Cardi B is 31 years old, she’ll be 32 in October (Libra). I always have to remind myself that Cardi was pretty young when her life changed dramatically over the course of about a year and a half. She was 24-25 when she had a hugely successful debut album, married Offset, got pregnant, had her first baby, canceled a tour, and became a national and international star. More music and a second child followed, as did more stardom. Other things followed that: the marriage is touch-and-go, with a series of high-profile breakups and makeups; the Bardi Gang is getting restless waiting for a new album; a 31-year-old mother of two is basically frozen because of her own perfectionism and chaotic family life. That’s what this Rolling Stone cover story is about – a profile of an artist who certainly seems burned out and in need of a year off from everything. Of course, the biggest headline is not about Cardi’s on-again thing with Offset or even her upcoming album. It’s that she’s not going to vote or be active in this year’s election cycle. Some highlights from RS:
Trying to finish the album in LA: “Being out here is my punishment. Until I have the album ready, I’m not going home. When I come to L.A., I be like, ‘I’m ready to get sh-t done.’ Then, eight days in, my mind starts missing home, feeling lonely, and then I be like, ‘Girl … ’ I miss my kids.”
She spends too much time on social media: “Like yesterday, I was scrolling through TikTok and a bitch made me cry. She was just like, ‘She has got to give it up. She’s better off being an influencer. You was cosplaying being a rapper. Because you don’t take it seriously. That’s why you don’t put out your music.’ And it’s like, I take my music so f–king seriously that that’s why I don’t put it out. Because if it’s not perfect to my ear, if every f–king word doesn’t sound like it’s pronounced right, if the beat is overpowering the words or the words is overpowering the beat, I don’t want to put it out. When you give so much and somebody just drags it down, like you’re just playing with your p–sy all day, just watching Netflix all f–king day long, it’s very hurtful.”
Giving birth to Kulture at 25: “Then, it’s like, ‘Damn, you sent me a baby at 25, the age that I always want to have a kid.’ Then I took a gender test and it was a girl. I always wanted a girl.” Though she was “always afraid to have boys,” she conquered that fear with Wave. “It’s like it’s meant to be. The stars align. My kids are the best decisions I ever made.”
She’s back with Offset: In February, she went on a Valentine’s Day date with him and was caught trying to hide makeup smudged from making out. The next month, she’d clarify that despite the breakup, she was still married. She doesn’t include Offset when she lists the people who live with her, but later tells me, “When Offset comes around, he comes around, so he’s a helping hand, too.” In recent weeks, the couple attended a Knicks game and a Met Gala afterparty together. For Mother’s Day, Offset gifted Cardi three diamond chains and covered her mansion in flowers.
What she’s decided to do about her marriage. “I think it through. We think it through, because we do love each other. It’s not even about love. We’re best friends. And it’s like, ‘OK. Well, there was a time that I didn’t have a best friend, or I didn’t have a support system.’ It’s not even about ‘How do you leave a partner?’ How do you stop talking to your best friend?”
She’s not voting this year: By March, she had told L.A. radio host Big Boy she wouldn’t even vote in the upcoming presidential election. She tells me she means it. “I don’t f–k with both of y’all niggas,” she says of Biden and Trump. Before, she had seen Trump as a dire threat, but under Biden, she’s felt “layers and layers of disappointment” from what she sees as domestic and foreign mismanagement. The cost of living is too high, wages are too low, and too little is being done about it, she says. “I feel like people got betrayed. It’s just like, damn, y’all not caring about nobody. Then, it really gets me upset that there is solutions to it. There is a solution. I know there’s a solution because you’re spending billions of dollars on any f–king thing.”
I don’t think Cardi is stupid and I know she loves American history and she knows a lot about American presidents. But god, this is so stupid. This reminds me of her idiotic rant about Biden last fall, when she took issue with budget cuts in NYC public schools and libraries, issues which President Biden does not control. This is happening among too many people screaming “F–k Biden” over every little thing – “F–k Biden, I broke a nail” or “F–k Biden, the Supreme Court sucks.” Open the schools. Anyone who is like “yeah, Donald Trump will end American democracy as we know it, but Joe Biden raised the price of eggs” is not serious. Besides that, if you tell me that you’re not voting, I don’t really give a f–k what you have to say about any f–king thing politically after that. You’re too stupid or lazy or or entitled or online to do the bare minimum of civil responsibility, why should I care what you think? Why should anyone?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid. Cover courtesy of Rolling Stone.
