Cardi B broke down the current state of rap and explained that labels only support female rappers that fans support. The “Up” entertainer detailed how a rapper’s fanbase dictates a certain degree of success at their record label and how much they’re pushed.
“The record labels are putting money behind the girls that people listening to,” she began. “As a result, different artists are coming up faster than others. The labels only go with who’s getting the most listens, who are getting the most plays, who are people watching more. You can not blame nobody for that, you can’t blame no machine for that. You can’t blame nothing for that. Labels are only going to put money behind artists that people are listening to.”
“You can’t hate on nobody else’s come up,” she went on. “‘Cause everybody going to be like, ‘Huh, the label’s putting more money behind this…’ They do analytics. Whoever the people are listening to, they’re going to put money behind it.”
The Bronx artist explained to her Instagram Live audience how the industry politics work with label support and what fans can do to see their faves elevate.
“Promote their sh*t, make a fanbase for them. Once the labels start seeing that – they have a hard following – they gonna follow up. You can’t hate on the game. That’s the game.”
Elsewhere with women in Hip-Hop, Queen Latifah recently became the first female rapper to have an album added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
The NRRLC revealed its 2023 class of inductees with historical selections on April 12, 2023.
“The National Recording Registry preserves our history through recorded sound and reflects our nation’s diverse culture,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden exclaimed. “The national library is proud to help ensure these recordings are preserved for generations to come, and we welcome the public’s input on what songs, speeches, podcasts or recorded sounds we should preserve next. We received more than 1,100 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry.”