Three-year-old video of rapper Cardi B resurfaced on social media recently, which shows her explaining to the camera the lengths she went to survive when she was a younger aspiring musician. While Cardi's background as an exotic dancer is widely known and prominent in her music, the rapper also said at one point in her life that she resorted to covertly drugging men who sought her out for sex work in order to rob them. Cardi's heavy admission came as a response to critics who claim she doesn't deserve her current fame.
Bronx native Cardi (born Belcalis Almanzar) appears highly emotional in the video as she lists off what sound like painful and traumatic memories. "Nothing was motherf**king handed to me," an impassioned Cardi said, adding that anyone insinuating that she hasn't earned her success has no grasp of "the sh*t that I had to do to survive."
Social media erupted with outrage after her admission, and the hashtag #SurvivingCardiB made the rounds, referencing the Lifetime docuseries about R. Kelly's decades of alleged predation of underage girls. Many men piled onto the hashtag and demanded that Cardi be "cancelled" and face professional consequences for her actions, labeling any refusal to do so a hypocritical "double standard" in light of the #MeToo movement. Memes also circulated comparing Cardi to Bill Cosby, who was convicted of drugging and raping one woman and who has been accused of doing so to more than 60 others over many decades.
On Tuesday, the rapper confirmed that the video was real and posted a message to her social media accounts to take accountability and to offer more context. "So I'm seeing on social media that a live I did 3 years ago has popped back up. A live where I talked about things I had to do in my past right or wrong that I felt I needed to do to make a living," Cardi wrote. "I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world wit a perfect past I always speak my truth I always own my sh*t."
She continued, "Im apart of a hip hop culture where you can talk about where you come from talk about the wrong things you had to do to get where you are. There are rappers that glorify murder violence drugs an robbing. Crimes they feel they had to do to survive."
But Cardi explained that she has consciously chosen not to romanticize the most egregious and harmful wrongdoings from her past. "I'm not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it," she added. "I made the choices I did at the time because I had very limited options. I was blessed to have been able to rise from that but so many women have not."
She also claimed that the men she referred to in the video in question were men that she dated and who were "conscious willing and aware."
Bronx native Cardi (born Belcalis Almanzar) appears highly emotional in the video as she lists off what sound like painful and traumatic memories. "Nothing was motherf**king handed to me," an impassioned Cardi said, adding that anyone insinuating that she hasn't earned her success has no grasp of "the sh*t that I had to do to survive."
Social media erupted with outrage after her admission, and the hashtag #SurvivingCardiB made the rounds, referencing the Lifetime docuseries about R. Kelly's decades of alleged predation of underage girls. Many men piled onto the hashtag and demanded that Cardi be "cancelled" and face professional consequences for her actions, labeling any refusal to do so a hypocritical "double standard" in light of the #MeToo movement. Memes also circulated comparing Cardi to Bill Cosby, who was convicted of drugging and raping one woman and who has been accused of doing so to more than 60 others over many decades.
On Tuesday, the rapper confirmed that the video was real and posted a message to her social media accounts to take accountability and to offer more context. "So I'm seeing on social media that a live I did 3 years ago has popped back up. A live where I talked about things I had to do in my past right or wrong that I felt I needed to do to make a living," Cardi wrote. "I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world wit a perfect past I always speak my truth I always own my sh*t."
She continued, "Im apart of a hip hop culture where you can talk about where you come from talk about the wrong things you had to do to get where you are. There are rappers that glorify murder violence drugs an robbing. Crimes they feel they had to do to survive."
But Cardi explained that she has consciously chosen not to romanticize the most egregious and harmful wrongdoings from her past. "I'm not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it," she added. "I made the choices I did at the time because I had very limited options. I was blessed to have been able to rise from that but so many women have not."
She also claimed that the men she referred to in the video in question were men that she dated and who were "conscious willing and aware."
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