- West Hollywood, CA – Cardi B and Offset make a stylish entrance at his “Set It Off” album release party at Poppy in West Hollywood, turning heads with their fashion-forward looks. Pictured: Cardi B, Offset BACKGRID USA 13 OCTOBER 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- West Hollywood, CA – Cardi B and Offset make a stylish entrance at his “Set It Off” album release party at Poppy in West Hollywood, turning heads with their fashion-forward looks. Pictured: Cardi B, Offset BACKGRID USA 13 OCTOBER 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- New York, NY – Rapper Cardi B keeps it sexy in a red satin gown as she is seen attending a 2024 Met Gala after party in New York. Pictured: Cardi B BACKGRID USA 6 MAY 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- New York, NY – Rapper Cardi B keeps it sexy in a red satin gown as she is seen attending a 2024 Met Gala after party in New York. Pictured: Cardi B BACKGRID USA 6 MAY 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
This is sad.. she may never get a chance to vote after this election.
Biden does not even seem like is trying to win this election. No debates and gaslighting about the economy. People are out here struggling and he gets on TV and talks about how great things are going. Unemployment is not down they just adjusted who could claim it .
It’s like the Dems whole strategy is just Trump bad
Enjoy dictatorship, caitie
You are misinformed. There are numerous attempts to break through. Are you even trying to review? He’s been on several podcasts and alternative media, and trying tout his economic message. His surrogate operation is trash, but I don’t see how he’s saying that everything is great. I personally benefitted from his policies, but he’s is and has been adjusting his message.
Biden has agreed to debates and so has Trump( with some ridiculous asks to likely get out of showing up)there has been numerous articles about it in the past week. Also the global economy is experiencing inflation and the US numbers are at the bottom mainly because of actions taken by the Fed. If you’re upset about food prices (as you should be) that’s not about the government that’s companies who are experiencing record profits doing things like surge pricing to gas their gains more. The current government is trying to put rules in place to prevent that, three guesses what a Trump administration would do. As for unemployment they have limited the amount of people they count as seeking work after an extended period, which is reasonable? If you haven’t had any job in four years there’s more a play than you just not being able to find any work
Dear Cait:
I don’t know where you are getting your “news” or what you are using to make your observations but here’s the thing: TRUMP IS BAD.
She has money and resources so she believes that she will be ok. Maybe she’ll be ok for awhile until it really gets going.
Such a role model…
A lot of people are struggling with the idea of voting for Biden in November. Specifically younger voters. And Biden hasn’t done anything to persuade them otherwise at this point. And using Trump as the only reason to vote for him isn’t working with a lot of people either. They are looking at what Biden has done – specifically in the last six months and they are giving a hard pass. I have friends who are life long Dems who are talking about how they feel torn. This is is his election to lose tbh.
I think those people are misinformed about a lot of things. Fortunately there are still a lot of people on board with Biden.
I agree. Everything is on the line and people are playing with their lives. One of the reasons some are not happy with Joe Biden is because folks didn’t show up for the mid-terms in 2010. That gave that ushered in the Tea Pary (now Maga) movement room to ooze in that deviant McConnell the power to prevent PBO’s choices for the supreme court. Then of course the barely literate game show host.
She’s selfish and refuses to educate herself about what is at stake.
Exactly, I think he’s gotten a lot done low key and I don’t know why people assume that he controls the prices people set in their business because they’re consumed with making HUGE profits. I will vote for him because the alternative will be our destruction. Cardi B wants to be Susan Sarandon, whatever.
How do they get past the fact that with Trump again probably more freedoms will be lost? Except, of course, gun ownership.
