A Take on Cardi B

By KAYLA ROYSTER
Staff Writer

“Washpoppin” Belcalis “Cardi B” Almanzar is a Bronx-born woman who made her living as an exotic dancer five years prior to her climb to fame. She started a journey of self-expression on her Instagram page @Iamcardib, now with more than 2.5 million followers. She’s known for her dancing, as well as her blunt, comical, “tell it like it is” videos, which you can find all over her Instagram page.
Her humor gained her the fan base she now has, which includes stars like Nelly, Drake, and 50 Cent. She has gone from a dancer to being an entertainer and actress. She has strutted down the runway at NYFW and is also the newest member on Love and Hiphop, but she hasn’t stopped yet. Cardi B is now trying to take over music, hip-hop to be exact.
I wouldn’t even know who Cardi B was had it not been for my best friend. “She’s ugly, but I got my attitude about men from her and my confidence. You don’t have to be the beautiful to have confidence and know what you deserve,” said Vanessa when I told her I would be writing about the very woman she constantly quoted.
Even a fan like her, though, had to agree with me: Cardi B’s contributions to hip-hop are horrible. She has some type of talent, just talents better off used elsewhere rather than in the world of music.
I’ve heard Cardi B being called a “wannabe Nicki Minaj,” be it her looks or her music I can see where those people are coming from. For one thing, not everyone can write music, not everyone can sing, not everyone can draw a circle, and not everyone can walk a straight line.
In my opinion, Cardi B cannot do either of the first two. As for her voice, it isn’t meant to be in the music industry. The same industry that people turn to for comfort or joy. An industry that can be described with words such as calming, motivation, relatable, and fun.
Cardi B sounds “ratchet,” using her words against her.
It’s not just her voice, which is high pitched and nasally, but the way she speaks. When she sings or raps or whatever you would like to call it, it sounds mumbled. The only parts of her songs that you are able to make out are normally the curse words. Everything besides that sounds like gibberish.
Her song themes are sad and the lyrics are a mixture of disgusting and basic, to be as polite as possible. It’s as if one day she just woke up and decided she just wanted to make money off of singing about an everyday item. An example of this is her song “Cheap A** Weave.” Her music videos are interesting to watch the first time. Any time after that, you feel as if you’ve just wasted two to three minutes of your life watching something that makes less sense the more you think about it.
Another song of hers, called “Stripper H**,” is extremely demeaning to women. People already have their own thoughts on the choice of women being exotic dancers, but for you to be a past exotic dancer yourself and to describe them as h**s takes things to a whole different level.
I feel that woman should be empowering each other rather than demeaning each other. The concept of the song is bad enough, but it only gets worse when the lyrics are as horrible as the singer’s voice. Cardi B is making money in so many other ways and I think for her reputation and our ears, she should stick to her dancing and comedy.
She may not be a role model you want to look up to, but a positive about Cardi B is that she has very positive mottos that she sticks to. These mottos include “be yourself” and “never apologize for being who you are.” I agree with the latter motto; I mean, with the songs she’s been creating she obviously doesn’t do it for other people.
I guess when you have money you really can do anything. I don’t know how she got into the music industry, but it was not based on her musical talent.