Cardi B Saw Her Musical Ambition as a ‘Silly Dream’ After Getting Kicked Out by Her Parents

When Cardi B was in high school, she had dreams of her musical talent lifting her to fame. The rapper wanted to emulate some of the artists who inspired her and felt that this was in her grasp. After her parents kicked her out of the house, though, her priorities changed. Cardi began to focus on other ways of surviving. 

Cardi B didn’t think her musical ambition was going to take her anywhere 

Cardi attended a performing arts school in New York. There, she focused on developing her musical education.

“I went to a high school for performing arts,” she told Mariah Carey in a conversation for Interview Magazine. “I used to sing, I used to rap, I used to act, all that s***.”

Shortly after she graduated, though, her parents kicked her out of the house for fighting with her younger sister. After losing her job, she began stripping as a way to make ends meet. She said that she let her musical ambition go by the wayside. 

“Once I started having troubles at home and got kicked out, I saw everything I did in high school as a silly dream,” she said. “It wasn’t reality anymore.”

She finally found her way back to the music industry after her manager told her to look into it.

“I had a manager, and every time we would be in the car driving to bookings and s***, I always used to remix songs and he’d be like, ‘Yo, you’re really quick and witty. You be having these bars,’” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ He was like, ‘I produced some songs before for Lil’ Kim. Why don’t you try doing music?’”

While she initially thought this would be a waste of her time, she eventually agreed to try.