I have NO FAITH in a country so addicted to self-entitled narcissistic behavior that they WILL play the knife AND the wound & lead the WHOLE ASS COUNTRY to fascist 🔥🔥🔥 and to NOT acknowledge the TRUTH about Democratic Administrations…WE STILL DON’T HAVE MORE POWER THAN WHITE SUPREMACY…PERIOD! 🤬 That’s a FACT/REASON/EXAMPLE…while WHOLLY IGNORING THE LIFE CHANGING GOOD the Dems do😕 Y’all NEVA LET THE DEMS BE GREAT…which is the ONLY edge the GOP😠 has over the Dems…UNITED THOSE 😈 STAND! But I DO know…we get 2 more Dem POTUS & Dems hold House…we’ll DECIMATE the rot in #SCOTUS & get more HUMANE/INTELLIGENT Judges in the Fed Districts….We have been moving that way…nationwide since 2018…All WE the people 🇺🇸 gotta do…is what we’ve BEEN doing! #VoteBlueToSaveYourself 💙
I get that. But I also don’t understand how anyone that is politically inclined can read the published project 25 and think that the choices between two people you don’t like, versus someone that literally wants to take all of your freedoms and someone that may not be doing what you like and in highly complex foreign policy situation. Like do they think that what’s going on in the Middle East will get better with Trump and Republicans in office? Do they think that us tamping down inflation which is literally double and triple in other G20 countries will get better with the man that doesn’t want to have any regulations for business? Do they think that the man that wants to eliminate any language that protects people on the basis of race, color, and sex from federal laws is going to make things better? I just don’t understand it. This isn’t Romney versus Obama or Bush versus Kerry. These people are telling you what they plan to do unfettered and I think people really don’t think they will just like Hillary told us 2016, and now it’s hand wringing.
@kaiser Agreed.
The thing is government and governing is complicated. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that Presidents don’t have the kind of power I thought they did. Everything is a compromise. In no administration will we get or ever get everything we may personally want. Personally Biden has exceeded my expectations. As for what’s been going on in the last 6 months I get it but I’ve seen how foreign policy is really complicated and very difficult at the best of times.
Cardi will be fine. The millons who follow her in Instagram and defend her every mood will be the ones who suffer the most. I wish that I didn’t feel like people had to lose their most basic freedoms to understand the importance of voting. I feel like too many people view politics and politicians like it’s American Idol or something. I have never seen a candidate that I have 100% agreed with or supported in everything, but I understand that getting 70% of what I want is better than zero. The thing that really irritates me about celebrities though is that they will be back on social media complaining and asking the same people who told them they stakes of not voting before what they are going to do to fix the inevitable problems that occured. Just like they did/are doing for Roe.
@Dee – 💯 People like Cardi (and Biden for that matter) will be just fine if Trump is reelected but the vast majority of Americans will not be fine. It’s shocking how many people are willing to risk the end of Democracy as we know it because Biden isn’t perfect.
As for Cardi’s music, she released one massively successful debut album six years ago and has only had a few guest appearances on other artists’ albums since then. It was recently reported that she has pushed the release of her second album back again. It’s completely understandable given everything that has happened in her personal life and in the world in the past six years, but a part of me wonders if her comments about the election were meant to distract from the pressure she is feeling to deliver a successful follow-up album. I hope I’m wrong about that…
That’s what I keep saying. Joe Biden will be fine if he loses in November. He achieved something that he waited his entire political career to achieve, he will retire to Delaware and live out his days with his grandchildren children and his wife and be happy. Just like the people who thought that they were proving a point by not voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016, do you think she has struggled to pay heightened property taxes, buy groceries that are more expensive, spend more on gas for her cars? No she’s been doing the speaking circuit, has a popular podcast, and lives in upstate New York chilling. People need to be concerned about how they are going to survive in the US. It’s a privilege to be worried about people elsewhere as if this country is not as my mom would put it one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel.
Cardi is like so many of these celebrities who think their money and resources will insulate them. Her children will never starve, never have to worry about access to education or housing. If she wanted to up and live in another country she has the means to do that. Meanwhile we are the ones who will suffer and deal with the extreme policies of that orange monster is elected. You don’t want to vote, fine. I don’t want to hear sh@t from you. You don’t get to lecture anyone about anything. My father didn’t get beaten and jailed by the police just for me to not exercise a right that so many fought and died for. If I liked everyone I voted I would never vote. I wasn’t excited about HRC but I knew the alternative was even scarier.
