Cardi B has message for people who have called her ‘ugly’

Hip-hop artist Cardi B has never been one to bite her tongue. In a recent interview, she delivered some of her no-nonsense perspective on some criticism she’s received about her looks.

The New York rapper spoke with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week as a part of her promotional appearances for her new single “Up.” The two discussed her ambivalent feelings toward social media. (She currently has nearly 100 million Twitter followers.) They also talked about how her music is a way to root for herself.

In the new track, which now has a video, Cardi directly addresses some of the negative feedback she’s received about her physical appearance. She raps “Once upon a time, man, I heard that I was ugly.”

Prior to dropping her hit song “Bodak Yellow,” the musician and actor, whose real name is Belcalis Almánzar, appeared on the VH1 vehicle “Love & Hip-Hop: New York.” She underwent dental work to correct her teeth. She has spoken in previous interviews about the often-harsh comments online about her teeth and other physical attributes.

“When I do music, I be (expletive) gassing myself up,” the 28-year-old revealed. “It’s like, ‘Nah, because these (expletive) they wanna call me ugly.”

She said her brief stint as a stripper also provided a confidence boost. The Grammy Award winner was popular with customers at a New York strip club, where she said she was able to save $20,000 and eventually quit the job at age 21.

“I was one of those strippers that every (expletive) celeb, all the celebs, all these (expletive) favorite rappers — [they] used to request me on their sessions,” she told Lowe during the interview.

Her popularity as a stripper, she said, was yet another reason for her to dismiss social media punditry. The mother and wife to rapper Offset now employs social media hiatuses to avoid some of the negative commentary and exchanges online. Since social media has become “weird,” Cardi said she enjoys posting less on platforms including Twitter.

“Sometimes I just go tweet, see what my fans are talking about, then I got off. I’m not like how I used to be before, because it’s too much... Every year, there’s always like two [or] three artists that it’s popular to hate on them... I’m that artist that it’s not like one year. It’s every year.”