Female Power and Jealousy in Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow”
In the breakout hit “Bodak Yellow” by Cardi B, former stripper and reality star Cardi B brags about her newfound wealth. Originally from the South Bronx, Cardi B sings about how she worked hard to make it out of the ‘hood. Indeed, “Bodak Yellow” (2017) catapulted the artist to the top of the Billboard charts and established Cardi B’s position as an artist to be reckoned with.
In keeping with the bragging style of many rap songs which often proclaim the artist’s status and wealth, Cardi B also challenges the people in her life who didn’t think she’d amount to anything and she proves her worth through material wealth. Unlike the songs of male rap artists, however, the object of her scorn is the gossipy women in her life, an irony given that she says these women are beneath her.
On its face, the song appears to be about wealth. The chorus of the song repeats, “I make money move,” suggesting the artist is making a lot of money and presumably also spending a lot of money. The artist’s newfound wealth is highlighted: “I be in and out of them banks,” the speaker says suggesting she will use the money wisely. Indeed, she mentions that she pays her mother’s bills. The speaker, however, also brags about her lavish spending. She has a “Rolls,” “a crib with a gate,” and expensive shoes with “red bottoms,” a reference to the expensive Christian Louboutin sneakers, popular among hip hop artists. The speaker says to the women beneath her, “Hope you hoes know it ain’t cheap,” pointing out that Cardi B wants everyone to notice her wealth. Later, as the song crescendos, she cries, “I’m rich, I’m rich, I’m rich!” On its most superficial level, the song brags about the artist’s newfound wealth. It declares that the artist has arrived financially.
But the song is also inspired and driven by the artist’s hatred of the women she sees as beneath her. The song begins with the line “You can’t f*ck with me if you wanted to.” The women Cardi B sings to are so far beneath her, they don’t stand a chance of challenging her. For Cardi B, the women are not worth her time, and she says so in the song when she cries, “I don’t bother with these hoes.” While the women are not worth her time, the women nevertheless aspire to be like Cardi B. “I’m who they tryna be,” she says. The women who she writes the song to presumably want to be rap artists and reality TV stars and maybe even strippers like Cardi B. They want to dress like Cardi B and have her talent, but they cannot touch her, the speaker says.
The song’s emphasis on these women, however, points out an irony in the song. If these women are not worth a moment of Cardi B’s time, if they are so beneath her, why has she written a Billboard chart topping song to them? The song’s inspiration points out that, in fact, the women of the song inspire and drive Cardi to fierce heights. The song points out that Cardi B’s detractors, those women from her past who perhaps refused to believe in her, are indeed important to Cardi B and have played a role in her ambition. Cardi B is not singing a love song to a man. She is singing a hate song to her women.
The first female artist to hit #1 on the Billboard charts in many, many years, Cardi B’s success is not only a rags to riches story but also a tale of a female artist who has made it in a male-dominated industry that rarely gives female artists a break. Cardi B’s breakout song “Bodak Yellow” was written to women, rather than to the male artist Kodak Black whose song Cardi B references. This fact points to the importance of women in Cardi B’s life and music. While the petty drama between women on display in her reality TV shows suggests these relationships are fluffy and meaningless, her song suggests they are a powerful driver of Cardi B’s ambition and fame.
