Belcalis Marlenis Cephus(néeAlmánzar;[a]born October 11, 1992), known professionally asCardi B, is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for her aggressive flow and outspoken clever lyrics, Cardi B has established herself as one of the most successful female artists in contemporary music. Born and raised in New York City, she first gained popularity through videos shared onVineandInstagram. From 2015 to early 2017, she appeared as a regular cast member on theVH1reality television seriesLove & Hip Hop: New York, which depicted her pursuit of her music aspirations, and earned further recognition with the release of her twomixtapes:Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1(2016) andVol. 2(2017).
Her first studio album, Invasion of Privacy (2018), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became the best-selling female rap album of the 2010s. Critically acclaimed, it made Cardi B the only solo female artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and marked the first female rap album in 15 years nominated for Album of the Year. Its singles "Bodak Yellow" and "I Like It" both topped the Billboard Hot 100 and were certified diamond by the RIAA; the former made Cardi B the first female rapper to top the Hot 100 with a solo song in the 21st century and the first to achieve a diamond-certified song, while the latter made her the first with multiple number-one songs. Her third US number-one, the collaboration "Girls Like You" (2018) with Maroon 5, made her the first female rapper to earn multiple RIAA diamond-certified songs. Cardi B released "WAP" (with Megan Thee Stallion) in 2020 and "Up" in 2021, both of which topped the Hot 100 and other charts worldwide. "WAP" became the only female rap collaboration to debut atop the Hot 100, broke several streaming records and made Cardi B the first lead artist to top the Billboard Global 200. Her second studio album will be released in 2024.
Outside of music, Cardi B served as a judge on the music competition series Rhythm + Flow(2019), appeared in the films Hustlers (2019) and F9 (2021), and had a voice role in Baby Shark's Big Movie! (2023). In 2022, she became the creative director of entertainment magazine Playboy.
Early life
Cardi B was born and raised in the southern part of the South Bronx.
Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar was born on October 11, 1992, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.[1][2] Her father Carlos is Dominican and her mother Clara is a Trinidadian of African and Spanish descent; Almánzar identifies as an Afro-Latina.[3][1][4][5][6]Almánzar was raised in the Highbridgeneighborhood of the South Bronx,[7][8][9] and spent much time at her paternal grandmother's home in Washington Heights, which she credits with giving her "such a thick accent."[10] Almánzar developed the stage name "Cardi B" as a derivation of Bacardi, a rum brand that was formerly her nickname.[11] She has a younger sister, Hennessy Carolina, who was born in 1995. She has said she was a gang member with the Bloods in her youth, since age 16,[12][13] but stated she would not encourage joining a gang.[14] She attended Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & Technology, a vocational high school on the Herbert H. Lehman High Schoolcampus.[15]
During her teens, Cardi B was employed at a grocery store in Tribeca.[16] She was fired and became a dancer at a strip club across the street.[17][18] Cardi B has said that becoming a stripper was positive for her life in many ways: "It really saved me from a lot of things. When I started stripping I went back to school."[19][20][21] She stated that she became a stripper to escape poverty and domestic violence, having been in an abusive relationship at the time after being kicked out of her mother's house,[22][23] and that stripping was her only way to earn enough money to escape the situation and get an education.[24]She attended Borough of Manhattan Community College[25] before eventually dropping out.[26]While stripping, Cardi B lied to her mother by telling her she was making money by babysitting.[27]
In 2013, she began to gain publicity due to several of her videos spreading on social media, on Vineand her Instagram page.[28]
In 2015, Cardi B joined the cast of the VH1 reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York, debuting in season six.[29]Jezebel considered her the breakout star of the show's sixth season.[30]The New York Times wrote that she garnered popularity with "her ability to rattle off one-liners".[31] The sixth and seventh seasons chronicle her rise to stardom and her turbulent relationship with her incarcerated fiancé. On December 30, 2016, after two seasons, she announced that she would be leaving the show to further pursue a career in music.[32]
