Global superstars Mariah Carey and Cardi B had a one-on-one conversation for Interview magazine about their upbringing, hair, image, and even if they have a favorite brand of bra. The rapper even revealed that despite what other people might think, her mom was very overprotective and opposed that Cardi listens to rap or music with adult content.
“I’m from New York, so I heard Biggie outside every single day,” said the Bronx native, born Belcalis Almánzar to Trinidadian and Dominican parents. “But since I was so young at the time, I didn’t understand it. My mom always wanted to keep me really childlike. She wanted me to listen to Barney and Disney music, so I was only interested in Barney and Disney.”
According to Cardi B, she had more access to other music types at her grandmother’s home. “We used to go to my grandmother’s house, where they would always play BET and sh*t. When I saw Missy Elliott take off her head in a music video, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so strange. I want to do that when I grow up.’ And then I started seeing girls like Trina, and I was like, ‘She’s so sexy. I want to talk like that when I grow up.’ I always wanted to be what my mom didn’t let me be,” she revealed. “I wanted to wear small shirts and have my belly out and wear little kitty heels.”
“When Khia’s ‘My Neck, My Back’ came out, my aunts would be like, ‘I know y’all not supposed to be listening to that.’ So when I used to sing it with my cousins mad loud, I knew I shouldn’t say it because my aunts were like, ‘You can’t listen to that,’ even though I didn’t really know what the f*ck it meant at the time,” she told Carey.
“I’m grown now,” said the mom of one when Mariah Carey asked what her family thinks of the lyrics of her songs. “When I told my mom I was a stripper that really bothered her for a minute. But now when she hears me saying grown sh*t, I don’t think she gives a f*ck anymore. I think she didn’t want me to grow up so fast, because the kids around my neighborhood grew up fast.”
“That’s why my mom was always scared. There was teen pregnancy all around us. She was just being a mom,” Cardi B added.
According to the “WAP” interpreter, when she became a stripper, it didn’t sit right with her at the beginning. “There were times when I was crying, like, ‘Oh my gosh, if my mom or my dad found out, they’d be so humiliated.’ But I needed the f*cking money,” she revealed, adding that her priority was to earn enough money to rent a place.