8 Things You Learn Over Lunch With Cardi B

In the April 2018 issue ofCosmopolitancover star Cardi B talks about the#MeToo movement, her relationship with Offset, andwhy she's done changing for anyone. It should come as no surprise that the outspoken rapper had even more to say than fit in print. Here,eight fantastic-andstrongly-worded-outtakes from the interview, which took place over lunch in January.

Photo credit: Kai Z Feng
Photo credit: Kai Z Feng

From Cosmopolitan

1. For the last time: Cardi B does not regret stripping.

"Why not make a few thousand dollars? Why not? I owed so much money to fucking BMCC [Borough of Manhattan Community College] and I paid it off-not with no Instagram money, not from no Love & Hip Hop money-I paid that shit off stripping. I got my first apartment [as a stripper]. You know how hard it is to get an apartment in New York? This ain't no fucking down south, $500, $400 rent shit. I was living in an apartment [where] there was mice running around that still cost me $1,100. And I still got that shit-19 years old-want to know how? Stripping.

I'm not saying to girls, like, 'Go do it,' because it's not for everybody, and a lot of shit that I seen in the strip club, it kind of fucked my brain up. But I'm not going to be out here saying-and lying to people-'It was the worst thing that I ever did,' because it wasn't. It saved me from a lot of shit."

2. Stripping made her strong.

"It is a talent. You want to know something? I know for a fact a lot of these females, they cannot do the pole dances that I used to do or they don't have the body strength that I have from dancing. A lot of these females, they don't even know how to fucking walk five blocks with their heels on and I work for eight hours straight with heels on-seven, eight inches, every day. A lot of people are like, 'Oh you just shake your ass and it's easy.' No, it's not just about shaking my ass."

Photo credit: Cosmopolitan
Photo credit: Cosmopolitan

3. She’s used to people being mean to her on the Internet.

"People clearly treat me better now because I'm famous and they want to suck dick, but … at the end of the day people still talk shit on me online. When I was a stripper people used to talk shit about me, used to call me a stripper-now, to this day, they call me a stripper, so it's like, whatever. I don't give a fuck … I can't even do anything about it."

4. Yeah, haters can still get her down.

"I’ve always been very popular, and the people that never liked me, I knew why they didn’t like me. So when I see people that don’t like me and I don’t know the reason, it sometimes bothers me. It really hurts me. Or when people say mean things about me, yeah it hurts me, because I’m not used to that. Sometimes, I’m feeling like I get a lot of hate, then when I see people getting my name and my face tatted, it reminds me that I’m also extremely loved.'"

5. She’s had to cut some friends out of her life.

"When I be with my friends, I just say what I want to say, I talk how I want to talk, and I do what I want to do-just chill, in a New York apartment, somebody's house, and be myself. And none of my friends judge me, none of my friends give a fuck, none of my friends treat me different. Some have treated me different. It's not that I've seen them treat me different, it's just, like, I see the intentions … like, I see that a lot of people use me for clout. So I just had to cut them off. Because I see that you're not a friend, you're really a groupie.

You see people's real colors as soon as you get famous. I used to be with somebody 24/7 and I started noticing that they do interviews, interviews, interviews-and it's about me all the time."

6. She’s not competing with other women.

"When it comes to this female rap game, I don't see it as a competition, I see it as a -fuck it, somebody's going to like her song, somebody's going to like my song, somebody's going to like the other person's song. It's about making money here, like, I don't give a fuck about none of this shit-I don't want no fucking crown. I want to make my fucking money and I want to get the fuck out of here. I make my money today, I go home tomorrow.

7. She’s different IRL than she is on Instagram.

"I guess my Instagram character's just too extra because some people expect me to act like a fucking crazy person in person, and I'm not. I'm really calm. I'm very quiet. I be in my own world. It really depends, like, you got to crack me. Or I got to have a conversation with you. But I'm never going to be the type of girl in a restaurant like, 'Oh my gaaaahd! This is nasty! What you guys made this with, shit?' That's not me. I'm not like this rude, ratchet person that people think, that I will be, like, 'Oh my god! I'm heeeere! We at Topshop, I'm buying everything! Oh my god look at my check, look at my check, look at my check!' I'm not always like that. I'm like that with the people I love and I got to do it in a certain place, because it is what it is."