Titled "The Radical Issue," i-D magazine's Spring 2018 issue is guest edited by fashion critic Charlie Porterand and celebrates the fascinating faces - old and young, familiar and new, and all visionary - who are at the frontlines of changing the culture for the better. Crossing art, music, fashion and film, the new issue features the "Bodak Yellow" interpreter Cardi B as the latest cover star that, according to the publication, celebrates the visionaries changing the culture from the inside out.
The Latina Bronx rapper discussed with the magazine the importance of feminism, what she wanted to be when she was a child, and her first lap dance. Cardi said she had no idea no women since 1998 was number one, referring to her success with her single. “I didn’t even know that no woman has done that since 1998. I didn’t know how important it was for the community or the minorities.”
“Being a feminist is real simple; it’s that a woman can do things the same as a man. I can finesse. I can hustle. We have the same freedom. I was in top of the charts. I’m a woman and I did that,” she said to interviewer Hattie Collins.
“Of course the success of people like me scares people, that’s why they belittle us,” she continued. “If you’re a little scrawny man raised in a trailer in Alabama somewhere, of course, you’re scared right now. That’s why they own guns! They’re scared of the intelligence of the minority. They scared of that sh*t. We have broken these rules a lot of times.”
“In America,” Cardi went on, “I always look at the charts. Hip-hop is always there. We are controlling the music industry. We control the fashion world. I don’t give a f*ck if the fashion comes from a runway or if a Caucasian woman is walking it, once a colored person wears something, that’s when everybody wants to wear it. We always influence.”
“When you see the Olympics, who always wins? Colored folks. We win everything. We are a big influence and people want to take that sh*t away. People like Donald Trump, they’re always going to make us feel like we’re less. But it’s okay because a b*tch like me knows the truth. It don’t matter if the government and the Republicans try to make us feel like we’re not, 'cause we is. I know the truth. That we run the sh*t! We influence. We run everything.”
Believe it or not, Cardi wanted to be a teacher, but she changed her mind after learning what teachers get paid. “I thought I could be a history teacher one day, but what turned me off was when they told me what you get paid. I didn’t like that,” she said. “And you know what else? A teacher also told me my English is not that good. She told me, ‘You need to speak a certain way.’”
“They said the same when I got famous. But I feel like I speak English properly,” she continues. “I know what’s going on. I understand what’s happening on CNN. A lot of people don’t understand, but I understand.”
The Trinidadian-Dominican-American rapper also shared some glimpses into her life as a stripper. “The first time I stripped I was really embarrassed,” Cardi says. “I felt like I could hear my parents in the back of my mind. When I gave my first lap-dance all the girls were looking at me to see if I was doing something wrong 'cause I ain’t know how to do a lap-dance. But I felt so disgusted. They can’t touch you in your private parts and they’re not supposed to touch you at all, but sometimes a man would caress me on my arm and I would hear them breathe so heavy in my ear. It just disgusted me.”
“After a while, I didn’t even care anymore. I was seeing money that I feel like I would’ve never seen ever. At first, I started off making $200 or $300, sometimes not making money at all because you’ve gotta pay your house fee and my house fees were very expensive. But after I got good at it there was nights where I would leave with $2,000 or $3,000. When I was 21 I had $20,000 saved up. When I was 22 I already had $35,000 saved — in singles,” she revealed.
To read the full interview visit here.
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