THE NEW AMERICAN DREAM: Cardi B’s Climb From Social Media to Top-Charting & Record Breaking Rapper
She don’t dance now, she makes money moves. Literally.
Former exotic dancer struggling to make ends meet, Belcalis Almanzar, or famously known as Cardi B, is smashing the charts one beat after the next. Her rags-to-riches story is a product of living life out in the open, the answer to the question of how to be famous in this digital age: social media presence. The Bronx-born MC traded her stripping residency into a social media empire before landing on reality TV, where she soaked up the spotlight as an aspiring artist, making the most of her lime light. Her rise to fame gained robust momentum because of her uncensored Instagram and Twitter presence, plenteous with profanity and sexuality. Before stardom, Cardi had become a ‘meme’-like personality on the platform, with every video and tweet a hit, buzzing with controversy in the comments section.
Cardi B’s glow-up in 2017 is undeniable. She made history with her chart-topping single “Bodak Yellow.” She’s been nominated for two Grammys. And to end the year in style, she signed a deal to curate a line of shoes and sunglasses with Steve Madden. So how did a “regular, degular, shmegular” girl from the Bronx achieve such pop culture domination? That’s right: by doing things, and telling people. Let’s start from the beginning:
Belcalis Almanzar is born in the Bronx on October 11, 1992, to a Dominican father and Trinidadian mother. Her sister’s real name, Hennessy, inspires the nickname “Cardi B”. As she explained on The Wendy Williams Show, “Everybody used to be, like, ‘Bacardi!’ to me. Then I shortened it to ‘Cardi B.’ The ‘B’ stands for whatever, depending on the day: beautiful or bully.’’
At 19, Cardi begins her career as a stripper and soon becomes a local celebrity on New York City’s club circuit. As a way of self-promotion and self-expression, Cardi takes to social media to share her thoughts on stripping, relationships, sex, etc. With her slick delivery, cocky Bronx swag, and natural sense of humour, it doesn’t take long for her to gain a mass-following. When she reaches around 500,000 followers on Instagram, one of her current managers, Shaft, extends his contract with her and even pushes her to try rapping. On her 23rd birthday–October 11, 2015–Cardi quits stripping.
After taking social media by storm, Cardi B entered the reality star scene by appearing on season 6 of VH1’s hit, Love & Hip Hop: New York. Though she only stayed for two seasons, Cardi B is known for one of the most infamous feuds in the show, with the girlfriend of fellow cast member Swift. Her one liner from the show: “a girl have beef with me, she gonna have beef with me forever” went viral, inspiring the song off her debut mixtape, ‘Foreva.’ Another one of Cardi B’s amazing tactics at utilizing her viral, spotlight opportunity to her advantage and growth as a star: by extending the relevance of her viral one liner by turning it into a hit song. Similar things have been done by younger social media stars like Danielle Bregolli, the Cash Me Outside girl and new internet viral star, the Yodelling kid, Mason Ramsey, who performed his song at the stage of Coachella this past weekend. It’s not a new strategy, but it’s definetly a golden one.
Cardi B’s rise to fame has often been described as the modern, millennial manifestation of the classic American Dream. From her career as a stripper in the Bronx, to being the first female rapper to get №1 on the US Billboard chart in 19 years, dethroning T Swift right off the top spot. It is a trajectory that moves from college drop-out, to stripper, to Instagram influencer, to reality star, to mainstream rapper with the vocal support of Missy Elliott and Nicki Minaj, and whose songs are being covered by stars like Janet Jackson. She now has over 20 million followers on Instagram, with only just releasing her first album last week, Invasion of Privacy, which has already broken Apple Music records with most streams in a week, and has been set to chart as №1 Debut on Billboard 200. Some of the most influential people in the world, from Ellen Degeneres to Oprah Winfrey, have taken their hats off to this rising star and promoted her new album across their social platforms. Cardi’s playful and star-struck reaction to which was a reply to Oprah Winfrey’s Instagram post is as cute and down-to-earth as it gets:
“I CAAAANNNNTTTTTT BELIIIEEEEEVEEEEESS IT!!!!!!!!!! — — — — OMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGG.”
Well-wishes came from other artists featured on the projected Billboard 200 №1 album as well, including Chance the Rapper, Kehlani, YG and SZA. Other posts came from legends like Diddy, T.I., 50 Cent and even Green Day. Hip-hop musicians of today showed no shortage of love including G-Eazy, Logic, Quavo, her fiancé Offset and many more.
Cardi capped off the weekend with her pregnancy reveal in an appearance as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live, adding more fuse to her social media flames. Moments after her SNL performance went live, her baby bump had been spotted and had immediately gone viral- with everybody and their mother congratulating her and Offset. A record breaking album release and pregnancy announcement, all in one week? Cardi know just from experience, how to get the crowds talking about her.
