Cardi B has deleted her Instagram account after Azealia Banks hit out at her in an interview, calling her a “caricature of a black woman”.
The two had a brief feud last year when Banks called Cardi B a “poor man’s Nicki Minaj” and accused her of using a ghostwriter on her hit ‘Bodak Yellow’.
In an interview yesterday (May 11), Banks again hit out at the rap phenomenon, accusing her of lowering the bar of black women’s culture. “This is gonna sound really deep and like a lot of ideas all at once,” she said. “This is verbal stream of consciousness. When I look at black women’s culture, you think about the power the media has. The media had the power to get rid of me and they have the power to make anyone the forefront – ‘this is what we’re trying to grab black women’s consciousness with right now.’
“I think that it’s very concerning to me, that this conversation surrounding black women’s culture changes,” she continued. “Maybe two years ago, the conversation surrounding black women’s culture was reaching an all-time high. We were discussing our power amongst ourselves. Beyoncé came out with ‘Lemonade’ and there was a really intelligent conversation going on nationally. And then, everything just kind of changed and then it was, like, Cardi B.”
Banks added that ‘Invasion Of Privacy’ star was a “culture shock” to her. “I’m just talking about this caricature of a black woman that black women themselves would never be able to get away with,” she said. “If my spelling and grammar was that bad, I’d be cancelled. If Nicki Minaj spelled like that, you’d just be ragging on her all day.
“I don’t understand how we go from Beyoncé, ‘Lemonade’, and Solange, Black Lives Matter, and all of these conversations to this. I know we’re not monolithic, but come on… I just don’t understand the extreme lack of couth. I’ve never seen that at the forefront of female rap. I didn’t know the bar would be lowered so much. It was kind of like a culture shock.”
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Cardi B responded to Banks’ comments in a lengthy Instagram post before she deleted her account. “You busy trying to be a voice of reason and a representative for women of colour when you can’t even reason with yourself,” she wrote. Later, she added: “Just because I mix a few words up, forget to use commas or misspell a few words doesn’t make me illiterate and doesn’t make me stupid. And because I laugh a little harder or talk a little louder doesn’t make me a caricature!
“You think your advocating for women and your doing the opposite! I pray you find peace in your own heart and reason in your mind! Pray for your own success before you pray for the downfall of others!”
In another post, Cardi said: “I’m not apologising or killing myself because of who I am.” She has also set her Twitter account to private, and wrote on there: “I’m tired of the bullshit. I need to enjoy my pregnancy, family, new projects, and my partner. Listen to Invasion of privacy.”