Following her first-ever Grammy win on Sunday, many people are saying rapper Cardi B didn’t deserve to win the ‘Best Rap Album’ award.
In response to the backlash, six-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga, took it upon herself to defend the Invasion of Privacy rapper. She posted a supportive message calling her “brave” on Twitter along with a picture of the two together at last week’s ceremony.
“It is so hard to be a woman in this industry,” said Gaga. “What it takes, how hard we work through the disrespectful challenges, just to make art.”
“I love you Cardi,” she added. “You deserve your awards. Let’s celebrate her fight. Lift her up and honour her. She is brave.”
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Much of the backlash was caused by Ariana Grande, after she lashed out about the news. The 25-year-old was expecting the late-Mac Miller to win for his 2018 record, Swimming. Miller was Grande’s ex-boyfriend.
It was Miller’s first and unfortunately last-ever Grammy nomination. He was up against Cardi B, Travis Scott, Pusha T and Nipsey Hussle. His parents showed up to the ceremony on his behalf.
Grande called the loss “trash” and “literal bulls**t” among other things. While the Thank U, Next singer claimed the since-deleted tweets were not aimed at Cardi B, many of her fans took it as an invitation to send the rapper hateful messages via social media.
As a result, Cardi B deleted her Instagram account to escape the influx of criticism.
READ MORE: Nicki Minaj cancels BET headline slot after network’s offensive Cardi B tweet
While many seemed to be against Cardi B’s win, the Black Entertainment Awards (or BET) used it as a jab towards Nicki Minaj.
The two have a long history of feuding, however, they called a truce over social media last October.
BET referenced Minaj while congratulating Cardi B on her award for best rap album, which was the first time in history it’s ever been done by a solo female.
The tweet was attached to an article titled, “Cardi B Is The First Solo Female Rapper To Win Best Rap Album, And Fans Are Weeping” and the tweet read, “Meanwhile, Nicki Minaj is being dragged by her lacefront.”
Minaj took offence to the post and tweeted in response, “Young Money will no longer be apart of the BET Experience or award show,” she wrote with hearts and a praying hand emoji. “Summer Tour dates dropping soon,” she added.
Young Money Entertainment is Lil Wayne‘s own record label. Minaj is one of the company’s longtime clients.
BET has since apologized to Minaj and her fans for the tweet. The Good Form rapper continued to tweet out fan comments that “dragged” them.
“Meanwhile, BET is being dragged by their lace front,” Minaj captioned screenshots of the comments.
BET’s original tweet has since been deleted, and the article was reshared with another caption.
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Cardi B posted a rage-fueled expletive-filled video before deleting her Instagram account saying, “It’s not my style for people to put other people down to uplift somebody else.”
“That’s not my style and that’s not what I’m with. I don’t support that,” she began.
“However, I been taking a lot of sh*t today, I’m seeing a lot of bullsh*t today and I saw a lot of sh*t last night. And I’m sick of this sh*t. I worked hard for my motherf**king album.”
(WARNING: This video contains explicit language.)
“I remember last year when I didn’t win for Bodak Yellow, everybody was like, ‘Cardi got snubbed, Cardi got snubbed.’ Now this year’s a f**king problem?” she said. “My album went two-time platinum, my n***a.”
“Every chart that there was, my album was always top 10,” she continued. “Number one album as well. I f**king worked my a** off, locked myself in the studio for three months, my n***a, then went to sleep in my own bed, sometimes for four days straight, pregnant.”
“Some songs couldn’t even get on the f**king album because my nose was so f**king stuffy from my pregnancy. N***as couldn’t sleep, n***as couldn’t do sh*t,” she concluded.
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As of this writing, Cardi B has not addressed Grande’s comments.
Grande did, however, share her support on the rapper’s post. She wrote a series of hearts as her way of congratulating the fellow Grammy winner.
You can find the full list of Grammy winners and nominees in the main categories here.
— With files from Katie Scott