And then, there was CARDI...Why CARDI B Rose to Hip Hop Prominence

The sound is faint, but the eighties baby struggles to hear echoes from dynamic voices of the nineties MC. The generation that witnessed the assassinations of Tupac and Christopher Wallace, has now become a generation like many before it, wondering what happened to "real music."

We are perplexed to say the least. Now exists a hip hop scene that has grown unrecognizable. It doesn't look or feel like the hip-hop we remember. New York and Los Angeles aren't ruling the airwaves with unmistakable lexicons, everything seems to have blended. The internet has birthed a fleet of young rappers with Instagram fame and Sound Cloud validation, when once upon a time, the masses had to actually go out and purchase a physical body of work. They exist as Itunes hits, flamboyant but cloned personalities with little life experience and little to no substance in their lyrics. They call themselves rappers, but they feel like impostors, as we remember the grit of a rapper like DMX.

We shake our heads in disgust, as clowns receive clout and disrespect the legends of our great era. Gone are the days of real life testimony of the Black experience in urban America, even though we are gunned down by police. Now we witness lighter hues, that don't share our experience, speaking in a vernacular that should insult our intelligence. They call themselves hip hop and grant themselves awards before they are recognized. We remember the humility of Niggas with Attitude. (NWA) Now a Mexican screams the word Nigga and places himself above the Black rappers of New York.

Throughout all of the auto-tuned rappers and one hook wonders, there remained an unmistakable and unavoidable void. The industry was slowly losing money due to streaming, but that was only half the story. The public craved authenticity. They wanted a love story. They wanted to FEEL someone! They needed a backstory, someone relatable, a different perspective....Hell...SOMETHING! Catchy hooks and cute gimmicks couldn't keep the buzz alive. Even Nicki Minaj failed to maintain her glory, as her music charted but didn't stay there. We grew tired of her larger than life posterior body part, her gimmicky presentation, resting bitch-face persona and arrogant attitude. She was known for her music but not for her personality. And there-in lied the problem. She had no real substance. Her personality? Well there wasn't one, per-say, there were many. Many scripted theatrical personalities that confused the Hip Hop heads. Hip Hop was built off of authenticity and upliftment out of struggle. It originated from people expressing their most personal struggles through spoken word.

Nicki popped on the scene posing like someone we remember; legs wide open and the next thing we knew, She was a "Five Star Chick" But who was she? We didn't know and many didn't seem to care. They bought into her many personalities that had nothing to do with the real her. She hid behind neon wigs and costumes while those her age looked at her like she was crazy. We didn't understand this rap version of Lady Gaga. We wanted what we fell in love with as children to return to the mainstream. We wanted Queen Latifah to stop singing and modeling, we wanted her to shed the blonde weave and wrap her regal head. We wanted her to speak about Unity and we wanted Lauryn Hill to come back to Earth. Meanwhile, Nicki developed a fanbase with teenagers who knew nothing about the women of Hip Hop from our hay day. We appreciated Nicki's lyrical word play and the woman had bars, but she just didn't have that round the way girl feel. It was as if she were, dare I say it, a manufactured BARBIE. Pure perfection, wigs hot against her skull, a feature on everyone's hit song and we grew tired of her early.

 It began to feel as if the machine were pushing her clout more than the people were. She was a lone wolf in a sea in a male dominated industry. Even though there were plenty of female rappers around, somehow, she was the only one on our radio stations. Something didn't add up. As she twerked her firm ass on our televisions screaming about an Anaconda, we rolled our eyes to another Azealia Banks controversy. We said goodbye to the rapper Eve as she frequented Dubai with her Billionaire husband. We felt sorry for Foxy Brown who couldn't hear, and we were confused by the new Lil Kim. Dej Loaf was cute, but that was it, she couldn't compete with someone like Nicki, nor could Young Ma who wasn't even trying to. There was a White Austrailian who developed a southern accent, and she was pushed as a pop artist more than a rapper. She was just too fancy to spit bars in the alley with Remy Ma. Speaking of her, there was so much hype surrounding her return, but she didn't deliver what we asked for and her obsession with Nicki overshadowed any attempt at a hit song.

So Remy reemerged with a confusing looking and sounding Lil Kim, whose autotuned singing wasn't what we ordered from the menu.

And then, there was Cardi.

It was a sound we remembered. The hard beat and aggressive voice that effortlessly told an unapologetic story of resilience. It sounded something like female empowerment that we missed. Her red bottoms were "Bloody Shoes",, and though it was simple, it communicated a strength that was greatly missed. She was that round the way girl we craved. There was a huge vacancy, and she was right on time. Who is that girl? People whispered. Many knew who she was but were surprised to actually love Bodak Yellow. Some knew her from funny Instagram videos while others, Love & Hip Hop. Either way, Cardi, was an authentic personality. She was that stripper who had a mouth that no one could tame. She felt like a rebel rather than a robot. She was a woman with flaws and a woman who rapped about those flaws. We had enough Barbies, we wanted a gangsta bitch. We wanted a conversation and not a commercial. We wanted a stripper with a machine gun. We wanted a bitch who didn't sing, but rapped about getting her teeth fixed and how expensive that shit was. We could relate and she was the warrior princess of us, the underdogs. Men felt her, women felt her, children felt her and Hell, Even Oprah Winfrey felt her! What Cardi B brought to the game, was the clarity that only broken English could communicate. She didn't need to speak the queens English or discuss who she's better than, she only needed to tell us who she was. No frills, no diamond necklaces. She was the imperfection we missed.

She was that woman who didn't need singing on her single. She didn't need to sound like pop. She carried the entire song with that hardcore beat and we responded. It had been quite some time since a song like that, male or female had hit the radio waves. Even the men were singing or making strange incoherent noises in their lackluster music. The music industry was already trying to comprehend the public's obsession with social media talent. The masses were losing interest in the machines Barbie dolls and GI Joe's. Internet rappers were all the rage because there was at least somewhat of an illusion of authenticity.
However, a girl from the Bronx managed to talk her shit right onto Billboards Number 1 slot.

She went from oversharing on Instagram to co-hosting with Jimmy Fallon. The more people were exposed to her, the more they fell in love with her. The more people had experienced Nicki, the more indifferent they became. The industry had to cope with the idea that the public didn't want their manufactured doll babies, they wanted life. They wanted an artist who would curse on live television or discuss feeling butterflies in her vagina at the GRAMMYS. They wanted a woman who wasn't going to apologize for being pregnant nor stop any scheduled promotions because of it. They wanted a woman who would pop her pussy at Coachella while nearly about to give birth. The world wanted a rapper who actually spoke to them rather than someone who treated rapping like a term paper. Others bragged about their writing skills while Cardi just said what she felt. She was a Cinderella story. While a Barbie twirled and bragged about her wealth before entering her private plane, the world craved Cardi. When she spoke up, we knew we were receiving what we prayed for. There was no mistaking CARDI. The world is partying with Cardi.