Cardi B has taken her hit song of the summer, "Bodak Yellow," and used it to become one of rap's most dominant forces of 2017. A former stripper and reality TV star who parlayed her popularity on social media into a spot in the hip-hop game, there's now no looking back for the emcee. However, for all of her recent success, we don't often get a peek behind the curtain and catch a glimpse of her process, save for a New York Times piece that was published earlier this month. If you wanted to find out more about Cardi, and her single "Bodak Yellow" in general, look for further than Billboard's new video clip, where they caught up with her in order to get the behind-the-scenes scoop on one of the year's most inescapable songs.
"What inspired 'Bodak Yellow' was [...] I wanted to do a song that was like, 'You know what, I'm in a good place in my life,'" said Cardi, who appears in the video sporting a long blonde hairstyle and a shiny gold pullover jacket. She admits that she always records during the overnight hours, between 1:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. in the morning. "I like to talk s**t about people that used to talk s**t," added Cardi. "Like, 'Yeah, I fixed my teeth, and it wasn't cheap neither bitch." Cardi also touched on how lit she got during the recording process, where almost right away, she knew that she could potentially have a hit on her hands. "I felt it in my soul -- this song is going to be so popping," she explained. "While I was recording it, every bitch I don't like came into my head." She added that she pictured all the haters and imagined herself rapping directly to them as she was laying down the vocals for this track. Talk about catching fire.
According to Cardi, summer is the time where you "flex," so it should surprise no one that a boast anthem like "Bodak" has captured the zeitgeist of the hip-hop community. Hard work and anger-fueled writing has propelled the young emcee to heights I don't even think she believed were possible a few months ago.
Check out the full video from Billboard below.