Cardi B reveals the huge budget for COVID-19 tests while making music video

Rapper Cardi B has revealed $100,000 (£76,414) was spent on COVID-19 testing during the making of the music video for her Megan Thee Stallion collaboration WAP.

The video has garnered plenty of attention, both positive and negative, since it was unveiled earlier this month and has fast become part of social media discourse.

With cameos from stars such as Kylie Jenner, it sees lots of people dancing in close quarters.

While so many people help add to the ambience of the video, the risk of COVID-19 transmission meant producers decided they needed to test everyone for the virus.

In an interview with i-D, Cardi said: “It was kind of weird shooting the video in the age of corona.

“Like, we had to spend $100,000 just on testing. Everybody on the shoot had to get tested for coronavirus.”

Read more: Fans Petition to Remove Kylie Jenner From Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘WAP’ Video

The video also features a number of big cats, and sees both Cardi and Megan stroking a leopard. But Cardi revealed camera trickery was used to keep the animals safe.

She said: “We had a tiger and a leopard there, but we didn't film with them in there because of safety and because of the pandemic. We spliced those scenes together.”

Speaking of the impact the virus has had on music, she added: “Everything has completely changed. You know, I was constantly on the road, now I'm mostly at home with my baby. So it's just crazy.”

The video has sparked plenty of debate, and even an unexpected feud.

Read more: Megan Thee Stallion ‘traumatised’ after shooting incident

Tiger King star Carol Baskin took aim at Cardi B for using big cats for the video, telling Metro.co.uk: “My guess is that most people won’t even see the photoshopped cats in the scenes because the rest of it is so lurid.”

In response, Cardi said she did not want to “engage with Carole Baskin on that”.

Elsewhere, Russell Brand faced a backlash when he questioned if the WAP video was a “feminist masterpiece or porn”, while Christina Aguilera paid homage to the video on Instagram.