In November 2015, Cardi B made her musical debut on Jamaican reggae fusion singer Shaggy's remix to his single "Boom Boom", alongside fellow Jamaican dancehall singer Popcaan.[33] She made her music video debut on December 15, 2015, with the song "Cheap Ass Weave", her rendition of British rapperLady Leshurr's "Queen's Speech 4".[34][35] On March 7, 2016, Cardi B released her first full-length project, a mixtape titled Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1.[36][37]In November 2016, she was featured on the digital cover of Vibe magazine's "Viva" issue.[38][22]
On September 12, 2016, KSR Group released the compilation Underestimated: The Album, which is a collaboration between KSR Group artists Cardi B, HoodCelebrityy, SwiftOnDemand, Cashflow Harlem, and Josh X. It was previously released only to attendees of their U.S. tour. the label's flagship artist, Cardi B, said: "I wanted to make a song that would make girls dance, twerk and at the same time encourage them to go get that Shmoney," in regard to the compilation's single "What a Girl Likes".[39]
She appeared on the December 9, 2015, episode of Uncommon Sense with Charlamagne.[40] On April 6, 2016, she was on the twelfth episode of Khloé Kardashian's Kocktails with Khloé: in this episode, she revealed how she told her mother that she was a stripper.[41][42] In November 2016, it was announced that she would be joining the cast of the BET series Being Mary Jane. TVLinedescribes her character, Mercedes, as a "round-the-way beauty with a big weave, big boobs and a big booty to match her oversize, ratchet personality."[43][44][45]
In 2016, Cardi B was featured in her first endorsement deal with Romantic Depot, a large New York chain of lingerie stores that sell sexual health and wellness products. The ad campaign was featured on radio and cable TV.[46][47]
On January 3, 2018, Cardi B was featured on the remix of Bruno Mars' single "Finesse",[84] and appeared in the 90s inspired video. It reached the top three on the Hot 100, Canada and New Zealand. On January 18, 2018, Cardi B became the first female rapper to have five top 10 singles simultaneously on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[85] She released another single, "Be Careful", on March 30, 2018, a week before her album's release.[86]
Her debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, was released on April 6, 2018, to universal acclaim from music critics.[87][88] Editors from Variety and The New York Times called it "one of the most powerful debuts of this millennium" and "a hip-hop album that doesn't sound like any of its temporal peers," respectively.[89][90] The album entered at number one in the United States, while she became the first female artist to chart 13 entries simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100, on the chart issue dated April 21.[91] It became the most streamed album by a female artist in a single week in Apple Music,[92] and the largest on-demand audio streaming week ever for an album by a woman.[93] Cardi held the latter record until 2019.[94] The album's title reflects Cardi B's feeling that as she gained popularity her privacy was being invaded in a variety of ways.[16]Following the album's release, during a performance on Saturday Night Live, Cardi B officially announced her pregnancy, after much media speculation.[95] She also co-hosted an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[96]
Several months later, in July 2018, the album's fourth single, "I Like It", which features vocals from Bad Bunny and J Balvin, reached number one on the Hot 100; this marked her second number one on the chart and made her the first female rapper to achieve multiple chart-toppers.[97] It received critical acclaim,[98] with Rolling Stone naming it "the best summer song of all time" in 2020.[99] Her collaboration with Maroon 5, "Girls Like You", also reached number one on the Hot 100 chart, extending her record among female rappers[100] and also making her the sixth female artist to achieve three number-one singles on the chart during the 2010s.[101] The song's music video has received more than 3 billion views on YouTube and was the fifth-best selling song of the year globally.[102]
