- Hey, how y'all doin?
[audience laughing]
- Hello everyone, hi Cardi.
- Hi, how are you?
- Okay, fine, how are you doin' today?
- Doin' pretty good.
- I gotta ask, given Bernie's recent health situation,
is he still your candidate?
- I don't feel like just because he has a heart attack,
it's a problem, like I get asthma, I have asthma,
you know what I'm sayin'? [audience laughs]
Imagine if I get an asthma attack,
what my career's over, oh yeah.
[audience laughs]
Can't perform no more?
I don't like that, mm-mm.
He wants free health insurance
and he wants free education,
and let me tell you something.
I have a cousin, right?
I have a cousin, and she has a degree,
and she was telling me one time
how she was so miserable because her credit can't get up
so she can't really get the apartments that she want,
and her credit is down because she owes for--
- Student loans. - Her student loans.
So it's just like, how does that encourage people
to wanna go to school?
I, that don't make me wanna go to school.
I don't wanna be in debt. [laughs]
[audience laughs] So how you supposed,
how you gonna make America, how you gonna make America
be great if we gotta pay to be educated?
- What do you think your daughter's story's gonna be?
What is the story, who do you want her to look up to now?
I always say this,
I will always keep my daughter humble.
You know, she still be going to The Bronx,
she still be going to Washington Heights,
she be going to my grandmother's house,
and I'ma always tell her too, it's like, listen,
don't be braggin' about the things you have.
Don't be braggin' about, I live in a mansion,
I get every door I want,
because some of your friends, some of your cousins,
some of your family members, they don't have that.
- Are you gonna show her Hustlers one day?
- I am gonna talk to my daughter about everything
that I did in my life, because it's just not a secret.
But I also want it to be like a lesson,
like for example, right?
I have a little sister,
and my little sister she saw me coming from work
at four o'clock in the morning
with my stripper heels and my bag
and be counting all my singles,
but she sees certain times that I cry.
Because sometimes, I cry because I feel disrespected,
because guys sometimes be drunk
and they wanna smack the shit outta ya ass,
they wanna aggressively grab on your titties.
They will make you feel like,
like you're just, like a piece of shit,
like not worthy, like you know, sometimes the money
is so glamorous but sometimes we feel
so, like the values that you have as a woman,
sometimes it goes just a little down,
and sometimes your self-esteem goes a little down.
You know, you dancing, you feel like your body's perfect,
you feel like a good person, perfect,
but then a guy just, he don't wants to buy a dance
from you, but he buys a dance from another woman,
and you just feel like, am I not pretty enough?
And I just had to go through a lot of things,
and I would tell my daughter, I was like, listen,
I bust my ass, I bust my ass for you,
and I'ma give you this choice.
The choice is, you could go to school,
you could open a business, I will fund it,
I'll get you an apartment, I'll get you a car,
but if you wanna live your life independently
and do what you want, then you go out there in the streets,
and you tell me if it's as easy as you think it is.
- When did you think it turned for you,
and you started to see yourself as a boss?
- There's different levels of like, feeling like a boss.
'Cause even when I was a dancer
and I was making my own schedule,
I felt sometimes like a boss, like I don't gotta listen
to nobody, but then again,
I did have to listen to the owners sometimes.
I did feel like as like they were watching me,
and I couldn't act the way I wanted to act sometimes.
So it's like, that didn't make me feel so bossy.
I feel like I was a boss when I was really in control
of everything that I do, like when it comes to my wardrobe,
when it comes to when I wanna release music,
how I want to release music,
that's how I feel like I'm a boss.
And then on top of that, paying bills made me feel
like a damn boss,
you know what I'm sayin'? [audience laughs]
I pay the rent here, so I do what I want. [laughs]
- Just shifting things a bit, you were just quite the boss
in Paris, and we were so delighted to see you
in fashion at Chanel, at Thom Browne.
This is Vogue, we have to talk about fashion.
