Cardi B has landed her first Condé Nast cover with W magazine’s November art issue. The fiery Bronx rapper was shot by artist Mickalene Thomas and wore a gold Rodarte gown for the cover. The shoot was inspired by Latina Hollywood glamour queens like Maria Montez, Chelo Alonso and Rita Moreno.
The interview took place after the incident at Harper’s Bazaar ICON event at which Cardi threw a shoe at cross-town rival Nicki Minaj. When asked why she took action at such a high profile event, Cardi insisted it was because Minaj had liked/unliked a tweet questioning her mothering skills. (Side note: no one has been able to produce a screen shot of the liked tweet.)
“I was going to make millions off my Bruno Mars tour, and I sacrificed that to stay with my daughter,” Cardi stated. “I love my daughter. I’m a good-ass fucking mom. So for somebody that don’t have a child to like that comment? So many people want to say that party wasn’t the time or the place, but I’m not going to catch another artist in the grocery store or down the block.”
Cardi also spoke about discovering she was pregnant. She explained, “When I got pregnant, I was fucking freaking out. Everybody around me was like, ‘No, this never happened before. Every artist that had a baby, they already put in years in the game. This is your first year. You’re going to mess it up. How are you going to make it?'”
While the baby was unplanned, Cardi said her husband, Offset, advised her to dismiss the naysayers. As Cardi explained it, Offset told her, “‘I don’t know how you don’t see it, but you so hot right now, nothing could get in your way. You just have to work hard and put out a poppin’ album. I think you should keep the baby.'”
While Cardi has been very open about recovery from the birth of Kulture, she added some details about the physical changes that caught her by surprise. “People don’t really talk about what you go through after pregnancy. Like, they don’t tell you that you get stitches down there or that your first two weeks you’re constipated,” she said. “Or that you get contractions because of breastfeeding. I wasn’t expecting that. When Kulture was born, I felt like I was a kid again. Everything was making me cry, and I needed a lot of love. I be feeling like, do babies know who’s they mom? I feel like babies love whoever is giving them the milk, and I want to give the milk the whole time. I want her to know me.”
As to whether marriage and motherhood have impacted her, the answer is yes. “I can’t rap about certain things, because I don’t want to insult my husband,” she said, adding, “And when I want to do a music video, I can’t use a male model and do crazy things.”
Whatever may come of her career, it all begins and ends with Kulture. Cardi explained, “My baby. That’s all I give a fuck about right now. I’m thinking about how my money’s going to last so this girl is 21 and put in college. I’m thinking about five years from now and like, How am I going to discipline this girl?”
Check out the editorial below and find more at W magazine.
