The Rise of Cardi B

Happy Birthday, Cardi! While we love bumping “Bodak Yellow” every chance we get, we’ve been following our girl since her days on Instagram. Check out how much the queen has grown and flourished with this trip down memory lane.

1. 2013: "Washpoppin?"

At the age of 19, Cardi took a recommendation from a former co-worker that she claims saved her life. To save herself from poverty, she started stripping. “It really saved me from a lot of things,” she said. “When I started stripping I went back to school.”

2. 2013-15: "A Hoe Never Gets Cold"

The Trinidadian/Dominican personality took off on social media with the help of Vine and Instagram. Whether it was in a hilarious video of her in bed wearing a bonnet or one showing off the scandalous outfits she wore to the club, she always had a joke or a valuable lesson to share.

3. 2015: "I Feel So Damn Powerful"

The social media starlet took her platform to the next level by joining season six of ‘Love and Hip Hop.’ While her beefs and scandals reeled in the ratings, she decided to leave the series in 2016 to focus on her music career.

4. 2016: "We Gon' Beef Foreva"

In 2016, Cardi debuted her first mixtape, ‘Gangsta Bitch Mixtape Vol. 1.’ Hits such as “Foreva” and “On Fleek” made the way for what would be a successful career.

5. 2017: "Gimme Shmoney"

After debuting her second mixtape, ‘Gangsta Bitch Mixtape Vol. 2,’ at the top of 2017, the queen signed her first recording contract with Atlantic Records.

6. 2017: "You Can't Fuck With Me If You Wanted To"

Cardi released her first single with Atlantic Records in June 2017. “Bodak Yellow” made radio waves and became the most lit hit of the summer.

7. 2017: Money Moves

In September 2017, her first mainstream single broke records as the first song by a woman in hop-hop to hit the Billboard Hot 100 number one spot since Lauryn Hill. And it just became the longest running number one by a solo woman artist of all time.