ITA, @ Bluesky. It’s voting, not dating.
I can understand how people find US support of what’s being done in Gaza to be a dealbreaker. I’m furious about it, too. But we can’t help the survivors in Gaza by letting Trump win. I will be voting from abroad. I don’t love Biden, and I hate that he has us over a barrel, but I have to vote.
Not sensical. Someone is going to be president. Vote third part or an off party. Many, many people died or were jailed, during war or otherwise, so she can have this privilege.
This is so dumb on her part. What she doesn’t take into account is that it maybe the last time she will be able to vote. She needs to vote to keep our democracy and not what the orange one wants which is to be like Russia.
I’m really bothered by people who choose not to vote. As someone who had to earn the right to vote, I don’t understand how anyone can be so dismissive about voting. The stakes are just too high – the long haul of Republican activism (impacting all levels the federal courts) and the state of education. I feel like if you don’t vote you should not complain about the state of the country.
The ol’ let’s help Trump win because President Biden did not solve every problem I wanted him to fix, in exactly the manner in which I wanted him to fix it…sigh.
To be fair, not voting in NYC won’t help Trump win. But using her platform to trumpet this decision may well persuade some of her fans who are unenthused not to vote in states where it really counts.
I believe she lives in Georgia — a swing state
I simply cannot comprehend NOT being petrified of another trump presidency
Same. I sometimes wonder if it’s mass amnesia. I heard yesterday that Trump is currently polling higher than he polled through his entire presidency. So he is currently being judged on NOT being president rather than on what he was like when he was president. Go figure. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Her private life is such a hot mess re Offset that the few people who did take her seriously, don’t any longer. Now she’s saying she’s not putting out an album (really angering her fans) and announcing she won’t vote this year. She’d even previously been to the Biden White House. I never understood why people took her seriously and I hope these younger people soon stop idolizing these celebrities. She’s focusing on what Biden hasn’t done in her opinion while ignoring what he has managed to accomplish despite dealing with a Republican/Circus led Congress. Having more money doesn’t make you smarter.
There was a great poem written in the run up to the 2020 election. The last line echoes through my mind frequently, and so I keep moving forward.
VOTING AS FIRE EXTINGUISHER by Kyle Tran Myhre
When the haunted house catches fire: a moment of indecision.
The house was, after all, built on bones, and blood, and bad intentions.
Everyone who enters the house feels that overwhelming dread, the evil that perhaps only fire can purge.
It’s tempting to just let it burn.
And then I remember that there are children inside.
https://guante.info/2020/10/14/trickortreat/
The whole thing is longer and very worth reading. Voting alone isn’t enough. But it’s essential. Because there are children inside.
I haven’t seen that poem before! Thank you so much for sharing it, @Rnot.
“she’s felt “layers and layers of disappointment” and “It’s just like, damn, y’all not caring about nobody.”
How does she think she’s going to feel if tRump gets elected?? I honestly don’t understand not voting in this election or feeling torn about voting for Biden. Voting, and voting for Biden, will literally be the difference between having a democracy or fascism in the US once the election is over. How is that a hard decision?
You can personally opt out of voting, but *SOMEONE* is going to be president. (At this point, baring death, it’ll be one of these two people.) That’s how it works.
You can either engage with the process and have some influence, or you get whatever is decided for you by other people.
Cardi, her kids, her finances, ALL will be fine. Her financials are covered nicely by *both* parties, just more vocally and aggressively by the MAGAts.
Girl needs to educate herself on the Party Lines. If she doesn’t care what’ll happen for her, let her take a GOOD LOOK and see what’s in store for her kids, especially her daughter in MAGAtLAND.
Cardi, GROW THE FVCK UP, GET YOUR HANDS & HEAD OUT OF YOUR PU$$Y, AND WORK ON INFLUENCING YOUR FOLLOWERS TO EDUCATED THEMSELVES AS TO WHAT CAN AND WILL HAPPEN TO AMERICA, TO DEMOCRACY, IF THERE IS A RED/MAGA WIN DOWN THE LINE OF UPCOMING BALLOTS BETWEEN NOW AND NOVEMBER. #VOTE DEM DOWN THE LINE
In most countries in Europe, there’s this idea that you can abstain from voting. The more I see how voting works in the States, the more I wish, instead of deciding not to vote, people would partake in the civic action of voting, even if it is to abstain so that they can vocalise their discontent with the established choices.
