Cardi B: How social media abuse influenced my new album

Cardi B has said she is channelling the abuse she receives on social media into her new album.

The chart-topping rapper spoke as she released Up, her first track of 2021 and the follow-up to her viral hit WAP from August last year.

The 28-year-old, real name Belcalis Almanzar, said she was writing down all the “hate” she received online about her decision to back Joe Biden in the US presidential election and over her Dominican and Trinidadian heritage.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, she said: “Lately, every hate that I get on social media, I write it down. Oh, like recently, right? Yesterday, I did a song, right?

“Every six months, people always want to debate about my race, because people, they don’t really understand the Caribbean islands. They don’t understand the Dominican Republic, nothing. Every six months.

“Every single time a Hispanic artist is on some some high heat, for some reason, they always bring me up, right? I don’t want to give you a tip of my records. It’s going to go on my album.”

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She added: “Lately, I’ve been on social media, and every hate shit, every positive shit, I write it down, and I put it on my record. That’s what I’m doing now.”

Her debut album, Invasion Of Privacy, arrived in April 2018 and proved to be a massive critical and commercial success.

It spawned the singles Bodak Yellow, I Like It and Be Careful, as well as winning Cardi B the Grammy for rap album of the year.

On top of her music, her colourful social media presence has attracted an army of devoted fans.

She said she was spending less time on Twitter because of what she saw as a “trend” of random attacks on musicians online.

She said: “In social media, people just be thinking that I’m just this angry woman. I’m just not. I’m not an angry person. I’m a really emotional person.

“There’s certain times that I want to address. When I address something, I address it differently. Like, some celebrities don’t address it at all, but they’d be at home crying.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re an angel or you’re a problematic artist. People just hate you. I’m not going to be that artist that’s going to stay quiet about it.

“I’m going to let people know that it’s like, ‘Bro, we have feelings’.”

Cardi B is married to Migos rapper Offset and they have a daughter, two-year-old Kulture.

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