of the designer’s anti-HIV initiative. She glances at hit?” it and arches her eyebrows. “Girl,” she says, “I don’t even use a condom.” She fears failure, and paints a vivid picture of what it The Year of Cardi B might look like: “If you go broke and lose your career, It may not seem like it, but this is actually a newer, it’s bad – and everybody is talkin’ shit about it! At least She went from stripping to becoming the breakout star of 2017. more cautious Cardi B. Afer a few social-media if you lose your 9-to-5 you don’t got millions of people controversies – including when she was justly called judging you and talking shit while you lost your job.” So what's she worried about? out for a since-deleted tweet that referred to Kim Jong Un as “Won Tung Soup” – she is trying to learn Seven years ago, Cardi B was convinced she’d already By Brittany Spanos to hold back a bit. “I used to tell myself that I will failed at life. To please her mom, she was studying at a always be myself,” she says. But she worries that she’s Manhattan community college with plans to become a going back on that vow. “Little by little, I’m feeling history teacher. Born Belcalis Almanzar, she’d grown up like I’m getting trapped and muted.” in the Bronx’s Highbridge neighborhood, and she was struggling to survive fnancially on her own. “It was just Her life is changing fast. She put out her frst mix- very sad,” she says, uncharacteristically subdued. She’s tape, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1, in March last year, in the back seat of a black SUV on her way to a perfor- back when she was still Love & Hip-Hop’s breakout mance at Baltimore’s Morgan State University, and the star. It was a gloriously raw and raunchy introduction college setting is bringing back memories. “It was very that cashed in on her TV catchphrases with songs frustrating – you have to pay for everything. When I like “Washpoppin’” and “Foreva.” She released Vol. 2 fnally got a job at Amish Market, I had to debate, ‘Do I in January this year, fve months before announcing a wanna go to class or do I wanna fnish my shif?’” major-label contract with Atlantic Records. She dropped out afer two semesters, and soon took In June came “Bodak Yellow,” named in homage up stripping – a career move helpfully suggested by to Florida rapper Kodak Black, whose song “No her Amish Market boss. “A lot of people wonder, ‘Why Flockin’” inspired its fow. “Bodak Yellow” is an would anybody want to be a dancer?’” she says. “Be- unlikely Number One: a tough trap song with zero cause there’s money!” She used some of her stripping concessions to the mainstream, or even anything like a conventional pop hook. In a year when the youth power of streaming services, which now count toward chart positions, is changing the very meaning Cardi B is butt-naked in the doorway of her hotel by streaming and social media, where the kids, without of pop, she’s become the frst female rapper to score bathroom, yelling about her vagina. On a mid-Octo- much corporate nudging, get to decide who the stars a solo Number One since Lauryn Hill in 1998. Not ber evening, she’s readying herself for a college show are, Cardi B is what you get. bad for someone who initially pursued rapping as a in Baltimore, and the toiletries provided by the hotel way to monetize her reality fame. (“I said, ‘TV don’t aren’t to her liking. “Tat soap gave me the yeast in- Yesterday, Cardi turned 25. She took a rare day of, make you rich,’” recalls her manager, Shaf, who once fection of 2017!” she hollers in her thick Bronx accent. hanging with her entire family – sister, parents, cous- produced Lil’ Kim. “’You gotta sell something! Waist “My pussy was burnin’ like a Mexican taco!” ins – at her mother’s house. But she missed her boy- trainers, hair, something.’”) friend (now fancé), Ofset of Migos, who was touring It takes all of 10 seconds in Cardi B’s presence to be in Australia. “I was sad, because it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, Te pressure is building. Her once-carefree so- reminded of the sheer force and hilarity of her