Cardi B has surprised even herself. Her single "Bodak Yellow" earned her the top spot on the Hot 100, making her the first solo female rapper to claim that title in almost 19 years. You could maybe say this was her turning point.
"When I got to number one I didn’t even know that no woman has done that since 1998," she told i-D in an interview. "I didn’t know how important it was for the community or the minorities."
But that doesn't mean she's unaware. The star is vocal about her feminism in a way that's particularly refreshing, sticking up for the voices that the movement can unfortunately tend to discount.
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"Being a feminist is such a great thing and some people feel like someone like me can’t be as great as that," she said. "But then some people are smart but they don’t have no common sense. They think feminism is great and only a woman that can speak properly, that has a degree, who is a boss, a businessperson… they think only Michelle Obama can be a feminist."
But for Cardi B, and hopefully everyone else, feminism doesn't come with restrictions regarding class, race, or anything other than the desire for equality.
"But being a feminist is real simple; it’s that a woman can do things the same as a man," she explained. "Anything a man can do, I can do. I can finesse, I can hustle. We have the same freedom. I was top of the charts. I’m a woman and I did that. I do feel equal to a man."
While this success goes hand in hand with her fame, the singer has admitted before that she prefers life before the spotlight.
"One negative thing is that, even though I’m happy, I feel like I was a little bit happier two or three years ago when I had less money," she said when she appeared on the cover of CR Fashion Book. "I had less people who had opinions about my life. I felt like my life was mine. Now I feel like I don’t even own my life. I feel like the world owns me."
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But if there's one thing we've learned, it's that nobody owns Cardi B.
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