Cardi B (Photo credit: Eddy “Precise” Lamarre)

Cardi B, one of America’s most popular and ubiquitous rags-to-riches stories, has placed her foot in her mouth. An Instagram Story that Cardi posted three years ago has surfaced in which she admits to sleeping with men, drugging them and then robbing them. Cardi, who is well-liked because of her candor and bold disposition, is now in hot water because of it.

In the video Cardi speaks passionately about her past life.

“I did it myself, n—s must of forgot my n—a. The s—t that I did to mother—— survive. I had to go strip. I had to go oh yeah you wanna f— me? Yeah yeah yeah, let’s go to this hotel and I drug n—-s up and I robbed them. That’s what I used to do. Nothing was mother—- handed to me.” she said

In today’s #MeToo environment and the court of public opinion, it should be expected that Cardi B is called on the carpet because of such criminal acts that have helped her along her journey. Bill Cosby is currently serving a jail sentence after being found guilty for drugging women for the purposes of having sex. This is something he has vehemently denied, yet the court of public opinion, the #MeToo movement and the comedic memes helped to paint a picture of a man who was once viewed as America’s dad as a dirty old man.

We all love the story of someone lifting themselves out of poverty into success.

Cardi B’s rise has been meteoric. She has turned a stripper pole into Grammy gold and shows no signs of going back. However, we find ourselves at an impasse. Should Cardi be held accountable for the actions she admitted to three years ago? Of course, she should be, but most likely she won’t be because she is the world’s favorite type of ratchet.

Hypocrisy is running rampant in the land. Some are celebrated for the same things that others are punished for. If we allow ourselves to continue down this path, the grey between what’s black and what’s white becomes greater and our ability to make wise judgements becomes questionable.

Cardi has not left this latest scandal totally unscathed. A hashtag, #SurvivingCardiB, was created and many have voiced their displeasure and disagreement with Cardi’s past criminal acts.

Cardi obviously felt the heat and has issued a statement via her Instagram page.

She wrote “So I’m seeing on social media tray a love I did 3 years ago has popped back up. A live where I talk about the things I had to do in my past right or wrong that I felt I needed to do to make a living. I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world with a perfect past. I always speak my truth I always own my sh—. I’m apart of hip hop culture where you can talk about where you come from talk about the wrong things you had to do to get where you are. There are rappers that glorify murder violence drugs and robbing. Crimes they had to do to survive. I never glorified the things I brought up in that live. I never even put those things in my music because I’m not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it. I made the choices hat I did at the time because I had very limited options. I was blessed to have been able to rise from that but so many women have not. Whether or not they were poor choices at the time I did what I had to do to survive. The men that I spoke about in my love were men that I dated that I was involve with men that were conscious willing and aware. I have a past that I can’t change we all do.”

Cardi’s statement is one where no accountability is taken and she seems to place the blame at the feet of hip-hop culture and rap music. This is problematic because once again hip-hop culture is blamed for the criminal decisions of an individual.

How do we move forward from here?

Leave a comment below.

-Precise

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