Cardi B is in full album mode as she sits down for a one-on-one with Hollywood Unlocked’s Jason Lee about everything from music, her album to her decision to have plastic surgery to being here for her husband Offset as he works through the tragic loss of his cousin and Migos band member Takeoff who was killed on November 1.
While speaking to Lee on his podcast debut on Spotify, the rapper began by explaining that she was an introvert before segueing into her plastic surgery interactions.
On deciding to do surgery
“I’m popping out a little more because the thing about it is I didn’t want to pop out after I had my son because I told you like I wanted to get my body done first and it’s like you know a lot of people thought that when I gave birth I automatically went to get surgery, no. I literally waited like seven months to do surgery,” the rapper said.
Cardi B is often criticized for her extreme plastic surgeries that include a nose job and several rounds of BBL to make her hips and butt snatched. The artist revealed her cosmetic surgeries are nothing more than a desire to be perfect for herself.
“People be assuming that when you do surgery or something you’re insecure about yourself or you hate yourself. That’s not the truth. I just be feeling like if I want to correct something… I’m gonna do it. I like being perfect. I like a certain type of body for myself. Man, if I want to do it, I do it,” she said as she explained that she didn’t like the “big nose,” she got from her father’s side of the family and decided to get a nose job.
The rapper, who previously denied that she had a nose job, finally admitted that she had work done on her nose but said she was telling her fans to warn them. According to her, she had fillers placed in her nose in 2019, but it “f**ked my nose up” because she was misled by Instagram videos. The artist gets candid as she shares that her nose looked longer and she had to get a rhinoplasty to fix her nose shortly after she dropped “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion.
Well, as for Cardi’s surgeon, she revealed that the surgeons are from a list of people that Kim Kardashian had given her a couple of years ago.
Cardi B talks the losses, aka Ls, she had been taking recently – life, love, lawsuits and loss.
Cardi first started talking about her entry into mainstream hip hop before her breakthrough with the track “Bodak Yellow.” The rapper said it took her two years of constant rejection before finding the right people to support her music career, including her stint on Love and Hip Hop, which though it brought her attention; it was hard to get out musically.
“There was a couple of times I went to labels and they was like we will sign you for $50,000, we will sign you for $30,000, I’m like oh my goodness my f**king Love & Hip Hop check is more than that, I’m making that almost like in a week or so, I feel like I’m getting robbed…when you don’t pop off because of a hot song, I had to literally prove myself,” she said.
Cardi B said she eventually spent a lot of money to promote herself and even paid other artists to open for her tour.
“A lot of artists didn’t want to give me a feature. Now it’s easier for female rappers to get features. They didn’t even believe in me like that,” she said.
The rapper also called out fans for how they treat female artists by discrediting their achievements.
While not directly addressing the ongoing feud between her fan base and Nicki Minaj’s fan base, the rapper says her focus was never a competition with others but rather a desire to “make it.”
“I don’t know why I get so much hate. I don’t know if I get a lot of hate is because I respond to it…. I’m very sensitive I’m not gonna front… I’m a little crazy crazy,” she said.
Cardi speaks about being “normal” and managing her home with the grocery bill
Meanwhile, Cardi also dished on being a house manager as she shared that she became concerned at increased household budgets for food and groceries, noting that she pops up at Target and the supermarket to see prices for herself. The rapper recently shared that she was shocked at the price of lettuce and noted that grocery prices had tripled.
The “UP” rapper also cleared up rumors that she pays Hollywood Unlocked to promote her, and she also addressed her past issues with the Shade Room, which she had demanded stop posting her. It was only last year the blog seemed to have made peace with Cardi.
“The deep problem I had with the Shade Room and this happened around 2017/2018, they were posting me too much… and every single time, people were saying like ‘oh, payola payola, payola I know you paying the Shade Room so they could keep you up there’ and that started to make me go crazy,” Cardi said noting that that the blog continued to post her because she was popular but at the time she “wasn’t evolved mentally as a star” and became angry at them since most of the posts drew negative feedback.
Cardi addresses speculation of rift with Megan Thee Stallion
Cardi B also cleared up the rumors about how she and Megan Thee Stallion linked up for “Wap.” At the 34 minutes mark, Cardi revealed that Jason had been the one to introduce Cardi and Megan, but despite his pressuring them to work, the rappers took their time and finally settled on “Wap” months later.
Her unplanned pregnancy, marriage to Offset and her 2020 divorce petition
Cardi also touched on her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, noting that she didn’t get to enjoy the release of the project as she became pregnant with her daughter Kulture which brought its own fear and worries.