[Cardi laughs]
How was that for you, how was Paris?
- I don't know, it's like another level to me,
you know what I'm sayin'?
I work so hard to come to these levels
to be able to get on these shows,
because, let me tell you somethin'.
When it comes to fashion, the industry,
they don't care if you got number one hits,
all the awards, if you just ain't,
if you just ain't styling right,
they just ain't gonna invite you to their shows.
They just don't care.
Like I said, you gotta be into it,
you gotta dress properly, not properly,
but you just have to have that sense of style.
So it's just like, it's something that you gotta prove,
and I feel like it tooken years for me to prove it,
and it's like, I'm finally am where I want to be.
It's just like, I don't know, have anybody seen
that Hilary Duff movie?
[audience laughs]
It's like a song, it's like a song that every single time
that I go to a event that I always wanted to go to,
I always play it in my head.
It goes like,
♪ Hey now, hey now ♪ [audience laughs]
♪ This is what dreams are made of ♪
And that's how I feel every single time
that I get invited to these fashion events,
because we work our ass off.
- Is this when you've been working with Colin?
The stylist who we love? - Mm-hmm.
Yeah. - When did that relationship
start and exactly how does it work?
How do you start planning one of your looks?
- Well it started when I did this photo shoot,
no, like a magazine cover for FADER.
And I met him and I was a little hard on him.
Because, you know, I have a certain type of body,
you know what I'm sayin'?
I'm skinny but I got big boobs and a big butt.
[audience laughs]
So certain things just made my body looks a little weird
and everything, but I liked how he was just so determined.
I like how he had a solution for everything,
and we just started working with each other ever since.
- You're taking about how you're bringing yourself
into fashion in this way. - Yes.
- But fashion is coming to you.
I mean, you are now, you are the center of fashion now,
so how much of that, when you work with Colin do you think,
no, no, no, this is not a fashion a moment,
it's a Cardi B moment and fashion has gotta wake up to this?
- Every outfit to me is such a risk,
and so it's like, sometimes something that I will consider
fashion, maybe the people won't consider it fashion,
but it's like, at the end of the day,
I gotta put on what I like.
So it's like, I don't know, maybe people won't even
consider it fashion.
- What's the first thing you bought,
when in your mind you thought you had money.
- I bought a Gucci rain jacket that cost me $6,000.
[audience laughs] - Whoa!
- Mm-hmm. - Oh wow.
[audience laughs]
Do you keep all your looks?
- I keep all my looks.
Sometimes I gotta give some back 'cause it's a pool,
you know what I'm sayin'?
But I have a really large closet
that is like, ooh, I hope my daughter's my size
when I grow.
[laughing]
- And can I ask how fashion works in your house?
Do you and your husband, do you coordinate your looks
for red carpets?
- For, 'cause you know he's like really,
his style is real hypebeast.
- It's very hypebeast.
It's good though. - Yeah.
- It's good hypebeast, excellent hypebeast.
- It's good hypebeast. - Yeah.
- So it's like, sometimes we disagree
on certain things, but--
- Does he edit you or do you edit him?
- Oh no, we be going at each other,
'cause sometimes it's like, who dress better?
Oh, ho, well, I dress better, no I dress better!
I'm hip, but baby, look at the material.
[audience laughing]
I mean, look at the material, you be the judge. [laughs]
So it be getting a little intense,
but when a outfit is really good
we give each other so much complements.
It's like we are like our biggest fans to each other.
- Your daughter has a better wardrobe
than many of us at Vogue.
How is that working?
Do you pick her outfits, how does it go?
- It's been my new hobby lately,
and it's becoming like, almost like when I shop,
'cause you know when I usually shop,
I usually put the outfits on my bed,
and I just spread them, and I'd be like,
this one look good with this type of coat,
and now, I'm not even doing that as much.
I'm doing it more with her stuff.
And I'm just waiting for these fur coats
to come in and everything, 'cause, oh I'm gon' be stylin'.