With "Girls Like You" following "I Like It" at the top of the BillboardRadio Songs chart, Cardi B became the first female rapper to replace herself at number one on the chart.[103] The single spent seven weeks atop the Hot 100, making Cardi the female rapper with the most cumulative weeks atop the chart, with eleven weeks.[104][105] It spent 33 weeks in the top 10, tying both Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" and Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower" for the longest top 10 run in the chart's archives at the time.[106][107] In October 2018, Invasion of Privacy was certified double platinum by the RIAA, and the following year it was updated to triple platinum. With the thirteen tracks, she became the first female artist to have all songs from an album certified gold or higher in the US.[108]
Cardi B received the most nominations for the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards with 12 mentions—including for Video of the Year, winning three awards.[109] She tied with Drake for the most nominations at the 2018 American Music Awards. She won three AMAs and performed at the ceremony.[110][111] Her single "Money" earned her a fourth Video Music Award, with visuals that feature Cardi playing characters in different locations, including in an art museum, a bank and a strip club.[108] Her collaboration with DJ Snake"Taki Taki" topped the charts in a number of Hispanic countries, made Cardi B the first female rapper to top the Spotify Global 50 chart,[112] and has garnered more than 2 billion views. Both singles were certified multiple-platinum by the RIAA.[113]People en Español named her Star of the Year,[114] and Entertainment Weekly deemed her "a pop culture phenomenon", as she was named one of "2018 Entertainers of the Year".[115]
On November 30, 2018, Cardi B was honored at Ebony's annual Power 100 Gala.[116] Cardi ranked fifth on the 2018 Billboard Year-End Top Artists chart, while Invasion of Privacy ranked sixth. She achieved the most-streamed album of the year by a female artist globally in Apple Music,[117] and ranked as the most streamed female artist of the year in the United States in Spotify.[118] Editorial staff from Apple Music and Billboard named "I Like It" the best song of 2018,[119][120] while Timemagazine and Rolling Stone named Invasion of Privacy the best album of the year.[121][122] Also in 2018, Time included her on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[123] In its decade-end review article, NME stated that the era secured "her crown as the new Queen of Rap."[124]
Cardi B led the 2019 Billboard Music Awardsnominations, with 21, earning the most nominations in a single year by a female artist and the third most nominations in a year (behind Drake and The Chainsmokers, who both had 22 in a year).[128] She ended up winning six awards, including for Top Hot 100 Song, bringing her career total wins to seven—the most of any female rapper in history.[129] An article by Omaha World-Herald called her "the biggest rapper in the world."[130]
On February 15, 2019, Cardi B released "Please Me", a collaboration with Bruno Mars, which became her seventh top-ten song on the Hot 100, reaching number three.[131] The song marked Cardi and Bruno's second collaboration, following "Finesse" in 2018. The official music video was released two weeks later.[132] On March 1, Cardi set a new attendance record at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, with 75,580 fans in the audience.[133] With "Backin' It Up", "Twerk" and "Money", Cardi became the first female artist to occupy the top three on the BillboardMainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart.[134]
Her following single titled "Press" was released on May 31, 2019.[135] The parental-advisory labeled music video marked her directorial debut—being credited as co-director, and was released on June 26, 2019.[136] It had its debut performance at the 2019 BET Awards, where she received the most nominations with seven, and won Album of the Year.[137] During the summer of 2019, she embarked on an arena tour.[138] In September, she led the BET Hip Hop Awards nominations with ten.[139]
In December 2019, Cardi B embarked on her first tour of Africa, performing in Nigeria and Ghana.[144]Her collaboration "Clout" was nominated for aGrammy Award for Best Rap Performance.[145]She was the most streamed female rapper of 2019 in the US, according to Spotify.[146]Consequence of Sounddeemed her "one of the most formidable hip-hop artists of the decade."[147]In March 2020, Cardi B created a reaction video about thecoronavirus pandemic. DJ iMarkkeyz, a Brooklyn DJ known for turning memes and online moments into full-length songs, created a track, based on her reaction titled "Coronavirus", which became aninternet memeand was released to music platforms.[148]Netflix announced the return ofRhythm + Flowfor 2021.[149]
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