“When I put out my album, I was pregnant so I had to sit down for a minute. And I was a little bit nervous and I was like ‘damn, is my career gonna be over?’ and luckily for my album it didn’t, after I gave birth I did so many shows so I don’t know,” the Bronx rapper shared.
Cardi B’s husband, Offset, also came up in the conversation, where she touched on the rough times of their relationship, including cheating scandals and Cardi B filing for divorce in 2020.
The rapper explained that throughout her pregnancies, her relationship with her husband was far from perfect. When she learned that she was pregnant, she and Offset were not on good terms, and she was scared to even let her label and her team knows that she was expecting.
“I just had this feeling that everything was going to be ok…it wasn’t planned to have a baby. It just happened at the height of my career,” the rapper shared.
Cardi B also confirmed that her baby boy Wave came along also unexpectedly, like his big sister.
“Me and Offset we were not seeing eye-to-eye. This is the same year that I filed for divorce and everything. The main thing that was really bothering me, the main thing that I wanted him to stop and everything, he stopped. And he changed and showed me that he wanted to change for me,” Cardi B said. “It was a lot, we started getting better and better and we started f**king and then boom I’m pregnant,” she added.
“You could see when somebody is trying. We got married so young and so spontaneously. And we did know each other but we kinda didn’t know each other we just was in love with each other and was in a toxic relationship. We got married six months after knowing each other and in that six months, we’d see each other 2-3 times a month. During our marriage and by time passing, we grew with each other. We did a little therapy,” she responded when asked.
Cardi speaks on motivation to sue blogger Tasha K
Cardi B also addressed her recent lawsuit against a YouTube blogger in which she won a $4 million judgement after disparaging and damaging remarks about her daughter, her sexual health, and her relationship with her husband.
The rapper shared that she has no qualms defending herself, “I curse out everybody,” she said as she ratted the people/ organizations she told her for coming for her and her family.
“You have a daughter and every other mom you kissing your daughter and everything and people are saying like “don’t kiss Kulture on the lip because you have herpes blah blah blah, that sh*t was insane,” Cardi B recalled.
“To make serious accusations, this was the last straw for me when this person said that my dad raped a teenager like now it’s like you not messing with me, you messing with somebody that’s deeply dearly in my heart and you messing with my family and then you start messing with my friends. They said disgusting things about you,” Cardi said while Jason chimed in that the blogger said he was HIV positive and was a drug user and a pedophile. Cardi B also said the blogger shared another rumor that her mother was involved sexually with her own cousin.
Cardi also said that she had contemplated suing YouTube as the platform offered no remedy to her since the videos disparaging her were shared there.
“I have been broke, I have been heartbroken, I have been through a lot of tribulations in life, I have never felt so down in my life, I just felt like my life was great and no matter what vacation I went to, no matter what good news no matter everything was so dark, I was so depressed. I couldn’t escape my mind, I couldn’t have sex, I distanced myself from everybody,” the rapper said for the first time since the Tasha K lawsuit.
“I feel like this person’s goal was for me to kill myself like to end myself. Like the type of things they were doing, I feel like that was the goal,” Cardi B says as she tells the blogger to seek help or seek God.
Cardi addresses rumour that Saweetie slept with her husband Offset
Meanwhile, Cardi was asked about the nasty rumor that Saweetie had slept with Offset, which some folks say is the reason she and Quavo ended up breaking up.
Cardi B chimed in on Quavo’s song “Messy,” which references
“I was quiet because one thing Imma, I’m gonna find out the truth….so it’s like if I entertain something that I know is not true on the internet. People be like ‘oh it is true because you are addressing it’ but when I don’t address it, it’s true as well. So I’m like you know what, I’m not going to entertain the bullsh*t because if I entertain it’s going longer and longer and at the end of the day I know what’s going on in my house,” the rapper said.
Dealing with Takeoff’s death
The rapper also revealed the moment she and her husband learned about Takeoff’s death. The rapper was shot and killed on November 1 in Houston during a dice game.
“We Was was in bed,” Cardi began. “We was supposed to go to La La’s party in New York, and my daughter threw up all over my costume… so me and Offset, we just fell asleep, and out of nowhere, like Offset’s phone kept ringing, my phone kept ringing.”
She recalled, “Offset picked up the phone and he’s like screaming ‘No! no no no and I’m like what’s going on and he’s like ‘Takeoff is dead’.”
Cardi said she was in disbelief and slapped Offset and told him not to say things like that.
“Then he’s like screaming, throwing things, throwing up, running all over. I was so scared. I was crying. It was terrible,” she revealed.
“It was such a sensitive time in my home. Everything was like so triggering. Any little bad thing was so triggering,” the rapper revealed.
