With her recent rise to fame, Belcalis Almazar — better known as Cardi B — has established herself as one of the top contenders in the world of rap today. However, the 25-year-old wasn’t always a success story; before she was cashing in checks from her vocals, she was making money as a stripper.
As with many young artists, social media played an important role in her success; she began as an Internet celebrity through Instagram. With her funny, vulgar and honest videos and posts, Almazar soon had people wanting more of her personality. Her following on social media led to her becoming a regular cast member on VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop: New York” from 2015 to 2017.
After her run on the show, she signed a deal with Atlantic Records. Following the release of her first single and smash hit “Bodak Yellow,” Cardi B shot to the top of the charts and made it known she is so much more than a “regular degular schmegular girl” from the Bronx.
With her first album, “Invasion of Privacy,” she squashed all rumors of her being only a one-hit wonder. Far from fading into obscurity after “Bodak Yellow,” “Invasion of Privacy” has her sitting pretty at the top of the chart. Even more impressively, she managed to break multiple records with “Bodak Yellow” and “Invasion of Privacy” — and it’s only the beginning of her career.
Three Songs in the Top 10
Cardi B has become only the third artist, behind Ashanti and The Beatles, to have three songs in the Top 10 all at one time. These three songs are G-Eazy’s “No Limit” and Migos‘s “Motorsport,” along with her own “Bodak Yellow.”
She was featured in a few verses of G-Eazy’s and Migos’ songs, and was the mastermind behind “Bodak Yellow.” In doing this, the young artist proves that she is capable of creating hits no matter how she is involved with the piece.
Breaking Taylor Swift’s Apple Music Streaming Record
This isn’t even the fist time the Bronx native has beaten Taylor Swift. Cardi B scored her first U.S. number one hit, “Bodak Yellow” in 2017, before the pop-country singer scored hers.
And now, Cardi has broken Swift’s Apple Music streaming record for most-streamed album by a female artist in its first week. “Invasion of Privacy” has been streamed 100 million times worldwide in the week following its release — that’s more than double the record Swift had previously set.
With this record, it is no secret how big she has become. In less than a year with the label, she put out her debut single and was surpassing Taylor Swift, who has been in the music industry for years. She has a big enough fanbase to pull in these types of numbers in just the first week.
First Female Rapper to Reach the Number-One Spot
It has been almost two decades since a female rapper has been on top of the Billboard Top 100 list. However, Cardi B has managed to beat rappers like Nicki Minaj, Eve, Queen Latifa and Missy Elliott. The last woman to be at the top of this list was Lauren Hill, 17 years ago with the release of her song titled “Doo-Wop (That Thing).”
It isn’t that there haven’t been successful female rappers putting out great songs. However, possibly none of these women have had a song catch on so quickly with the public that it was enough to thrust it into the number-one spot.
Nicki Minaj, for example, had “Anaconda” sitting at number two and “Super Bass” at number three. Both were popular and catchy songs, but it just wasn’t enough to get to the number one spot like “Bodak Yellow.”
In breaking this record, Cardi is proving that women in the industry are fully capable of being at the top, and there is nothing wrong with that. She is showing everyone that the rap game isn’t a man’s world; women can thrive in the industry as well.
Although Cardi B is new to the rap scene, she is putting up numbers that surpass those of some of the game’s seasoned veterans. For example, Chance the Rapper, Kehlani, Migos, 21 Savage and SZA, all of whom have been in the industry longer than Cardi and have made their own success in the music world, can be found in features on tracks throughout Cardi’s album.
It has barely been a month since her project has been available. Only time will tell how popular it will become in the long run. From the looks of it, it seems as though her popularity will only grow, and she will continue to break records.