I used to think that it was wrong of people to not vote if they did not see a candidate they truly supported. And I still feel salty now…but no one should be forced to vote for a candidate under duress. If she’s not happy with either candidate, she shouldn’t have to vote for one. There should have been a better option for her, and there should have been a better system in place to allow that.
And because our politicians still haven’t recognized this and would rather dally in identity politics and abortion wars, I think some people are tired. They are tired we are not out of this hole and they are ready to give in. What were we saying about abusive relationships recently? I think it applies perfectly here.
Some of us have left the relationship (I live abroad where I’m not scared about healthcare, mass gun violence, and my abortion rights…and don’t feel as much racism as I did in the States…but I still vote and donate). And some of you have stayed and are hoping that the other side of the relationship will change…I hope so too for all of our sakes, but I’m just not seeing it. I won’t fault anyone for trying, but I am not going to fault those like Cardi who are sick of trying.
I will fault those who are not politically active at all.
I truly hope we do not have another Trump, but I won’t pretend like America is on my side either. It rarely has been.
The absolute privilege that oozes from your post is astounding. Just straight up say you had the wealth, education, and opportunity to emigrate and you’re happy to spectate while the less privileged fight for basic rights.
The gall of you to sit on your high horse and say “things should be this way” instead of working to make it so, expecting a cookie because you voted when you actually did the bare minimum when it came to civic responsibility.
Yeah, I’m enraged.
You’re tired? Enjoy your privilege.
But, but, but Biden didn’t do anything for us. Yeah, it’s not like he’s trying to rectify the usurious student loan system by forgiving them for a whole lot of people.
And it’s not like she’s NOT reaping the benefits of a Biden administration given the exploding stock market which i’m sure helps her investments.
So she and all her syncophants can sit out this election, but don’t be surprised when 1. you’re expected to sit on the back of the bus 2. you know longer have the right to vote and 3. a Rosewood or Tulsa like situation happens and your wealth is confiscated by the Magats.
Cardi has the luxury of her wealth to not care who is in the White House. The rest of us don’t. Cardi can pick up and move to another country if things go sideways. Cardi can do whatever she wants but talking loud about her choice to not vote is irresponsible. She could have kept it to herself, instead she’s spouting her nonsense to people who’ll think they have the same options as her.
People who don’t vote because they don’t love either candidate just seem so f*cking young to me. Yes, it’s true, the candidate who won’t end American democracy is disappointing and flawed! Welcome to adulthood.
I don’t love LOVE Biden for a few reasons. But I would crawl naked for a mile in broken glass and lemon juice just to vote for him. And I’m an expat. Sorry, Not Trump will always be a good enough reason. I’m appalled that this is even a close election. Unfortunately I am registered in a notoriously blue state so my feeble vote doesn’t matter but I will still do it on principle.
Even in notoriously blue states, Republicans are doing their damndest to strip people of the right to vote. They have brought over 60 lawsuits trying to eliminate mail-in voting, alleging conspiracies about voter fraud and false ballots.
Your vote counts. It fights their false narrative that election machines are rigged, that there are millions of Democrats out there double-voting, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Your vote will help prevent another January 6, so don’t say your voice is feeble.
@moirasrosesgarden 🎯🎯🎯
She can be as ignorant as she wants. The real offensive thing she is doing is using her very large platform to convince others to do the same–just don’t vote. I don’t have any love for Biden. I have never been a fan, but he is not responsible for any bad things that happen. And even if he has solutions, he can’t just wave a magic wand and make them happen. I know one thing about Biden–he is not a threat to democracy and my freedom. Trump is telling me with his whole chest that he will destroy the imperfect system we have and replace it with one that suits him and his needs. This choice isn’t hard. If you think it is or isn’t much of a choice, you have not been paying attention. Cardi B has not been paying attention. Obviously.