My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman (2018) s04e03 Episode Script
Cardi B
1
[Letterman] What are you doing tonight?
Well, tonight, I'm planning to get
my mustache waxed and my eyebrows waxed.
I'm sorry
-I'm sorry, you said, "mustache"?
-Yeah.
Right there, see?
You know, you don't
you don't have a mustache.
I have a lot of makeup covering it,
but it's very visible right now.
-Really?
-Yeah. It's keeping my lips warm. [laughs]
Oh. I didn't know
-You asked me what I'd do tonight.
-[Letterman] I know.
And I made it a priority,
I have to get it done today.
What do they do to it?
They just, you know, wax it off.
[clicking tongue]
Is it painful?
Yeah. It's not my favorite thing to do.
Yeah, I was thinking
maybe I need to get my mustache waxed.
No. That
I feel like you would bleed a lot.
[laughs]
[audience cheering]
[theme music playing]
[upbeat ambient music playing]
[Letterman] I like your dress.
[Cardi B] Thank you.
Welcome to my side of town.
-You ever been in this building before?
-Never been here before.
Isn't it cool?
-Yes, cool.
-Very cool.
Who are these people?
Leave her alone! Get away from this woman.
Oh, you got some people too.
-[Cardi B giggles]
-[Letterman laughs]
How are the kids?
They're good. I love them.
Hard to be away from them
on a thing like this, isn't it?
'Cause when my son was born,
when I would just go to the store,
I'd want to get right back to see him.
It must be crazy for you.
Yes. I just went to court, right?
And I had to be away from my kids
for two weeks,
and I literally was going crazy.
[Letterman] Yeah.
Because when you get back,
little changes have taken place.
-Yes.
-You feel like, "I've missed something!"
-Yeah, especially when it's a baby.
-How old is the baby now?
-[Cardi B] Four months.
-[Letterman] Do we have a name?
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
-[Letterman] What's the name?
It hasn't come out yet,
but I could tell you in your ear.
So, you named the baby Roger?
Yeah. [laughs]
[laughs]
-Uh, and his older sister, Kulture?
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
[Letterman] Yeah. That's very cute.
Congratulations.
Do you remember anything
about your parents raising you
that you use to raise your kids?
Um, I remember everything,
but I just feel like
we're raising them differently.
-What were your parents like with you?
-[Cardi B] Well, my mom was very strict.
When I tell you
my mom didn't even let me go
to a movie theater,
like to the movies or anything, no.
-She was like, "I want to go with you."
-[Letterman] Really?
I don't think I'm as strict,
but I could tell with my daughter,
she has a lot of personality.
-She's very manipulative.
-[Letterman laughs]
When I was younger, grown-ups
used to be like, "You look very slick."
And I used to wonder,
"What does that mean?"
But when I look at my daughter,
she just has this slick look
that I know what people mean.
-Let me tell you, she's very slick.
-[laughs]
For example?
Like, if I was to tell her
that I say no to something,
she'll go to her dad.
And it's like, "Dad,
Mommy said that I can have ice cream
because I'm hot."
And you're not hot.
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] You grew up here,
right in the Bronx. Is that correct?
Yeah, in the Bronx
and, like, Washington Heights.
[Letterman] Mm-hmm. Yeah.
-My grandmother, she's Trinidadian.
-Mm-hmm.
My grandfather, he's Spaniard,
and then he lived in Trinidad
for a long time.
And that's where he met my grandmother,
but they came here.
The whole family is here.
And my dad is Dominican.
I read that you lived near
like 37 cousins in this neighborhood.
Is that true?
Yeah, all my cousins,
all my family members live in New York.
And the ones from my mother's side,
-they had 12 kids.
-Mm-hmm.
And, like, each kid
had, like, four or five kids.
-I mean, my dad himself had eight kids.
-Okay.
So I have a lot of family members.
Yeah. Did they all help raise one another,
or just get together
on holidays and picnics and stuff?
[Cardi B] I used to see my cousins
all the time.
Even when I became a teenager
and everything,
uh, me and my cousins,
we used to cut school together.
-What would you do when you cut school?
-Go to hooky parties.
-Go to hooky parties?
-[laughs]
I don't know what a hooky party is.
[chuckles]
-It's bad. [laughs]
-[Letterman] Really?
Yes.
Well, give me a hint.
