Belcalis Almanzar, known by her stage name Cardi B, is making her presence known! In case you had doubts about her staying power, her Grammy win for Best Rap Album proves the naysayers* wrong. Cardi walked away with the top honor, becoming the first solo woman to win. In fact, she was the only female rapper nominated in the Best Rap Album category. Kendrick Lamar (eight nominations) and Drake (seven nominations) may have been the most-nominated artists at this year’s Grammys, but Cardi B showed up like a champ with her five nods. In the words of the 26-year-old Afro-Latina rapper: “I like dollars, I like diamonds, I like stunting, I like shining” — and shine she did. In 2017, she topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with her megahit* “Bodak Yellow,” making her the first female rapper to do so since Lauryn Hill’s “Doo-Wop (That Thing)” in 1998. Cardi also bumped Beyoncé to become the first woman to have five top 10 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts in a single week. Dethroning Queen Bey falls under major bragging rights — welcome to the royal family of music. Cardi B followed up that success by releasing her highly anticipated album “Invasion of Privacylast” April. It made history its first week by getting more than 100 million streams on Apple Music. It also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent an impressive 24 weeks on the charts. Last August, she won three 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, and one of her triumphant wins was Best New Artist. (SD-Agencies) |