Belcalis Almanzar is another name for New York City-born rapper Cardi B. She was raised in The Bronx and was born there. After disclosing her work as a stripper in a social media post, she rose to fame. That, along with her “no filter attitude,” helped her become well-known on Instagram.
From 2015 to 2017, she was a regular cast member of the VH1 reality series Love & Hip Hop: New York. In February 2017, she and Atlantic Records reached an album deal with a major label. She became the second female rapper in history to do so with a solo release when Bodak Yellow, her debut single for Atlantic, debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The track was included on her self-titled studio debut album (2018). On October 11, 1992, Belcalis Almanzar, who would later adopt the stage name Cardi B, was born in the Bronx neighbourhood of New York City. She grew up in the South Bronx’s Highbridge neighbourhood. Her mother is Trinidadian, and her father is Dominican. She says she spent a lot of time at her paternal grandmother’s home in Washington Heights, which is why she has “such a heavy […] accent.” Cardi B has claimed that she has been in a gang since the age of 16 and that she was a member of the Bloods when she was younger. Later, she enrolled in Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & Technology, a little specialty school located on the Herbert H. Lehman Campus.
Cardi B worked at an Amish market in Lower Manhattan when she was a teenager, which was her last employment before she began stripping at the age of 19. Her former manager advised her to apply for a position at a strip club after she was fired from the supermarket. When she was in that relationship, she allegedly turned to stripping to escape domestic violence and poverty. Cardi B also asserted that becoming a stripper had enhanced her life in the following ways: “It really did save me from a lot of things. I started stripping and went back to school.”
According to AllMusic editor David Jeffries, Cardi B is “a raw and aggressive rapper in the tradition of Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown.” Stereogum described her voice as having “a full-bodied New York nasal bleat, the kind of sound you’ve heard if someone has ever called you stupid for waiting too long to swipe your MetroCard.” Later interviews described her voice as “an unapologetically loud and sensual fuck-you New York honk—that translates brilliantly to rap.” The editor of a 2017 Complex feature about Cardi B wrote, “Unapologetic does not begin to express the totally raw and overwhelming Cardi B-ness of Cardi B’s personality.” She is not afraid to be a hood chick in any circumstance. Because of this Cardi B is Cardi B every single day.
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