The star sure knows how to keep it all down-to-earth and humble, too. Her genuine personality and her lack of ‘celebrity etiquette’ is exactly what makes her such a star, it’s so easy to relate to her because all that she still is, is her true self. Her personal-brand has remained the exact same since she first started Instagram: she says whatever she’s thinking, clearly manages her own page, and is constantly online in one way or another. Clearly, the fame hasn't stopped this star’s realness online.
With an average of 5 posts a day and at least one livestream, Cardi is constantly engaged with her audience, and is constantly popping up on your feed and popular page. Most of her business collaborations have actually only happened because of her constant authentic engagement with her audience, telling them her honest opinions on brands. Her collaboration with Fashion Nova only came about because she would always humbly mention how much she loves the affordable brand on one of her live streams. “I like DSquared2, I like Givenchy and I like Gucci but… you know what else you gonna hear about? Fashion Nova…” she spills to Beats One Radio. “-and I’ma make that point too, because I want women who can’t afford designer to feel beautiful and fashionable too, and you wanna know somethin’? Fashion Nova is one of the only things that can really just fit my body..” Her love for the brand has brought about collaborations with not just Fashion Nova, but have inspired other affordable designers like Steve Madden to collaborate with the star as well.
Her lyrics have since been translations of her independent and unfiltered presence on social media. Her new album, Invasion of Privacy, with going gold in just the first day of its release, is all about Cardi B’s frustration with the public “constantly invading her privacy,” she tells GQ. Social media may have been the pivot to her stardom, but as Cardi confesses, it’s also been a source of anxiety in her life: “When I was doing my album these past couple of months, my privacy has been invaded the most. I feel like I give people a lot and people still want more. When it comes to my pregnancy, I had people harassing me online, stalking me. If it’s not something about me, it’s something about my man.” Even comparing herself to an “animal at the zoo”, Cardi has been handling her quick rise to fame with cold feet. She’s clearly having some mental-affects from experiencing harassment, which is just the dark side of social media that everyone, as well as celebrities, experience.
But songs like “I Do” and “Best Life” on her latest album speak against the backlash from others and they stand as anthems to always be your most unapologetic self. Her songs are all about liberation, being the best you can be and the power of independence: something that girls everywhere, can takeaway.
Her social media is her: unfiltered. Some might even say she is outrageous, but her strong sense of self is what got her exactly where she is now. With topics about men, women, sex, her former stripper life and rising fame, she has no limits, and that’s exactly what has drawn her followers in. She does things, then she tells people. That’s it. What makes Cardi B’s rise to fame so special is that she was just one of us, using an outlet we all use, to get her ahead in life. She was a regular girl, struggling to pay her bills and began to carve a path for herself all thanks to a camera, app and that charisma of hers.
The best part of it all is that, it was never an organized, tailored and well-planned social media presence, like most influencers and celebrities curate. It sort of, just happened. It’s still happening, too. Cardi is lucky enough to have hopped on the social media train early, as her hilariously intimate and authentic videos were attractive in the eyes of millennials. Since we’re so used to seeing hand-molded faces like Kylie Jenner, with almost no personality at all, it’s been refreshing turning to Cardi B and indulging in her vulgar, yet still comically relatable, videos, just spilling about her day-to-day life and struggles.
“I just feel like I influence people because I’m like — I was practically homeless. A lot of people think dancers don’t struggle. We struggle a lot,” she said.
Ultimately, what her rise says about our society is that if you’re creative, unapologetic and hardworking, social media gives you a greater chance to climb to the top. A prominent factor about who she is, is that she tells it how it is. She’s not ashamed of her past, she is humble, and is big on supporting others, unless they “beef her up”, of course, then you’re going to have beef, well, forever. That’s the kind of voice she has always projected on her Instagram videos and tweets. People pick up on that, admire the realness, and become inspired by it. Consistency counts as we’ve learnt, and that’s all that Cardi is.
If you begin to forget how powerful social media really is, think of her as an example. It’s an outlet to convey yourself in whichever way you want and turn it into your own, commodifying brand. The use of social networks isn’t just about connecting with your friends anymore, but also reaching a multitude of people that can learn and become inspired from whatever it is that you do. Social media is the new, digital method of the ancient practice of story-telling. Except now, you can tell your story, and actually make bank off of it, too.
Cardi B has been everywhere this past year, just by telling her story. With her multi-million following, being on live radio talk shows, collaborating with massive hip-hop artists like Chance The Rapper and Migos, being the cover of major magazines, collaborating with designers like Steve Madden and her number one Billboard song ‘Bodak Yellow’, if she wasn’t on your feed before, she is now.
References:
https://www.billboard.com/music/cardi-b/chart-history/canadian-hot-100
