Spotlight on: Cardi B
At LèMert, we’re ever inspired by stunning, bold and wise women around the globe. With a team of international, well-traveled women working on powerful garments, we are motivated by a range of diverse forces. We’d love to introduce you to our faves! This week, our spotlight is on Cardi B.
Who’s Cardi B?
By now, we don’t think there are many people who haven’t seen anything Cardi B related somehow. Now that Cardi B’s making history as being THE FIRST female rapper with two number 1 hits (Bodak Yellow and I Like It) in the United States, we’d like to delve a bit deeper. This powerhouse was born to a Dominican father and a Trinidadian mother and grew up in The Bronx. Her real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, but Cardi B is slightly easier to pronounce. As a young girl, Cardi B was a member of a big NYC gang and at the same time attended a vocational high school for Musical Theater. She worked at a supermarket, but was kicked out, after which her former manager suggested she should become a stripper. Which, famously, Cardi B did: “It really saved me from a lot of things. When I started stripping I went back to school.”Escaping poverty and domestic violence through stripping, Cardi B often refers to dancing as her only way out, and a positive experience. After she went viral on her Instagram, YouTube and Vine, she made her musical debut on Shaggy’s Boom Boom. In June 2017, Bodak Yellow came out. The rest is herstory.
Why we love her
There are many reasons why we love Cardi B. Where many male rappers are blunt and brag about their new money, Cardi B is no different – she has absolutely no care in the world to what we think of her. And it’s refreshing. To see a bold, outspoken woman who is so utterly herself, doesn’t seem to want to hide her rough past and treats everything with such a big glint of goofy humor, is new. This woman doesn’t take herself that seriously, but is seriously making money and ruling the very male-dominated hiphop industry at the same time.As a young, latina, working class gal, Cardi B is disrupting things. We can’t fully put our finger on the brand she carries out and try our best to keep up with her. In an interview with i-D, Cardi says: “When I got to number one I didn’t even know that no woman has done that since 1998. I didn’t know how important it was for the community or the minorities.” Listening to Cardi speak is uncomfortable, because we don’t know how to respond to someone so unconcerned with being politically correct. From i-D: “Being a feminist is such a great thing and some people feel like someone like me can’t be as great as that. But then some people are smart but they don’t have no common sense. They think feminism is great and only a woman that can speak properly, that has a degree, who is a boss, a businessperson… they think only Michelle Obama can be a feminist. But being a feminist is real simple; it’s that a woman can do things the same as a man. Anything a man can do, I can do. I can finesse, I can hustle. We have the same freedom. I was top of the charts. I’m a woman and I did that.”
We’re here to see Cardi B make waves and challenge the status quo - we’re here.
Which LèMert garment would we love to see on Cardi B?
Did you see Cardi B’s very Dominican video for I Like It? We adore those vibrant, stunning colors! Even though beautiful Cardi B is very pregnant right now, we’d love to see her rock her curves in our Reina printed shirt dress, in the boldest print possible. Read: our signature LèMert print, of course!
Interested in parading around powerhouse style, too? Pre-order your Reina shirt dress now!