Cardi B Says She Drugged and Robbed Men as a Stripper
Cardi B is under fire after making a confession about her past.
During an Instagram Live session on Sunday (Mar. 24), the Grammy-winning rapper blasted critics who questioned her success while admitting that she used to drug and rob clients who tried to pay her for sex when she used to work as a stripper.
“I had to go strip, I had to go, ‘Oh yeah, you want to fuck me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, let’s go to this hotel,’ and I drugged ni**as up, and I robbed them. That’s what I used to do,” said Cardi (via XXL). “Nothin’ was muthafuckin’ handed to me, my ni**a. Nothing!”
CardiB says she used to what? pic.twitter.com/NJWigTlb9Z
— Hip Hop Ratchet (@HipHopRatchet) March 24, 2019
After her comments went viral, Bardi faced backlash from Twitter users, who started using the hashtag #SurvivingCardiB, inspired by Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries, which recounts the sexual assault accusations against the R&B singer. Some claimed she should lose her endorsement deals, while others even called for her incarceration.
Correct me if I’m wrong but Didn’t #Reebok drop rick Ross for his lyrics “Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it
I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it ” Oh okay I expect for them to show her the same treatment. #survivingcardib— regin (@regin93Xo) March 25, 2019
Bill Cosby drugged women some 60 years ago. Still people went apeshit. We need to do that NOW TOO!! She didn’t do better! She’s a criminal and belongs to jail #survivingcardib
— Dmnq (@mrtrprt) March 26, 2019
This #SurvivingCardiB hashtag is just another example of fake outrage. Do you know HOW MANY RAPPERS you would have to CANCEL based on their “street life”? Chile! Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Jay Z? Do I need to keep going? Nobody said its right. Thats HER REALITY.
— ℙ ℙ (@PrissThePisces) March 26, 2019
Cardi previously defended her past. “I never claim to be a angel I always been a street bitch,” she tweeted earlier this month. “Ya be glorifying this street rappers that talk and do that grimmey street shit but they can’t stand a street bitch!”
I never claim to be a angel I always been a street bitch Ya be glorifying this street rappers that talk and do that grimmey street shit but they can’t stand a street bitch!
— iamcardib (@iamcardib) March 24, 2019
During her Instagram Live broadcast, she also revealed that she’s planning a tell-all memoir. “I’m a good-hearted person but I have done some fucked up shit,” she said. “You wanna know why y’all don’t gotta tell my story? Because I’m gonna write a book about my life. I’ve been through a lot of shit. I’ve been a bitch that from young been in the streets. I got influenced by the streets.”
Cardi, who trademarked her signature catchphrase “Okurrr,” also recently landed her first film role. She will star alongside Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, and Usher in the upcoming stripper film Hustlers.
UPDATE: Cardi has responded to the backlash, saying the Instagram Live video where she speaks about drugging and robbing men during her stripping days, is from three years ago.
“So I’m seeing on social media that a live I did 3 years ago has popped back up,” Cardi began. “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. 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 shit.”
While she’s not proud of her past, she noted that speaking about your experiences, whether right or wrong, is part of hip-hop culture. “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,” she added. “There are rappers that glorify murder violence drugs an robbing. Crimes they feel they had to do to survive. I never glorified the things I brought up in that live I never even put those things in my music because I’m not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it.”
She defended her actions, saying they were necessary for survival. “I made the choices that I did at the time because I had very limited options,” she explained. “I was blessed to have been able to rise from that but so many women have not. Whether or not they were poor choices at the time I did what I had to do to survive. The men I spoke about in my live were men that I dated that I was involve with men that were conscious willing and aware. I have a past that I can’t change we all do.”
Read her full note below.
All I can do now is be a better me for myself my family and my future. pic.twitter.com/VlPJW20thN
— iamcardib (@iamcardib) March 26, 2019