It's so fun, it's like dressing a doll all over again.
- Tell us about Fashion Nova.
How does that work?
How do you work with them, and you know,
were you wearing Fashion Nova before you started
the collaboration and?
- Yeah, I've been wearing Fashion Nova for a long time.
I like Fashion Nova a lot
because it just fits my body perfectly.
For my first collection it was very difficult,
because we started designing and looking through things,
and I was seven months pregnant, and I was restricted
from traveling, so I had to see
a lot of clothes through FaceTime.
So I couldn't feel the material,
I couldn't see how it translated in person,
and that was very, very difficult for me.
But it did really, really good.
But, even if it did really good,
for my second piece, I feel like I listened
to a lot of people online.
They wanted it to be more revealing, more sexy.
You know Fashion Nova do a lot of sexy, whole lotta ass,
whole lotta boobs showing.
So I was like, all right, let me do that, but in my way,
and it was pretty cool, and it was a lot of moments
that it's like, you know, it's crazy,
like when we was having the collection party,
it just seemed like everybody was so happy and everything.
And even though we were happy, it was like a lot of times
that I was really frustrated,
because you know, we gotta work on a certain type
of budget, so the clothes could be sold
at a certain type of price.
And then some of the material I hated,
and then it's like when you see the sketching,
it looks amazing, and when it comes back,
it's like, who the hell picked this?
And it's like, you picked it,
and it's all, well I hate it!
[audience laughs] Do it again!
And that was such a challenge, but--
- But you're getting a whole lesson in how to work
in fast fashion, and how to move in that type
of production, right?
So you're learning it. - Yes.
- You're learning which fabrics can work and not work.
- Yes. - Yes, you know.
- It was definitely a lesson.
- Does it make you think, you know, as Rihanna's done,
I want my own line.
I'm gonna move it forward.
'Cause she's, you know, just launched as well with LVMH.
- If I ever do that it would have to be
on a certain point of my music career,
that I don't still have to,
like have to still prove myself,
you know what I'm sayin'?
I feel like Rihanna is in the point of her career
that she don't gotta release music.
She already proved herself.
She's already there, she already put her time in,
as well as Kanye, like he been doing it for a long time,
so he could focus and she could focus on her brand,
you know what I'm sayin'?
It's like, not her brand, like you know her clothing brand,
so it's like, when it comes to doing designing
and being there for doing your clothes, your fit,
it's not like a three day, four day thing.
It's not like, oh, I gotta fly in then I fly out.
You really have to be there every single day,
making sure that everything is going fine.
You cannot just be FaceTiming things.
The first collection, it was just such a challenge,
seriously, it was really hard for me.
And then the second time it was a little challenge too,
because it's like, I had to keep flying in and out,
so I could only be there once a week.
And that's just not enough.
'Cause it' like, nobody does the work better than you.
- You said in music you still have to release,
you have a lot more to do in some way,
you're still on a curve of releasing music.
What will define, when will you know
you're at the point where you've,
you know, you've got it, you've got the canon of work,
you're ready, you're at that Rihanna, Kanye point?
It's not a matter of time I imagine,
it's a matter of accomplishment.
- Hm, sometimes I feel like, 'cause I always tell myself
from the beginning, when I get on the radio
I feel like I made it.
And then it's like, when my album come out,
I'm gonna feel like I made it.
When I win certain awards, I feel like I made it.
When I win a Grammy, I still feel like I made it.
But for some reason, when it comes to female,
and I think female rappers, I feel like you gotta
constantly, constantly, constantly prove yourself,
because they gonna constantly tell you,
oh they're getting washed up,
or this female rapper is better.
So it's just like, I'm gonna have to mentally
just tell myself, it's like, listen,
you're already did enough, you're already in the door.
I always feel like I'm never in the door,
and I just, I hate that, but it is what it is.
I feel like after my second album, and I do my tour,
that's when I'm gon' be like, all right now.