Cardi B has been the name in everyone’s mouth since the start of fall semester in September. Bodak Yellow played at every frat, tailgate, house party, and pregame. And now, UMass students got to experience her live and in person on April 25, 2018 after winning the Tinder Swipe Off, a competition between all colleges in the U.S., seeing which student body could swipe right the most. Even though she only performed for about 25 minutes (maybe the best 25 minutes of my life), we were still starstruck that someone so famous came to our Massachusetts school.
But Cardi B is more than just one of the biggest names in the music industry right now. She is an absolute inspiration and I am here to tell you why:
1. She embraces her past.
Before Cardi B was a household name, she was a stripper at a New York club called Sue’s Rendezvous. Cardi is very aware she has come a long way from her strip club days, but still acknowledges that it is an important part of her past, that gave her the drive to get where she is today. Many of her haters told her she would never be more than a stripper, which she touches upon in the opening song of her album, Get Up 10. She raps “Look, they gave a b***h two options: strippin’ or lose/Used to dance in a club right across from my school.” She tells her story to inspire others that they can also go from “rags to riches”.
2. She is unapologetically herself.
OKURRRRRRRRR Cardi always says whatever runs through her mind, and that is why we love her so much. She has given us amazing quotes — like “Butterflies in my stomach and vagina.” She has a ton of catchphrases, like “Okurrrr” and “Eeeeooowwww.” Not only can she rap but she is unbelievably funny, many of her quotes and expressions become GIFs and memes. She makes almost every interviewer speechless. She’s even said, “It was my personality that got me where I’m at.”
3. She’s intelligent.
Cardi is more than her stardom — she’s a smarty pants, too. She told GQ, “I love political science, I love government. I’m obsessed with presidents. I’m obsessed to know how the system works.” She continued by speaking about her favorite president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “First of all, he helped us get over the Depression, all while he was in a wheelchair. Like, this man was suffering from polio at the time of his presidency, and yet all he was worried about was trying to make America great—make America great again for real. He’s the real ‘Make America Great Again,’ because if it wasn’t for him, old people wouldn’t even get Social Security.” She is very politically inclined, and often weighs in on issues using her incredibly popular Instagram and Twitter accounts.
4. She is incredibly successful.
At only 25 years old, Cardi B is one of the most famous women today. She’s the first female rapper to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 20 years with her song Bodak Yellow. Bodak Yellow stayed No. 1 for three weeks, making it the longest-running chart-topper by a solo female artist. She also was the first woman to chart first three entries in the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs’ Top 10 simultaneously, with Bodak Yellow, Migos’ Motorsport, and G-Easy’s No Limit. Her debut album Invasion of Privacy set an Apple Music record for most streamed album by a female artist in a single week with more than 100 million streams worldwide.
I’ll leave you with the words Cardi bestowed upon us at the Swipe Off Concert: “Shout out to all my college students. I know it’s hard being in college and seeing everybody on Instagram looking like they rich. It’s hard to stay motivated in school. You wanna be a drug dealer, a bartender, or an Instagram model because they look like they making the money, but in reality they wish they were smart like you.”