I don't know what kids nowadays do now,
but, like, when I used to go
to hooky parties,
we used to, like, literally just dance,
and probably drink alcohol.
Probably smoke weed.
Sometimes, we would see the police coming,
so we'd hop out the of the fire escape.
We used to run out the apartments
from the fire escape.
Nobody wanted to get caught.
Well, I must say, this description
makes it seem like nothing but fun.
-[laughs]
-It was kinda fun.
I remember one time
I was going to a hooky party,
and I randomly saw my cousin on the train
going to the same hooky party!
-[laughs]
-That was so fun.
-Yeah.
-To me, that was so fun.
Yeah, and when I was a kid,
I only did that once.
My senior year in high school,
me and my buddies
thought we were big shots.
-Yeah.
-[Letterman] And one afternoon,
we just ditched school
and we went skateboarding.
-[Cardi B] You know what?
-Once. Once!
Oh. [clicks tongue]
-What kind of grades did you get?
-[Cardi B] Bad grades.
Because I was very smart,
but I also had my popular life.
Know what I'm saying? I wanted to be
in the parties. I don't want to miss it.
Did you ever get caught going to a party?
Did your mother ever find out?
And how much longer
do I have to say "hooky party"?
-We can stop.
-[Letterman] Thank you.
Did your mom ever catch you?
She kind of used to find out
I was skipping school when
What would she do? What discipline?
-She just didn't let me go out.
-Mm-hmm.
I think I was grounded
my whole teenage life.
My whole teenage life I was grounded.
I was never un-grounded.
So I'd just do things,
like, when I skip school.
You look back on it now
and everything was
You were more or less happy as a kid?
It was tough seeing my mom work so hard.
[Letterman] What did she do?
So she was a cashier on the weekdays
for a university.
And in the weekends, she would work
It was almost like a small Home Depot.
It was called Home Front.
But every single night,
she would take hours and cook.
Like, it's like I don't have that energy.
What I know of you, what I've seen of you,
your energy is, uh, inestimable.
-It's incredible, it's endless.
-[Cardi B] Yes.
Yes, but me, like, once I get home,
I do not have the energy
to freaking cook a whole meal.
-I just don't have it.
-Mm-hmm.
I don't know how she used to do that.
-[Letterman] And your father?
-[Cardi B] My dad was a cab driver.
My parents separated when I was around 13.
And this is terrible to say.
It wasn't horrible to me
because I felt like,
"Now that my dad is not living with us,
I have a little bit more freedom."
[laughs]
I had a little bit more freedom,
so I could do more things
-[Letterman] Yeah.
-while my mom was at work.
While your mom was working two jobs,
cooking all night.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
-Yeah. Yeah.
[upbeat ambient music playing]
-[Cardi B] We're gonna get chopped cheese.
-Look at this menu. I want one of each.
[Cardi B] That's a lot.
I don't think you'll be able to eat all.
-[Letterman] We'll be here till Labor Day.
-[laughs]
[Letterman] This stuff is beautiful.
All right, the chopped che What is it?
It's called a chopped cheese,
and it's delicious.
And And I feel like it has become
our staple food these past ten years.
Green peppers, onions, mayonnaise,
ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes?
-[Cardi B] I don't want no pepper on it.
-I'll have the same.
-Mayonnaise, ketchup, tomatoes?
-Yeah.
And yours is? Just chopped,
mayonnaise, lettuce, onions?
-Yeah. We get tomato?
-Yeah, whatever you want.
Everything but the peppers.
-Got it.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
-And, uh, we have no money.
-[Cardi B laughs]
-[jazz music playing]
-[sizzling]
[Letterman] When's the last time
you had one?
Oh, I think about two, three months ago.
Yeah, I get them often.
-[Letterman] Does your daughter eat 'em?
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
Let me see the nails.
Oh my goodness.
Have you ever been at a place
where somebody comes around
with hors d'oeuvres
and you just spear one with your nail?
-I do it all the time.
-[Letterman] You don't.
Yes, I do. Especially with sushi, like
[laughs]
[Cardi B] See? That's the chopping.
[Letterman] Oh, there we go.
I like the steam rolling off of that.
[Cardi B] It actually look good.
Look how the cheese
-See that cheese?
-[man] Nice and melted.
-[Letterman] Beautiful.
-Fucking melted!
That's the beauty of New York.
Like, you can literally
get anything at any time.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-I don't know how to drive. Do you?
