Cardi B defends herself after old video resurfaces

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By Janelle Griffith

Cardi B on Tuesday defended herself against detractors after an Instagram video resurfaced that showed her recalling that she drugged and robbed men when she worked as a stripper.

In the three-year-old video that was shared on social media over the weekend, Cardi, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, was emotional when she explained the lengths she went to in order to make it in the music industry and secure studio time.

The rapper originally posted the video in response to someone who said she did not deserve her success. She said she would drug and rob men who wanted to have sex with her during her time as a stripper in New York.

This week, her admissions in the video inspired the hashtag #SurvivingCardiB, a reference to the Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly,” which chronicled decades of the singer Robert Kelly’s alleged sexual misconduct.

Some on social media called for Cardi to be “canceled,” a slang term used for someone who has fallen out of favor, while others said she should go to jail.

Cardi did not immediately return a request for comment from NBC News.

The Grammy-winning rapper initially brushed off the social media backlash in separate tweets on Sunday and Monday.

But she addressed the controversy in a lengthy post on Tuesday and said that she has not glorified her past behavior or referred to it in her music because she is not proud of it.

“I made the choices I did at the time because I had very limited options,” she said. “I was blessed to have been able to rise from that but so many women have not.”

The outspoken Bronx native also said that whether or not her decisions were “poor choices” at the time, she did what she had to do to survive. Cardi also claimed that the men that she spoke about in the video were men that she had dated and who were “conscious, willing and aware.”

She concluded her statement by saying: “I have a past that we can’t change we all do.”

source: nbcnews.com