After suffering sitting through five hours of Grammys coverage on Sunday night, I swore I wouldn’t devote any more mental energy to them, but here we are. The fallout surrounding the Grammys and the hip-hop community is continuing in a really unfortunate way. Cardi B’s win for Best Rap Album was historic, as she’s the first solo woman ever to win that category. But wherever you can find a woman making history, you can always find a bunch of butt-hurt dudes trying to tear her down. Cardi B deleted her Instagram last night because clearly the haters got to her.
In the past couple of years, celebrities have gotten quicker and quicker to deactivate their social media accounts at the drop of a hat, whether it’s to generate buzz or to get away from things for a bit. On Monday, Cardi B became the latest celeb to leave Instagram, but not before posting a video that made it pretty clear why she was unhappy. Luckily, someone recorded it before it got taken down. Thank god for that iOS update that made screen records, it has truly saved lives.
Cardi B reveals that she does not support BET’s aim at Nicki Minaj and defends herself from haters discrediting her #GRAMMYs win. pic.twitter.com/ZA1nKoiuUO
— Music News Facts (@musicnewsfact) February 11, 2019
In the beginning of the video, Cardi says, “It’s not my style for people to put other people down to uplift somebody else.” She doesn’t say so explicitly, but she’s most likely referencing the BET/Nicki Minaj drama that happened on Monday. In case you missed it, BET posted an article about fans coming for Cardi, with a completely unnecessary caption about Nicki Minaj being dragged by her wig. It was rude, it was uncalled for, and it didn’t even make any sense. In response, Nicki canceled her performance at the upcoming BET Experience Festival, and I really can’t blame her. And even though Nicki and Cardi B have had their issues in the past, I’m glad Cardi called out BET for what they did.
In the second part of the video, Cardi B talks about the hate she’s gotten since winning the Grammy on Sunday night. She points out that last year, when she didn’t win a Grammy, people said she was robbed, but now they’re complaining that she won. Much like the decision of whether to respond to a “u up?” text, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It was pretty inevitable that Cardi B would get hate from internet trolls no matter what, but it’s unfortunate nonetheless. It’s almost like women are constantly being fed mixed messages and double standards and being set up to fail?!? Larger implications about society’s misogyny aside, Cardi B had one of the biggest years of anyone in music, so it’s dumb to act like her win wasn’t well-deserved.
Cardi B: IN EVERY CHART THERE WAS, MY ALBUM WAS ALWAYS TOP TEN.
Me:
She also calls out haters who thought her career would be over after she got pregnant, and she says that sometimes she didn’t get to sleep in her own bed for days because she was working so hard on the album. She also says that some songs couldn’t even be completed for the album because she was sick while pregnant. Basically, Cardi worked hard as f*ck, and she’s done with people saying it’s not enough. And, I know nobody asked, but so am I. Criticize Cardi B’s music all you want, like it or don’t, I don’t care, but you literally cannot say with any credibility that she doesn’t have a strong work ethic.
I’m really hoping Cardi B is just taking a short break from Instagram, because her content is one of the few good things in this world right now. From her rants about Nicki Minaj to her rants about the government shutdown, it’s all pure gold. Who else is going to distract me from all the fitness influencers that I hate follow? The prospects are bleak. It’s important to note that Cardi B has done this before, so chances are she’ll be back before long. Until then, I’ll be listening to “Money” for the 10 millionth time.
Images: Getty Images; @musicnewsfact / Twitter; @BET / Twitter
