Meet Cardi B, the rapper who dethroned Taylor Swift from the top of the charts
Ethan Miller/Getty Images; Taylor Swift/YouTube
The biggest single in the country right now, according to Billboard's Hot 100 chart, is "Bodak Yellow." It dethroned none other than Taylor Swift, who had been dominating the charts for weeks with "Look What You Made Me Do."
The rapper behind "Bodak Yellow," Cardi B, is a stripper-turned-rap star, with a stint as a reality TV actress and Instagram influencer in between. She's the first female rapper to reach the No. 1 spot on the chart as a solo artist since Lauryn Hill in 1998. And she's done all that by the age of 24.
Here's how Cardi B climbed to the top.
Her real name is Belcalis Almanzar.
Cardi B's parents named her Belcalis Almanzar. She was raised in the South Bronx area of New York, but spent a lot of time at her grandmother's home in Washington Heights when she was growing up.
"I live in a beautiful condo, it’s very big, it’s very beautiful, but it’s so empty and boring," Cardi B told The Fader. "My grandma’s house is very, very tiny but it’s just a certain happiness there."
She's famous in New York, but she lives in New Jersey.
Her distinctive New Yawk accent makes her an important part of the city's constellation of hip-hop artists. But she prefers to live in Edgewater, New Jersey, and commute to New York City.
Why? The rent, of course. She told The Fader that she lives there because she pays about half of what she would pay for an apartment the same size in the city.
She's a former exotic dancer.
After dropping out of college, Cardi B worked for a few years as an exotic dancer. She also gained an Instagram following for her unfiltered attitude about it, and made commercials for a chain of stores that sells sex toys.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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