per- I’m not getting no dick on my birthday,’” says Cardi, cial-media presence has drifed toward moody sonality. Simply being Cardi B, at maximum volume, whose bedazzled acrylic nails are decorated with tiny refections about the downsides of fame. She’s made her a star – frst on Instagram, then on the VH1 reproductions of Ofset paparazzi shots. “But I wasn’t stressed about creating a debut album – the very reality show Love & Hip-Hop: New York – before going to get dick on my birthday anyway, because I got word “album” makes her wince – that can live up to she’d recorded any music at all, let alone knocked my period.” “Bodak Yellow” and the best of her mixtape tracks, Taylor Swif from the top of the pop charts with the not to mention the challenge of creating singles that sly swagger of her single “Bodak Yellow.” She is the She fnds a cleanser she can deal with and hops into can keep her on the charts and avoid one-hit-won- people’s diva – or “the strip-club Mariah Carey,” as the shower, before slipping into a bright-red space- derdom. Tere is a chorus of doubters in her head, she once rapped – unfltered in a way the world ofen suit-inspired Milano di Rouge jumpsuit, complete with she acknowledges, and it sounds something like this: doesn’t allow female stars to be. In a culture reshaped a yellow patch that reads “Safe sex saves lives,” part “Can she make another hit, can she make another cash to briefy return to school. “I kept missing classes,” she says, “and quit because I felt like I was already failing. (“It gets to the point that you ask yourself, ‘Damn, “We polish each other,” she says, noting they confer It was such a disappointment.” what the fuck am I?’”); of sleeping her way to the top on music-biz questions. “I could always ask him, ‘Do (“I always had sex appeal – and niggas still give me a you think this is OK to do? Do you think I’m getting Her strict Trinidadian mother worked seven days a week at a local college; her Dominican father, who separat- hard time”). Te rapper Azealia Banks has quarreled tricked?’” ed from her mom when Cardi was 13, was “the cool parent,” she says. For Cardi, his experience doing “diferent with her, but Cardi B has tried hard not to play into things in the streets” was a cautionary tale. “Tat’s why I be so careful with my money and always try to invest. I the narrative that female rappers can’t get along. “It’s She hasn’t been shy about the ups and downs in her see people who have it all and then lose it.” not even the female rappers that are catty, it’s the fans,” relationship with Ofset, like the night in October when she says. “Tey just want that beef.” she seemed to break up and make up with him on As a kid, Cardi had a sense that she was destined to do something creative, which led her to a performing-arts Instagram in the course of several hours. She also hasn’t school on the Bronx’s east side. She tried acting Her in-progress album is never far from her thoughts. been shy about her intentions to marry him — and, a and singing (though she was convinced all of “I got six, seven solid songs that I like, but I wonder few days before Halloween, Ofset made her dreams her classmates were better), wrote some poetry. if a month from now, I’m going to change my mind.” come true, popping the question at a Philly concert But she’d also crack up friends and boyfriends All the looming expectations, she admits, are making with a raindrop-shaped ring. She knows she wants to by rewriting songs by, say, Beyoncé to make it harder to come up with songs. “It’s not as fun to do have a family. “I need to make money for my family them “waaay sluttier.” Tat hobby caught Shaf’s music,” she says. “My mind doesn’t fow as free ‘cause I and my future family,” she says. “I’m not a YOLO per- attention years later, leading him to encourage have so much on my mind.” son. I think 25 years from now. I think about my future her to pursue rapping seriously. kids, future husband, future house.” She’s aiming to mix the Spanish and reggae music of Until then, Cardi B relied on her abilities to her youth with the trap sound