I don’t follow rap beef (other than Nicole going on a coke rant every 7 to 10 business days), but as a fan of general mess in all forms, I am genuinely tickled by the following sequence of events! Walk with me, children…
Thursday, February 29th, 2024 at 4:49 PM
Cardi announces her return with a snippet of her new single featuring a sample from Missy Elliott’s iconic “She’s a Bitch.” Pay attention to the outfits: One is an homage to Lil Kim, but for the other, she’s wearing a pink monokini with matching pink thigh high Rick Owens boots.
Thursday, February 29th, 2024…Less than one hour later
JT, the talented half of the City Girls and one of Nicole’s ride or die co-signers, hopped on Instagram to show everybody that Cardi is late and and dry — JT already had the boots Cardi is about to rock.
Well what’s done is done. The video is already shot, so JT you win that round.
But wait!!
Friday, March 1, 2024 at Midnight
Cardi drops her new video for “Like What” which do indeed feature the Rick Owens boots, but also some direct shots at JT:
Peep how the music and the flow switch up around the one minute mark:
You dumb, you slow, you wildin’ (Ah, you wildin’)
Got your first pair of Ricks, now you stylin’? (Ah, you stylin’)
Everything you got, I had five years before
I put it on the ‘Gram (Hahahaha) ‘fore it even hit the store, look
Wait…did Cardi bait JT into posting that? Did Cardi indeed have the boots first?
June 7, 2022
From Page Six:
Cardi B strikes a pose in teeny bikini and thigh-high fur boots
Cardi B might be a rapper, but her latest look is all raver.
The “WAP” hitmaker posed on Instagram Monday in an icy blue bikini paired with thigh-high, furry Rick Owens boots covered in cutouts.
Perched on a clear acrylic chair, Cardi completed the daring look with black shield-style shades and an oversized sleeveless puffer coat ripped from Owens’ fall 2022 catwalk show.
(cont.)
Checkmate, Princess Belcalis! As usual! One of two things happened here:
- Cardi knew that JT, as one of her vocal opposition, would take the opportunity to post with the boots so she went ahead and wrote that bar as a preemptive diss with the full understanding that JT would be baited into playing along. (This is the least likely scenario, and the one I choose to believe as a stan because pop adulation is all about the suspension of reality in service of your fave.)
- The song was written in such a way that it is vague enough to apply to a number of people, and the fact that it reads as a direct shot at JT’s corny behavior is a bonus. (This is the most likely, but it is boring, so I put no stock here.)
Anyway, I had a cute chuckle over that this morning, but aside from the Jatavia sideswipe, the song slaps. The rhymes come fast, she’s riding the beat like a surfer, and she made the sample her own. Using an iconic beat is tricky because you need to do your own thing in a way that’s not a copy but can also stand on its own against the original. And she did that, while giving little nods to the women who paved the way before her.
It’s going on my repeat rotation, but it also feels like an announcement of Cardi’s official return. Remember, Invasion of Privacy came out in April of two thousand eighteen, almost six full years ago, and Cardi has been teasing her return ever since. She has a pair of number one singles, “Up” and “WAP,” that both seemed to be a pre-cursor to a new album, but the project has yet to materialize. The fact that “Like What” is straight bars, no features, over an iconic-sample with a straight-forward “I’m fly in my fly ass house” video treatment feels like this is actually the kickoff to her new cycle. She’s had two babies since Privacy dropped, along with a very Onset/Offset relationship with her husband so, we do not begrudge her taking her time to put some excellence together!
I’m here for the new era. Cardi is coming for her things! Give em all to her!
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