Cardi B: From stripper to Grammy award winner
11 February 2019
Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar - better known as Cardi B. Most people know her for her music with massive hits like Bodak Yellow and I Like It. But what you might not know is the 26 year-old's been a stripper, Instagram celebrity and reality TV star. In two years she's gone from an exotic dancer to making history at the Grammys by becoming the first solo female to win best rap album for Invasion of Privacy. In 2018 she was also named as one of Time's most influential people in the world and is worth more than $8m (PS6m). Here's some things you might not know about Cardi B. What you might not know about Cardi B Cardi B grew up the Brooklyn borough of New York. Her mum is Trinidadian and her dad is Dominican. She's says growing up her friends used to call her Bacardi and she changed it to Cardi B. She has a younger sister who's a social media star  who also has an alcohol-inspired nickname - Hennessy Carolina. Cardi B has spoken about how being from the Bronx has had an impact on her. "It's influenced my music and how I grew up. I was always a pretty girl and always mad-hype so everyone wanted to fight me so I had to fight them back." At 19, Cardi B started working as a stripper. She says she did it to escape an abusive relationship and make money to go to university. "The first time I stripped I was really embarrassed, I felt like I could hear my parents voice in my head," she told ID magazine in 2018. "After a while I didn't even care anymore. I was seeing money that I feel like I would've never seen ever." She says when she was 21 she'd saved $20,000 (PS15,000). Her aim was to give up stripping by the time she was 25 and save enough money to buy a house and rent it out. But Cardi B quit her stripping job at 23 and dropped out of uni. If you followed Cardi on Insta you'll know she posts a lot of selfie videos and she doesn't hold back. In 2013, it was videos on her Instagram and Vine that helped her to go viral and make a name for herself as a social media star. She's described herself as an "annoying dancer on social media that be talking hella crazy." Warning: This video contains strong language. In her posts she talked about stripping, her relationships, dished out advice on sex, cracked jokes and sometimes there was also a bit of political analysis. Cardi started to make money from her videos and started getting paid to appear in nightclubs. Before deactivating her account, she had more than 40 million Instagram followers. Fiery, feisty and known to throw the odd shoe - from 2015 to 2017, Cardi B appeared as a regular cast member on the VH1 reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York. In the show she talks about her boyfriend who's in jail and works on her musical career. During a reunion special for Love & Hip Hop, Cardi B threw her red shoe at co-star Asia. She was accused of flirting with Asia's boyfriend, Swift and when questioned about it she took her shoe off and threw it. Cardi B quit the show in 2017 to focus on music. She still has a habit of throwing shoes. Last year she threw one at Nicki Minaj after a scuffle at a New York Fashion Week party. It was the song that helped to make her the star she is today. Bodak Yellow was number one on the Billboard Top 100, making her the second rapper to get to number one with a solo song. The first was Lauryn Hill's Doo Wop (That Thing) in 1998. It was inspired by Kodak Black's 2015 song No Flockin. Some fans accuse Cardi of stealing the song from the Atlanta rapper - Cardi admits she was inspired by him and his flow. Kodak Black later released a remix of Bodak Yellow. While she was recording her album Invasion of Privacy Cardi found out she was pregnant. She released it on 6 April 2018. The day after she revealed that she was pregnant with rapper Offset's child. She shared the news during a live TV performance on Saturday Night Live. Cardi B and Offset from Migos had secretly married in September 2017 in their bedroom. In July 2018, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter - Kulture Kiari. Offset and Cardi split up in December 2018 after reports he cheated. He denies being unfaithful. They seemed to have patched things up and were seen together at this year's Grammys. Not only was Cardi B the first female rapper to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in nearly 20 years, she also made history at the Grammys by becoming the first solo female to win best rap album, for her album Invasion of Privacy. Cardi was on stage with Offset and she thanked their daughter for giving her the drive to finish the record on time. "When I found out I was pregnant, my album was not complete," she said. "So I was like, 'I have to get this album done so we can shoot these videos while I was not showing.'" Speaking in her dressing room backstage Cardi said she shared her award with late rapper Mac Miller. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 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It was the song that helped to make her the star she is today. Bodak Yellow was number one on the Billboard Top 100, making her the second rapper to get to number one with a solo song. The first was Lauryn Hill's Doo Wop (That Thing) in 1998. It was inspired by Kodak Black's 2015 song No Flockin. Some fans accuse Cardi of stealing the song from the Atlanta rapper - Cardi admits she was inspired by him and his flow. Kodak Black later released a remix of Bodak Yellow.
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Bodak Yellow - not her song?