Wait a minute.
Why don't you know how to drive?
-They never taught me.
-Who never taught you?
-My parents.
-[Letterman] For heaven's sakes.
Why am I just finding this out now?
I don't know. I feel like a lot
of New Yorkers don't know how to drive.
-My friend, you know how to drive?
-[man] Yes.
-[Cardi B] Just me then. [laughs]
-I'll teach you to drive.
I can teach you to drive tomorrow.
I can get your license tomorrow.
One-stop shopping.
I'll teach you how to drive,
I'll get your license, your insurance,
and your down payment on a car.
-[laughs]
-[upbeat jazz music playing]
Do you know they opened
a chopped cheese truck in LA?
[Letterman] I'd never heard of them
till last week.
See? And we did that.
I don't care what nobody say.
The fucking Bronx made the chopped cheese!
The Bronx made the chopped cheese!
Don't let nobody
from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens
tell you that they made
the chopped cheese.
That shit started in the Bronx, period.
-Oh!
-Ooh.
-[both laughing]
-[man] That was close.
That happened once when
-You ever been to Australia?
-Yes.
-Did you ever have kangaroo steaks?
-No.
-That's not real.
-[Letterman] It is.
I made the mistake of ordering mine rare,
and the bastard hopped off my plate.
No way! [laughs] I knew you was playing.
I'm gonna try
my motherfucker right here.
[laughs]
-Oh my God.
-[Cardi B] That's good.
-[man] I did it?
-[Cardi B] Mm-hmm.
This reminds me of something
that my mom used to make.
-[man] There you go, sir.
-Thank you very much.
Wow, that's really good.
-Good, and good for you.
-Not that good for you, but you know.
I can feel arterial veins clogging.
[Cardi B] It's good for the soul.
All right, we got to go.
Thank you very much.
-Thank you for stopping by.
-[Letterman] I appreciate it.
[Letterman] When did you learn
that you had this in you?
I went to a school
called Renaissance High School
for Musical Theater and Technology.
And I always wanted to be an artist.
I thought I could sing back then,
you know what I'm saying?
But it's almost like
a popularity contest, and
you kind of forget
what you go to school for.
Right.
And after I graduated high school,
I completely forgot about my dreams.
I forgot about being an artist,
I forgot about being anything.
All I put my head into was,
"What can make me money?"
"What can make me successful fast?
What could get me out of situations?"
[Letterman] When I was a sophomore
in high school, I figured out
what I wanted to do with my life,
and everything else became secondary.
But you're saying, in your case, you knew,
but then that left you when you graduated.
Where does that come from?
All right, so I was pretty rebellious
when I was a teenager.
Beyond the hooky parties?
Oop, I said it again.
[Cardi B] Beyond the hooky parties, yeah.
Because my mom practically,
like, kicked me out 'cause I just
I just wasn't, uh
You know, I wasn't there.
And, uh, I lived in my boyfriend's house.
Was your mother crushed that you moved out
and moved in with your friend?
[Cardi B] Yes. She was crushed,
but, um, she also felt like it was
an experience that I needed to have.
'Cause once I left home,
-I saw how good I had it.
-[Letterman] Yeah.
When you're a teenager, you be like,
"I can't wait till I turn 18
so I can get the fuck out this house!"
I feel like all teenagers say that,
all of them,
and I was one of those.
But I always tell people,
"Stay at your mama's house
as long and as much as you can."
"Trust me, her rules
are not as bad as the real world."
-Right.
-She was the reason why I went to college.
Even after I got kicked out of home,
I made a decision to go to college
because I did not want to disappoint her.
College was very important to her,
so I went.
And where did you go to college?
I went to college
-in Chambers Street, BMCC.
-Mm-hmm.
I went for a couple of semesters,
and I just dropped out.
What things did you study there?
-Uh, I took political science.
-Oh. Well, there you go.
Yeah, I took Western Civilization.
And why did you leave?
Because it seems to me,
and again, knowing what I know of you now,
but the political science,
there's a pretty good connection there.
First of all, to go to college here,
just because they give you financial aid,
you still need money.
And I didn't really had a job.
I got a job around my school,
and it just wasn't enough.
I was getting 250 a week.
A place called the Amish Market,
that you got the job?
-Yes.
-Was it operated
Horse and buggies out front?
That's what I always asked.
