Cardi B Responds to Criticism About Not Letting Her Daughter Listen to ‘WAP’: ‘I Don’t Make Music for Kids’

Cardi B is speaking out after facing backlash over her decision to not let 2-year-old daughter Kulture listen to her chart-topping song with Megan Thee Stallion, “WAP.” The singer found herself wading controversy over the holidays after she shared a video of herself frantically moving to turn the song off after her little girl walked in on her dancing and singing to the hit. Her decision not to let her toddler listen to the song, which contains sexually explicit lyrics, led to some backlash, with one fan accusing her of having “an agenda to push.”

Cardi on Monday finally addressed the backlash, hitting back at her haters, demanding they need “to stop with this already!” Pointing out that she’s “not Jojo Siwa,” Cardi said, “I don’t make music for kids I make music for adults.” She noted, “parents are responsible on what their children listen too [sic] or see.” Although she admitted she’s “a very sexual person,” Cardi explained she acts appropriately “around my child just like every other parent should.”

“WAP,” Cardi’s hit single with fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion, released in August. Although it was named best song of 2020 by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and NPR, it was immediately shrouded in controversy due to its lyrics and representations of female sexuality, with some criticizing the song for being too explicit. Criticism has come as far and wide as from Ben Shapiro to Snoop Dogg, who said the single was “too raunchy.” He said, “let’s have some privacy, some intimacy, where he wants to find out as opposed to you telling him… That’s like your pride and possession, and that’s your jewel of the Nile, that’s what you should hold on to.”

Snoop’s criticisms eventually prompted a response from Cardi’s husband, Offset, who said, “as rappers, we talk about the same s–… And it’s a lot of women empowerment. Like, don’t shoot it down. We never had this many female artists running this s–.”

“We should uplift our women, and don’t say what they can or can’t do. You know how long women have been told they can’t do something or they shouldn’t do this or they been blackballed out of entertainment?” he added, according to Billboard. “So I stay out of female stuff. … It’s entertainment. You can go on YouTube to see people shoot videos with guns and talk about killing. We can’t really be like judgmental on certain things and certain things we don’t.”

Cardi herself has defended the song, telling The Kyle and Jackie O Show that she “grew up listening to this type of music” and that to her, “it’s almost like really normal, you know what I’m saying?” At the time, she also said, “I don’t want my child to listen to this song and everything,” again explaining that “WAP” is “for adults.”