Cardi B is one of the biggest music stars in the world today. Since her rise to fame in 2017 with her breakout hit “Bodak Yellow,” she has dominated the charts, broken streaming records, and become a household name. However, despite all her success, the outspoken rapper has made it increasingly clear that she has a complicated relationship with fame.
In interviews and on social media, Cardi has opened up about her struggles with anxiety, feeling imprisoned by celebrity, and a general disillusionment with her massive level of stardom. So what exactly makes Cardi B hate elements of the fame she worked so hard to achieve? There are a few key factors behind her sentiments.
She Feels Unable to Live Freely
One primary reason that likely fuels Cardi’s disdain for fame is how it restricts her ability to live freely. She has frequently expressed frustration over the lack of privacy and constant media attention, especially concerning her relationships and family life.
No Privacy Whatsoever
Being a vast celebrity today comes with near-constant surveillance from the paparazzi and the general public via social media. And Cardi has bemoaned her complete lack of privacy on multiple occasions:
“There’s no privacy. There’s no nothing,” she told GQ last year. “It is hard to be famous, especially when you’re a famous rapper.” She said despite being rich and living luxuriously, not having any privacy whatsoever has been emotionally taxing for her.
Romantic Relationships Suffer
Cardi has also spoken candidly about how the spotlight intensifies difficulties in her romantic relationships with partners like Offset. Every minor argument or relationship problem ends up in tabloid fodder. The lack of privacy puts strain on her ability to resolve issues and keep intimacy with partners:
“I do know that my relationship has to be a private matter, but I decided on my own that I was going to make my relationship public, and that’s the problem,” Cardi told Harper’s Bazaar in 2020. Even when she tries keeping details private, the media spotlight still takes relationships hostage.
Motherhood Drama
Now that Cardi is a mother to two children, the constant paparazzi attention has threatened her ability to give her kids any sense of normalcy. She laments the reality that every public outing with her kids results in being trailed by photographers, often invasively trying to get shots of the children’s faces against Cardi and Offset’s requests. The lack of space severely tests her patience as a mother.
She Sacrificed Her Authentic Self
Another source fueling Cardi’s disdain for the fame she’s attained is the feeling that she has had to sacrifice elements of her true personality and perspective to appease mainstream audiences. The music industry can pressure artists to water themselves down or alter their messaging. And Cardi has struggled mightily to balance mass appeal while keeping it real.
Feels Forced to Censor Herself
As a former stripper known initially for her loud, boisterous social media presence, Cardi built her platform on unfiltered expression laced with profanity and sexually explicit commentary. But now, with so many younger fans and media outlets tracking her every word, she feels unable to be herself without judgment fully:
“People always wanna gag me, make me not be myself,” she told GQ. “I can’t be myself anymore…there’s certain music that I want to do, but I can’t, because people be like ‘That’s not acceptable.’” Her transition into global superstardom came with mounting pressure to tone aspects of herself down.
Gets Backlash For Candid Opinions
Cardi also feels she has faced unfair criticism for trying to speak her mind about social issues that matter to her. As an Afro-Latina woman who still views herself as connected to urban communities, she strives to voice political opinions affecting disenfranchised groups. But her detractors instead want her just to look pretty, not say anything controversial, and only entertain:
“So many people wanting me to shut up. Like, ‘Shut up, talk about the glitter on your dress! Why are you always talking about politics?’ Well, look what happened now,” Cardi vented on Instagram following controversial comments she made about President Biden in 2020. She hates feeling muzzled from showing depth beyond music.
Excessive Fame Is Isolating
The extreme wealth, public visibility, and sheer fame Cardi now has also contributed enormously to her unhappiness, based on the isolating effects. She has conveyed battling anxiety, loneliness, and depression triggered by the pressures.
Feels Disconnected From the Real World
In multiple interviews, Cardi has described struggling with feeling cut off from reality and everyday life due to her star status. Despite all eyes constantly being on her, it’s created more disconnection. She told Vogue that right after winning her Grammy in 2019, “I went back to my apartment, and I was so sad, so depressed because it’s like seven in the morning, I’m drunk, I have a headache, and I’m like ‘I’m alone in my apartment.’ Like, every little thing I do…it’s just not the same.”
Her attempts to party or indulge don’t fulfill her the same way anymore, knowing she lacks regular friendships and activities. The isolation overwhelms her.
Battling Anxiety and Depression
Cardi has also been very transparent about her issues coping with anxiety and depression. No matter how unique certain facets of fame may look on Instagram, she told i-D, “everybody sees it’s all happy and dandy, but sometimes I feel so low myself that I don’t even wanna feel better.” The loneliness, lack of freedom, and constantly feeling vulnerable to media attacks trigger both mental and emotional anguish.
She admits that “to be so high sometimes I just really get low, and I get depressed because it’s like ‘f***, I can’t believe I’m like this.’ Sometimes, I ask myself, am I doing too much? Am I disappointing God? Am I being a bad mom? Am I doing the right thing?” The pressures of fame multiply her tendency towards self-doubt and instability.
Her Goals Have Shifted
Finally, fame has corroded Cardi’s passion in that chasing more wealth, accolades, and #1 hits is not what motivates her like they may have earlier in her career during the rapid ascent. She sees clearer now how many of those superficial goals fail to create any lasting fulfillment.
In describing what ultimately drives her now beyond just chart success and flashy cars, she shared: “Now, my drive is my one-year-old. The things that I do now—everything that I’m trying to achieve is to make sure her world is bigger and better than mine.” Seeing how empty certain aspects of celebrity feel has refocused her on more grounded ambitions.
She Still Has Complicated Feelings on Fame
So, in summary, Cardi B harbors admittedly complex feelings about her superstar status rooted in feeling chained by visibility, forced to censor herself creatively, and often crippled by isolation and anxiety that celebrity naturally breeds. Her reactions tend to be hot and cold, where she oscillates between venting about burdens of fame and then posting ostentatious videos celebrating her chart accomplishments or luxury purchases.
Ultimately, she lives in a duality where she is grateful for the financial security and platform fame provides, yet simultaneously battles plenty of self-doubt and angst over the trade-offs it demands. And her on-again/off-again relationship with Offset likely amplifies those tensions. So, while fame has granted her extraordinary privilege and generational wealth that cannot be cast away, the 29-year-old star continues her quest to find purpose and sustainable happiness outside what any hit song or magazine cover may bring.
Conclusion
In closing, Cardi B’s conflicted perspectives on her fame underscore that no level of celebrity and critical acclaim can shield someone from struggles or emptiness. Her willingness to openly detail those pressures reveals her continued growth into one of music’s most multi-dimensional stars. She perhaps gives fans and observers a more realistic context of fame’s harsher realities often obscured by social media filters. Ultimately, by Cardi never pretending to have all the answers and instead expressing sincere vulnerability through the chaos, she shatters elusive illusions. She brings more humanity into mainstream spaces that desperately need it.
