Cinderella is the Western “Cinderella”, but in Cardi B’s life, it is perhaps closer to the myth of “One Thousand and One Nights”. Cardi B is just a stage name, her real name is Belcalis Almanzar, which are Arabic words related to the Queen of Sheba. As for the nickname Cardi, it is short for Bacardi, a type of rum, because Cardi’s older sister already has another brandy named Hennessy.

In the Bronx district of New York City (USA), there is a favorite nail salon of Cardi B, with two portraits hanging on the wall. One is a photo of the legendary actress Marilyn Monroe, and the other is the 2019 version of Marilyn: Cardi B. Vietnamese-American Jenny Bui is both the owner and confidant of the rap diva, who is her close customer. This friendship has lasted for nearly a decade, since the days when Cardi went to the nail salon to “take it” because she was broke. It was also Jenny Bui who had a keen eye and predicted early on that the customer who “liked” her sharp, multi-colored nails would become a superstar rapper. And because of her loyalty to her close nail salon owner, Cardi’s Instagram has now become an advertising channel for the J. Bui nail salon, with 16 million members interacting with her.

At the age of 26, Cardi B still often shows her pride when she has the opportunity to talk about her life, but the conversation usually only takes place with women who come to get their nails done at Jenny Bui’s salon. For Cardi, her current life is like a fairy tale in which she plays the role of a princess. From a “rag” Cinderella who overcame life’s obstacles to become rich, successful, and a member of the luxurious modern entertainment kingdom. But Cardi still likes to share more about her concerns when she is currently struggling with challenges so that her fairy tale life does not destroy her wish for a peaceful and quiet life that she often desires. Now, a new decision has been made by Cardi: she will no longer care about every relationship and rumor like before to please her fans. Right now, for her, there is only her career, her assets, and her newborn child.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Cardi B’s life is like a “Cinderella”. In such a short time, her fame has skyrocketed, comparable to Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. Cardi’s name is mentioned with the same admiration as her idols when she was young, such as Madonna or Beyonce. Before that shining moment, the life of this girl of Trinidadian and Dominican descent was a dim period, even at times gray. Cardi B’s childhood and youth were a “violent childhood”. She joined a gang, lived a homeless life in the Bronx, and at one point had no money and had to work as a cashier at a grocery store with a salary of $250/week. Cardi B’s transition period was her days as a stripper. The only thing is, Cardi worked as a stripper but still lied to her mother that she was a babysitter to earn money and knew how to justify herself by taking this “low-class” job to have money to break up with her boyfriend, not willing to accept the sexual abuse of that fierce lover.

From her passion for music and the dance floor, she came to the reality show VH1 Love & Hip Hop: New York,  Cardi B began to act as a “fairy” to wave her magic wand for her life when she released her first experimental mixes. In no time, the magic wand effect turned everything of Cardi into gold, gems, and jewels like the life of the mythical Cinderella. The single Bodak Yellow was released and immediately took the top spot on the charts. The hit was also historic, because since Lauryn Hill’s 1998 single ( That Thing ), Bodak Yellow made Cardi the first female solo rapper to have a number one hit, and the fifth female rapper in history to have an album topping the charts. Then with just one more album, Invasion of Privacy , Cardi B’s Cinderella – princess transformation was spectacularly complete. To this day, it is still considered the best debut album by a female rapper since the legendary female rapper Lil’ Kim’s 1996 release Hard Core . In 2019, Cardi was the youngest person on the list of 20 “famous” names number one, holding a golden Grammy, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100, the MV reached the milestone of 1 billion views on YouTube and brought her up to 5 nominations at this year’s Grammy Awards.

Cardi B is now a global superstar, having moved from New York to Atlanta. Her love life, marriage, having a baby and then breaking up with rapper Offset has become a hot topic on social media. Cardi’s topless breastfeeding scene in the Money Money video has become a message for milk companies to call on women to “breastfeed their children together”. For the sake of her child, Cardi gave up a tour with Bruno Mars, a lucrative career opportunity that few music stars would dare to sacrifice.

However, in the present, Cardi B has felt and understood who she is, where she comes from, and also knows how to find a reasonable emotional balance, with the presence of her child, to deal with the illusions that too-quick success often brings. In the past, Cardi B was indeed sometimes ruled by emotions. She was once accused of assaulting two female bartenders at a strip club. Then recently, unable to control her temper, she yelled and threw a shoe at Nicki Minaj at an event organized by Harper’s Bazaar magazine . In terms of social media , up until 2019, Cardi B is still in the top 10 KOLs in the world entertainment industry, an American superstar in the post-Kardashian era, a master of creative “selfie” photos and videos that dominate Instagram.