that’s inescapable at the And where exactly will she be in 25 years? She smiles charm and to hustle to pay the bills. And it moment, putting in late nights with her “Bodak Yel- dreamily, and says, “I see myself cursin’ at my kids.” worked: She quickly broke 100,000 Instagram low” producer, J. White, and dancehall specialist Rvs- followers in her strip-club days, expanding out- sian. She freely acknowledges she’s chasing hits. “It’s so ward from her loyal customers, mostly on the sad to say, and I don’t want to be the one to say it, but strength of playful videos – “sucking dick” and you gotta follow the trend,” she says. “Tis generation scamming men were favored topics. loves to get high. Tey love to be on drugs. Tis is why they on that shit: Tey don’t want to think about what Afer Shaf suggested rapping, he began mak- you’re saying.” ing beats for her at home, and helped her fnd a lyrical voice that matched the charm of her She cites Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole as rappers who delivery. still write brilliant, conscious lyrics – some part of her might want to try to follow suit, but she feels like she But Cardi – who calls herself “a negative per- couldn’t get away with it. “A bitch like me, it might not son” – had to overcome her own skepticism. work out for me,” she says, “so I’m going to stick to She thought hard about her subject matter (her trapping.” frst single: “Stripper Hoe”), determined to defy haters “expecting me to drop something trash. It It’s barely past midnight in Cardi’s hotel room, and just made me, like, ‘Aha, I gotta study these oth- she is already exhausted. “I’m an old-ass girl now,” she er rappers,’” she says. “Study how to do some- says with a sigh, head on a pillow. For all her outra- thing diferent from them. You know all these geousness – she fnished her show tonight by hopping female rappers, they talking about they money, ofstage and twerking in the audience – she’s not much they talking about they cars, so it’s like, what’s of a partier. She stopped smoking weed at 21 because something that I enjoy? I enjoy fghts!” it interfered with her increasing fame and accompa- nying schedule. She had taken Molly as a confdence A few hours afer the show, Cardi B is back in her hotel room, still wearing her red jumpsuit. She’s curled up in booster before stripping but doesn’t need it anymore. the bed, blankets piled on top of her, talking about the future in a tone that’s almost resigned. “I cannot turn my She rarely drinks. “If I drink,” she says, “it’s like, my life back around,” she muses. “I’m already a public fgure, I’m famous. … It’s like, I might as well keep it going, man is gonna be around, and I’m gonna have sex.” might as well make the money. People are always going to talk shit – I cannot make myself unfamous.” She’s been with Ofset since a chance meeting with She’s faced an impressively varied set of criticisms and unsolicited opinions. She’s been accused of not being a him in New York in February – just afer Migos real lyricist (“I’m not trying to be”); of somehow “not being black” because of her Latina heritage and light skin scored their own Number One with “Bad and Boujee.” Rihanna Condemns Snapchat’s Offensive Advertisement: ‘Shame on You’ Pulled ad for mobile game asked if users would rather “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown”

By Brittany Spanos

“I just never understood that,” she told Vanity Fair in Brown was arrested in 2009 afer attacking Rihan- 2015. “How the victim gets punished over and over. na, his girlfriend at the time. In the years following, […] For me, and anyone who’s been a victim of domes- Rihanna has been vocal about the ways pop culture tic abuse, nobody wants to even remember it. Nobody continues “punishing” victims of domestic violence, event wants to admit it. So to talk about it and say it including when the NFL pulled her collaboration once, much less 200 times, is like … I have to be pun- with Jay-Z and Kanye West, “Run Tis Town,” in ished for it? It didn’t sit well with me.” 2014 afer the Ray Rice domestic-abuse scandal.

