Cardi B

Belcalis Marlenis Cephus, professionally known as Cardi B, is an American rapper who is considered one of the most commercially successful female rappers of her generation. She was born and raised in New York City and first gained popularity through videos shared on Vine and Instagram.

From 2015 to early 2017, she was a regular cast member on the VH1 reality TV series Love & Hip Hop: New York, which showcased her music aspirations.

Cardi B‘s two mixtapes, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 (2016) and Vol. 2 (2017), earned her further recognition. Her debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy (2018), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was ranked the top female rap album of the 2010s. It was also critically acclaimed, making Cardi B the first female artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album as a solo artist. It was also the first female rap album nominated for Album of the Year in 15 years.

Invasion of Privacy spawned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “Bodak Yellow” and “I Like It”. With “Bodak Yellow”, Cardi B became the first female rapper to top the Hot 100 with a solo song in the 21st century, and it was certified diamond by the RIAA. She also became the only female rapper to achieve multiple diamond-certified songs by the RIAA with “Girls Like You”, her collaboration with Maroon 5. Since then, she has released two singles that have topped the Hot 100 and other global charts: “WAP” (featuring Megan Thee Stallion) in 2020 and “Up” in 2021.

Cardi B holds various records among women in hip hop. She is the female rapper with the most number-one singles (five) on the Billboard Hot 100. She is also the only female rapper to achieve multiple solo number ones and the only one to earn number ones in two decades (2010s and 2020s) on the chart. She holds the record for the most diamond-certified songs (three) by the RIAA among female rappers and is the highest-certified female rapper of all time on their Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking. She has sold 100 million certified units (albums and songs) in the US alone. Additionally, she is the female rapper with the most songs with a billion streams on Spotify, where she also has the most-streamed female rap album. She was the first lead artist to top the Billboard Global 200.

Cardi B’s accolades include a Grammy Award, eight Billboard Music Awards, six Guinness World Records, six American Music Awards, 14 BET Hip Hop Awards, and two ASCAP Songwriter of the Year awards. In 2018, Time magazine included her on its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, Billboard honored her as Woman of the Year. Outside of music, she became the creative director of entertainment magazine Playboy in 2022.