Singer/rapper/public personality Cardi B has many lines on her resumé. VH1reality star. Triple-platinum recording artist. Grammy-winner. And now she can add “forensics champion” to that list, as she has been debating fans on Twitter over whether or not she’s an influencer. The ongoing Twitter feud between Ms. Cardi and the world has since devolved into an apology from the singer to her fans over delays to a follow-up to her Grammy-winning 2019 debut Invasion of Privacy.
There’s a lot to unpack here, and it goes from feuding with her fans to explaining that when she fights with her fans it’s exactly like having sex with her boyfriend. The feeding frenzy started when Cardi posted a since-deleted tweet with an audio message to her 22.5 million followers, rhetorically asking why it bothers people so much that she refers to herself as an influencer.
Twitter is an app that allows its users to don fake names to troll celebrities and hurt their feelings, and throwing out a message like that is like throwing out chum to the sharks. It created an immediate frenzy among the anonymous.
User @XH4TS posted a delightful Spongebob GIF, along with the claim that “nobody was influenced by u tho,” adding that everything Cardi wore in a music video had been worn before.
In a now-deleted tweet, she argued, “Well like I said here GO CHECK how many people use the directors and photographers before and after I used them …Go check how many people try to remake the press naked dance scene. Check how many people was wearing certain brand b4 & after I put it on my body.”
She responded that a lot of other artists had tried to emulate her nude dance scene in the music video for her single Press.
A follower immediately pointed out that other artists have danced naked in music videos over the years. Cardi responded with a challenge to name one example — nobody tell her Madonna exists! — simply asking “Show me?”
When another user reminded Cardi that she has a tendency to block fans who talk make fun of her on Twitter, and then still engages in combative behavior with them. Cardi had the perfect analogy. Even when she blocks her “man” on the app, she still will engage in a mutual loving act with him later that day. In much the same way, she will even engage with fans she no longer wished to actually hear from.
She reasoned, “Have you ever blocked your man and then go Fuck him the same day? Well it’s the same shit I block them and unfollow and still talk to MY FANS.” She then followed up with, “Who gone tell me WHAT?”
The debate culminates with someone asking the question that fans really want an answer to, which is when Cardi B. is going to release her follow-up to Invasion of Privacy. It’s been three years, and this fan is thirsty for more Cardi. She was quick to reassure the fan, “They going to be fed,” though, sadly, that tweet of encouragement was also disappeared down the memory hole.
This must have hit home with Cardi, because she rushed an audio response in which she cleared up any questions about why it’s been taking so long. She explains in the recording, “I really had technical difficulties with my latest project. I had not one, not two, but like three technical difficulties on the music that I’ve been working on, that it had to be done and taken care of before I put it out.”
But don’t worry, the problems that caused a three-year delay to a Grammy-winning multiplatinum project aren’t that big. As she says, “It is nothing like major or crazy. Y’all figure it out because I know, I know, I know. I know you guys want better and I’m going to give it to you.”
This, happily, she left up (as of press time).
She finished her workday with the Cardi B. equivalent of an exclamation point, triumphantly on the timeline.