Rihanna posted a takedown of Snapchat on her … but all the women, children and men that have been Instagram story, responding to an advertisement of victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who a mobile game that made light of domestic violence. haven't made it out yet … you let us down! Shame on Te controversial and since-removed ad referenced you. Trow the whole app-oligy away." Rihanna's 2009 assault by Chris Brown. Earlier this week, Snapchat called the advertisement an Rihanna's 30 Greatest Songs, Ranked “error.” A spokesperson for the app released a follow-up From "Pon de Replay" to "Umbrella" apology afer Rihanna’s post, condemning the adver- As a promotion for the mobile game Would You tisement as “disgusting” and a “terrible mistake.” Rather?, the advertisement asked if the user would rather "slap Rihanna" or "punch Chris Brown." Earlier this week, Snapchat called the advertisement an Snapchat had already released a public apology and “error.” A spokesperson for the app released a follow-up removed the ad before Rihanna's comments. apology afer Rihanna’s post, condemning the adver- tisement as “disgusting” and a “terrible mistake.” "I'd love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain't that dumb! You spent money to animate something that “We are investigating how that happened so that we would intentionally bring shame to DV victims and an make sure it never happens again,” the spokesper- made a joke of it!!!" she wrote. "Tis isn't about my son said. Te game’s company has been blocked from personal feelings, cause I don't have much of them Snapchat. just refer to some guy as “fruity?” Yes, he did. waiter Lyle (Joey Pollari). In a highlight scene, Si- ‘Love, Simon’ Review: Gay mon imagines an out future for himself in college “I’m just like you, except I have one huge-ass secret,” set to a Whitney Houston dance number. Tings Teen Romance Is ‘John Hughes our hero informs us in a voiceover as he watches a get complicated when Martin (Logan Miller), a hunky gardener get busy with a leaf blower. He hangs creepy classmate, discovers Simon’s secret and at school with Leah (Katherine Langford), soccer threatens to blackmail him with it unless he sets for Woke Audiences’ jock Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) and new girl Abby him up on a date with Abby. Touching love story from TV’s Greg Berlanti is moving, sensitive (Alexandra Shipp), but these loyalists – or his friend and a complete winner. with the acidic wit, Ethan (Clark Moore, terrifc) – Yes, the plot mechanics tend to lean toward the are not enough to spur him to say it loud and say it disappointingly slick and sitcom-ish. But what By Peter Travers proud. Berlanti keeps the laughs bubbling with these redeems the flm and makes it such an exuber- characters and with the school’s vice-principal (Tony ant gif is the sincere joy Berlanti and the actors Hale) and drama teacher (all hail Natasha Rothwell!). take in celebrating its protagonist’s growing self But the fear nagging at Simon never really dissipate. awareness. Love, Simon is a John Hughes movie for audiences who just got woke. And for all its Tat’s one reason why he starts an anonymous online attempts not to ofend, it’s a genuine ground- hook-up with a classmate, who calls himself “Blue” breaker. and seems equally reluctant to tell the world who he is and what he feels. Teir email relationship is the core of the flm as Simon tries to ID Blue from a list of suspects. including studly Bram (Keiynan Lonsdale), musician Cal (Miles Heizer) and friendly

A seemingly ordinary coming-of-age tale that looms longing to see for generations. large because of its inclusive romantic embrace, Love, Simon wins you over by capturing your heart without It helps that Berlanti, who’s been making inno- pushing too hard for the prize. Given the recent high vative changes on the TV teen scene with shows points of gay cinema on the indie circuit – the Os- ranging from Dawson’s Creek to Riverdale, is car-garlanded Moonlight and Call Me By Your Name the just the guy to bring a cutting edge to the being the most high-profle examples – it’s a surprise non-threatening script from the Tis Is Us team to learn that director Greg Berlanti’s extraordinary of Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker. It also drama is the frst mainstream studio release to put a helps that he’s a whiz with actors. Nick Robinson closeted teen front and center. (Television has been (Jurassic World) is wonderfully funny and touch- way ahead for years on this front.) Tis adaptation ing as Simon Spier, a senior at an Atlanta high of Becky Albertalli’s YA novel Simon vs. the Homo school where coming to terms with your sexuality "I'm just like you," says the titular lead of Love, Simon (played by Nick Robinson, second from lef) in Sapiens Agenda goes gentler into the topic than you is, well, as hard as it is anywhere else. His parents his opening voiceover. might expect – or perhaps want. But the safe, PG-13 (Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) seem liber- approach could win a wider audience for a movie al enough to handle the news. But Simon is too Ben Rothstein/20th Century Fox that gay teens, raised on straight romcoms, have been uncertain to open up to them about sex. Did Dad