Rapper and entertainer Cardi B made her debut in the late 2010s with a quick ascent to the top of the rap and pop charts. After an initial run of singles that crowned her the first female rapper in nearly two decades to top the Billboard Hot 100 with the hit “Bodak Yellow,” she issued her Grammy-nominated, critically acclaimed debut album, 2018's Invasion of Privacy, which reached number one and broke additional records with the summer smash “I Like It.” Capping off her whirlwind breakthrough era, she became the first solo female rapper to win a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
Spitting raw and aggressive rhymes in the tradition of Lil’ Kim, Nicki Minaj, and Foxy Brown, the former stripper and social media star born Belcalis Almanzar made her television debut in late 2015 on VH1's Love & Hip Hop: New York, joining a cast that also included fellow New York rapper Remy Ma. A year later, she made her musical debut alongside dancehall singer Popcaan on Shaggy’s “Boom Boom” single. The solo single “Cheap Ass Weave” and the mixtape Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 soon followed in early 2016. Two more singles, “Foreva” and “Wash Poppin’,” arrived that summer. A second mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2, was released in early 2017.
