Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" Director Reveals She Was Attacked By Cheetah On Set

BYAron A.42.3K Views
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Cardi B performs onstage during the BET Hip Hop Awards 2017 at The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater on October 6, 2017 in Miami Beach, Florida.
"Bodak Yellow" Director, Picture Perfect, says Cardi B's "a trooper."

Cardi B smashed 2017 with one record. The release of "Bodak Yellow" helped propel her to superstar status and had everyone and their mothers rapping along the lyrics to it. However, the song really got its jump start when she dropped the video for it. Set in Dubai, Cardi found herself riding camels and chillin' with cheetahs while flexing her "bloody shoes." It was an introduction to Cardi B's appeal as an artist. The video's director, Picture Perfect, dropped a BTS of the video shoot and apparently, Cardi got attacked by the cheetah.

Picture Perfect revealed to Genius that the idea to shoot in Dubai happened because Cardi was already heading there and upon his arrival, he decided to use the culture as inspiration for it. However, Cardi was apparently shook by working with some of the animals on set.

"I didn’t know how hard it was gonna be to get a cheetah out there." He said, "We shot this other scene we didn't use and he attacked Cardi in that scene." 

In the footage shown, you could hear Cardi rap her verse before the cheetah turns around and opens its mouth. Cardi says, "No, no, no. Come hold him." However, they went on to get another cheetah for the scene that was more friendly.

He also revealed that Cardi wasn't really feeling the whole shot with the camel as well.

"I think I put her on the camel the first time and she just got scared up there. She's like 'let's just stop shooting this shit like can you guys move it?'" he said, "She's a trooper man."

Cardi's roughing out the shoot definitely worked in her favor. The video's now sitting at over 455M views on YouTube and counting. 

Peep the whole BTS footage with Picture Perfect below. 


About The Author
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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