Cardi B slammed record producer Jermaine Dupri, who called today’s crop of female hip hop stars “strippers rapping.” In a series of explicit Instagram videos, Cardi defended her tracks, insisting she raps about her private parts because “she’s my best friend and second of all it’s because it seems like that’s what people want to hear.”
Earlier this week, Dupri appeared on PEOPLE Now and gave his thoughts on women in hip hop today. He said without “Funkdafied” rapper Da Brat, many of them would not be successful today.
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“Brat was the first female artist to go platinum, so we together broke the mold… and since then female rappers have been able to sustain and sell a lot of records, more records than guys, but before Brat that wasn’t happening,” Dupri, who produced De Brat’s first two albums and worked on her third, told PEOPLE.
Dupri was not impressed with Nicki Minaj, Cardi B or new star Meghan Three Stallion because they are “rapping about the same thing.”
“I can’t really say. I feel they’re all rapping about the same thing,” Dupri said. “I don’t think they’re showing us who’s the best rapper. For me, it’s like strippers rapping and as far as rap goes I’m not getting who’s the best.”
Dupri said that soon, female rappers will have to talk about “other things.”
Hours later, Cardi took to Instagram to post two responses to Dupri’s comments.
“Okay guys I have seen a lot of people saying nowadays female rappers only talk about their p— and now that Jermaine Dupri brought it up I’m going to say something,” the “Press” rapper said. “First of all, I rap about my p— because she’s my best friend and second of all it’s because it seems like that’s what people want to hear.”
Cardi pointed out that her song “Be Careful” was not a hit with fans because it was not sexual. The single, which appears on Invasion of Privacy, was about infidelity and how her heart was broken.
“When I did ‘Be Careful’ people was talking mad s— in the beginning like ‘What the f— is this?’ ‘This is not what I was expecting,’” she said. “It’s like if that’s what people ain’t trying to hear then I’m going to start rapping about my p— again.”
Cardi said there are some female rappers who do not rap about sex, but are not given enough support. She included Rapsody, Oranicuhh, Kamaiyah and Tierra Whack.
“I feel we need to put these girls in more magazines and blogs. Radio DJs play these girls,” Cardi insisted. “These girls can rap they asses off and they don’t rap about their vaginas and sucking d—.”
Before Cardi was famous and appeared on Love & Hip Hop: New York in 2015, Cardi worked as a stripper. Since scoring hit after hit with her music, Cardi has defended the profession and once said it helped her earn enough money to get an education and escape poverty.
“People say, ‘Why do you always got to say that you used to be a stripper? We get it,’” Cardi told Cosmopolitan last year. “Because y’all don’t respect me because of it, and y’all going to respect these strippers from now on … Just because somebody was a stripper don’t mean they don’t have no brain.”
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