TMZ. I look forward to talking with you soon,” Bernice tweeted.
Swan Gallet/WWD/REX/Shutterstock; Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock
Nicki Minajand New York Fashion Week
It was the infamous fight that everyone was talking about during Fashion Week on Sept. 7 when Cardi B andNicki Minajgot into an argument at theHarper’s BazaarICONS party that left Cardi B bruised, a source previously confirmed to PEOPLE.
WATCH:Cardi BEscorted Out Of Fashion Week Party After Physical “Altercation” WithNicki Minaj
Steven Ferdman/WireImage
The source told PEOPLE that as Cardi was the one to throw her shoe at Minaj, but it remains unclear how she ended up with a welt on her head and Minaj did not. The source added that it’s possible the shoe could have ricocheted back and hit her in the face.
Three days after the incident, Minajbroke her silence about the altercation. “The other night I was part of something so mortifying and so humiliating to go through in front of a bunch upper echelon… people who have their life together,” she said during an episode of herQueenradio show on Apple Music’s Beats 1.
Minaj added, “I was in a Gaultier gown — off the motherf—ing runway — and I could not believe how humiliated we all felt.”
Mark Lennihan/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Strip Club Fight
On Oct. 1,Cardi Bsurrendered to policeand was subsequently arrested due to a rumble at a New York City strip club that occurred in August. She was charged with one Class A misdemeanor count of third-degree assault and two Class A misdemeanor counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and will be arraigned Oct. 29.
According totheNew York TimesandTMZ, the charges stem from an incident in which two bartenders at Angels Strip Club claimed thatCardi Bordered an attack on the women because she believed her husband Offset had had an affair with one of them.
One of the two, a woman named Jade, says thatCardi Bhad been threatening her on Instagram since early summer, according toTMZ.Cardi Bwas “throwing chairs, bottles and hookahs in the club at 3 a.m.,” a police spokesman toldCNN.
In order for Cardito face jail time, she must be found guilty of third-degree assault and receive among the strictest sentences from the presiding judge. In order for this to occur, there must be proof that she physically injured the two women during the altercation at the strip club.
Sources close to Cardi previously denied that she was involved in the attack, according toTMZ. While the bartenders were reportedly injured during the brawl, both women declined to receive medical treatment.
“We’re aware of no evidence that she caused anybody any harm on that night,” the rapper’s attorney Jeff Kern told press outside the police station on Monday. “We expect that the matter is going to be resolved expeditiously.”
A lawyer for the alleged victims begs to differ. “Cardi Bordered and committed violent assaults against my clients, and is being called to justice for her crimes,” Joe Tacopina, an attorney for the alleged victims, said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Apparently, she thinks her celebrity status puts her above the law, since she has bragged to multiple people and on social media that she orchestrated these vicious attacks.”
source: people.com
