Cardi B empowers women through her music
Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, known professionally as Cardi B, is a rapper, songwriter, and a reality tv star. Cardi B was born in 1992 and grew up in the heart of the Bronx. Cardi B’s rise to fame happened from her being a stripper, which gave Cardi her toughness and attitude. She first went into reality tv in 2015, and then pursued her music career in 2017. In 2017, Cardi B became a grammy award winning artist and her album went platinum (“Cardi B Biography”). She is a very inspirational person to her peers, but also to children and fans. In the song “Get Up 10,” Cardi B uses musical and lyrical artistry in order to resist male representation overpowering female representation and challenges female minorities face when following their dream. Cardi uses changes of speed and sound effects to follow her aggressive type of flow, while also using rhyme schemes and allusions, such as comparing balls and nuts to wealth but to male private parts to emphasize a male representation with a deeper meaning to the uprising of her story.
Cardi uses musical artistry in the song “Get Up 10" by making the song follow who she is. Cardi is a tough girl out of the bronx with a lot of attitude, which translates into her raps. “Get up 10” follows Meek Mill and Tee Grizzley’s style of starting slow and then slowly picking up. A quote from Genius states, “It follows the similar pattern heard and initated by Meek Mill’s ‘Dreams and nightmares’ intro and also heard in Tee Grizzley’s ‘First Day Out’ (“Cardi B — Get Up 10”). All three rappers are aggressive rappers, which is why this set up is so good for them, especially Cardi. She can get into the song way more if she has time to build up, which sends an even more meaningful and impactful message. In fact, Genius said that, “It starts subtly and musically and as the energy culminates the beat drops to spread the aggressive bang throughout the rest of the track”(“Cardi B — Get Up 10”). You can also see that Cardi does not use a feature in this song. Cardi wants to create dialogue, which is best by herself because she is telling her story. It will be most authentic coming from her only.
As we look at Cardi B’s lyrical artistry, we see that her lines are allusions or have more than one meaning to them. With this being said, “Get Up 10” contains many of these elements, plus many rhymes. Her lyrics have a deep meaning because she shares her childhood story, which makes the audience feel bad for her, but then happy for her success. This helps Cardi’s authentic story, but also shows why she should be respected as a rapper and artist. An example of her allusion is, “I’m tryna whip the foreign like a bad ass child (“Cardi B — Get Up 10”). This has a double meaning because she wants to drive nice cars while acting crazy. The second meaning is when kids would be bad, they would get whipped as a punishment. Cardi gives a couple lines about her childhood that no teen should go through. She states, “Look they gave a bitch two options: strippin or lose, used to dance in a club right across from my school”(“Cardi B — Get Up 10”). Cardi’s mom could not give her the money, so the only way she could get money was by being a stripper, so she did what she had to do. Cardi also talks about how she went from being broke to being rich. She says, “I went from rag to riches, went from WIC to lit, nigga only person in my family to see six figures” (“Cardi B — Get Up 10”). WIC stands for Women, infants, and children, which is given to low income families. Cardi uses this to draw out how she went from rag to riches but also how she is the person in her family to become successful. Cardi’s lyrics are important to her song because without the allusions, rhymes, and double meanings, it would not have that much of an impact on the fans listening.
Cardi B gives hope to women that they can overcome any challenges or obstacles are in their way. Cardi B is changing the stereotype of black, latino women and men that should have the same respect if they act like her. According to the HuffPost, “Cardi B describes herself as a “regular, degular, shmegular girl from the bronx”, and has been the poster girl for the come up for a minute now”(Miller). The fact that Cardi says this about herself gives hope to many minorities because Cardi does not want to be looked at as superior to her fans, but as someone who is normal like them. Cardi had a hard childhood and many families go through the same struggles as her. Cardi saying this shows that she is right there with you to help you get through the struggle. Another statement by Miller that stuck out was “Cardi B’s success give voice to a population of girls too often dismissed as unworthy of adoration and care”(Miller). In fact, the title of Miller’s HuffPost is “For ‘Regular, Degular, Shmegular’ Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide.” This shows that Cardi B’s music helps give purpose to girls that may not always receive the care and love they need. We all know that being black and latino can be very difficult in the United States, so the fact that her music helps girls says a lot about Cardi as an artist, but also as a person. These girls look up to Cardi, and one thing that gives them happiness is listening to her music.
As we evaluated Cardi’s lyrical and musical artistry, we see that she resists suicide, inequality of men and women, inequality of race and encourages people to not ever give up on your dreams. Cardi is an inspiration through her music and as a person. Cardi deserves to be respected in the rap game because her lyrics are powerful with allusions, rhymes, and meanings, while putting the best material of her music out. Also, she has an impact outside of the music industry, which shows she can do much for herself, but also for others.
Works Citied:
“Cardi B Biography.” Biography.com. 24 January 2018. https://www.biography.com/musician/cardi-b
“Cardi B — Get Up 10.” Genius, 6 Apr. 2018, genius.com/Cardi-b-get-up-10-lyrics.
Miller, Isis. “For ‘Regular, Degular, Shmegular’ Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 28 Sept. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/for-regular-degular-shmegular-colored-girls-who-have_b_59cd1786e4b095b7ae59d900.
