Cardi B

Cardi B Bio

Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper and actress born on October 11, 1992, in New York City. She first gained public attention on the VH1 reality series Love & Hip Hop: New York before launching a chart-topping music career defined by her energetic delivery and outspoken personality.

Her 2018 debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, made her the first solo female artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. She has since expanded into acting, with roles in Hustlers and Baby Shark’s Big Movie!, while building a wide-ranging presence in fashion, business, and pop culture.

Early Life and Background

Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar was born on October 11, 1992, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, and raised in the Highbridge area of the South Bronx. Her father, Carlos, is Dominican, and her mother, Clara, is a Trinidadian of multiethnic descent; Cardi B identifies as Afro-Caribbean. She developed the stage name “Cardi B” as a play on Bacardi, a rum brand that had been her earlier nickname.

As a teenager, she worked at a grocery store in Tribeca before being fired and taking a job as a dancer at a strip club across the street. She has spoken publicly about stripping as a way to escape poverty and an abusive relationship, and she used the income to return to school and pursue an education.

She attended Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & Technology, a vocational school on the Herbert H. Lehman High School campus, and later studied at the Borough of Manhattan Community College before eventually dropping out. Her younger sister, Hennessy Carolina, born in 1995, later became a public figure in her own right, and rapper GloRilla is her biological cousin.

Path to Celebrity

Cardi B’s road to fame began on social media in 2013, when short clips of her sharp one-liners spread on Vine and Instagram. In 2015, she joined the cast of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York for its sixth season, where critics singled her out as the breakout star and praised her ability to deliver memorable quips on camera.

After two seasons, she announced in December 2016 that she was leaving the show to focus on music. She had already released her debut single and a video for “Cheap Ass Weave” in 2015, and her first mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1, arrived in March 2016, setting the stage for her mainstream breakthrough.

Cardi B Career

Early Career (2015–2016)

Cardi B’s first notable work in entertainment came through reality television. Her appearances on Love & Hip Hop: New York and the digital cover of Vibe magazine’s “Viva” issue in November 2016 helped establish her as a rising personality. In November 2015, she made her musical debut on the remix of Shaggy’s “Boom Boom,” and she released her first music video, “Cheap Ass Weave,” in December of that year.

She followed with her first mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1, in March 2016, and joined the BET series Being Mary Jane in the same year. Her first major endorsement deal came in 2016 with Romantic Depot, a New York lingerie chain, which ran across radio and cable television.

Breakthrough (2017–2018)

In late February 2017, Cardi B signed her first major record deal with Atlantic Records. On June 16, 2017, she released the commercial single “Bodak Yellow,” which climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated September 25, 2017, making her the first solo female rapper to top the Hot 100 since Lauryn Hill in 1998. The song was later certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Her debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, was released on April 6, 2018, and entered the Billboard 200 at number one. The album produced the number-one singles “I Like It” featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, and “Girls Like You” with Maroon 5, extending her record-setting run. At the 61st Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, Invasion of Privacy won Best Rap Album, making her the first solo female artist to take the award.

Film and Television (2019–2024)

Cardi B made her film debut in Hustlers, released on September 13, 2019, starring alongside Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, and Lili Reinhart. The same year, she served as a judge and executive producer on the Netflix hip-hop competition series Rhythm + Flow, which premiered on October 9, 2019.

She took a brief role in the Universal Pictures film F9, released on June 25, 2021, and voiced the character Sharki B in the Nickelodeon animated series Baby Shark’s Big Show! beginning in April 2022. She reprised the voice role in the children’s animated film Baby Shark’s Big Movie!, which premiered in December 2023 on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon. In addition, she co-executive produced Halle Berry’s directorial debut, the sports drama Bruised, released via Netflix on November 17, 2021, and performed the original song “Bet It” for the film’s soundtrack.

Notable Works and Milestones

Cardi B’s signature work remains Invasion of Privacy, which Rolling Stone ranked as the best debut album of all time by a female rapper. The album has been certified six-times platinum by the RIAA, and in September 2025, it became the first album in history with all of its tracks certified platinum or higher in the United States. Her collaborations “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion and “Up” extended her record as the female rapper with the most number-one singles on the Hot 100.

Cardi B Award Nominations

Cardi B has received a large number of nominations across major industry ceremonies throughout her career. She has earned multiple nominations at the Grammy Awards, including for Album of the Year, Best Rap Album, Record of the Year, and Best Rap Performance for tracks such as “I Like It” and “Enough (Miami).”

She has also collected nominations at the American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, BET Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards, Brit Awards, Billboard Music Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and MOBO Awards, reflecting her broad recognition across music and pop culture.

Cardi B Awards Won

Cardi B’s first major award came with her 2019 Grammy win for Best Rap Album, honoring Invasion of Privacy and making her the first solo female artist to take the category. She has also collected nine American Music Awards, eight Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, four NAACP Image Awards, four Soul Train Music Awards, and fourteen BET Hip Hop Awards.

In 2019 and 2020, she won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award, becoming the first female rapper to receive the honor and the first female songwriter to win it twice. Time included her on its 2018 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Billboard named her Woman of the Year in 2020.

Cardi B Family

Cardi B’s younger sister, Hennessy Carolina, was born in 1995 and has appeared alongside her in public projects. The rapper GloRilla is her biological cousin, with GloRilla’s father being a half-sibling of one of Cardi B’s parents.

She was raised in a Caribbean household, with her father’s Dominican roots and her mother’s Trinidadian background shaping her early life. Cardi B has described herself as Afro-Latina and Afro-Caribbean, and has spoken about the importance of preserving those roots.

Personal Life

Cardi B began dating fellow rapper Offset in early 2017, and the two secretly married in September 2017, with the news becoming public in June 2018. The couple share a daughter, Kulture Kiari Cephus, born in 2018, and a son, Wave Set Cephus, born in 2021. Cardi B gave birth to a second daughter on September 7, 2024, and announced her fourth pregnancy in September 2025, welcoming a son with NFL player Stefon Diggs in November of that year. In February 2026, she confirmed that she and Diggs had split.

She filed for divorce from Offset in July 2024, and the pair’s relationship status has been widely covered in entertainment media throughout her career. Cardi B identifies as bisexual and has discussed her Catholic faith publicly.