I was like, "Nothing about this is Amish."
-[laughing]
-"Nothing about this place is Amish."
The food was very delicious, very organic.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-It doesn't mean Amish, but okay.
-It was ran by Turkish people. [laughs]
-[Letterman] What did you do there?
Once you do those jobs, it's like cashier,
-but you also gotta stock shelves.
-Sure.
Put pricing on items.
A whole bunch of things.
My experience was one
of the best jobs I ever had.
I worked in high school, and part-time
in college, at the supermarket.
I loved it. Loved everything about it.
The only thing I really liked about it
was that sometimes I would get free lunch.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-But other than that, I hated it.
It was just so busy all the time,
and the coldness of the refrigerator,
people coming in and out.
I was always freezing. I hated it.
Yeah. Well, you quit
the, uh, grocery store,
and then you begin working as a dancer.
Do I have this correct?
-Yes.
-Yeah.
Now this was also
not operated by Amish people?
No, it wasn't.
[both laughing]
[Cardi B] No, they was not.
I really didn't know
what I was getting myself into at all.
But this experience, while I think
others would find it difficult,
was important to you,
and a learning and growing experience.
It was a learning and growing experience
because you have to invest in yourself.
You have to invest
in your makeup, in your hair,
in your outfit, in your body.
You have to be top-tier look
to make top-tier money.
And on top of that, you need to learn
how to talk and how to entice.
Some girls don't have that.
So sometimes a girl will ask herself,
"Why I'm leaving with $200 a night
and this other girl
is leaving with $3,000 a night?"
And you start to think,
"I'm prettier than her.
I dance better than her."
"I'm this-and-that about her."
No, you need to learn the game.
And I feel like I learned.
It took me, like, a year to learn.
And little by little,
I started like, "Oh, okay."
Just, like, when I came out on that stage,
I looked amazing.
But the goal is always to get out.
The goal is always to make enough money
so you can invest in things.
Yeah.
I always said, "I want
to make at least $200,000."
"I want to open a laundromat.
I want to open a salon."
"I just want a business
to get me the fuck out of here."
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-I was just very fortunate
that the way I got out
was following my dreams.
I'm number one! I'm number one!
[Letterman] When you're working
at this club,
this is when you start
posting stuff on Instagram?
Yeah, and that just became,
like, an overnight thing.
I just one day came home from work,
and I was a little frustrated.
I just had a break-up.
Let me tell you something, Instagram.
I'm not in the mood today.
I was just ranting about men
and people in the strip clubs,
and my videos started
to go viral very quickly.
Y'all promoters need to stop
putting me in these expensive hotels.
Nothing's fucking free,
the water's, like, five dollars.
Put me in the Quality Inn,
the Comfort Inn.
They give motherfucking
complimentary breakfast and shit,
with the waffle maker.
At first, it was kind of cool,
it was kind of funny.
And then I'm starting
to get booked around America
'cause people just wanted to see me
and meet me and just be friends with me.
And I I was very overwhelmed
with the love.
I had a manager at the time,
and I told him, "I really want to get
on this show called Love & Hip Hop."
I'm just a regular degular
shmegular girl from the Bronx.
What's popping? [groaning]
And, of course,
it gave me a bigger platform,
it gave me a TV platform.
And people, I guess,
fell more in love with me again.
-[Letterman chuckles]
-I told myself,
"When I go on this show,
I'm gonna stop dancing
because I just want to take
my music career seriously,
and I want to take this"
[inhales deeply]
"I want to get out of here."
And I feel like that was my window.
When did the music overtake you,
uh, at this point?
When I used to, you know, drive
to these host things and everything,
and rap songs would come up,
I would start, like,
you know, doing quick rhymes,
changing the words around
very quickly, swiftly.
And my manager was like,
"Have you ever rapped on a beat?"
"Have you ever write something?
Ever write a rhyme?"
And I was like, "No, I just be coming up
with shit in my head."
And he was like, "Why don't you try it?"
And I'm like, "For what?" [laughs]
"For what?"
Like, there's a million people
that are doing what I do.
What makes me think
that I'm going to be the one?
I understand that.
On the other hand, it's part of you.
It's part of the mechanism.
It's part of what got you where you are.
So, you know, I don't think anything
needs to be changed.
I think a little self-doubt
is helpful in humans.
I always been a person
that always feels like
I just set realistic goals for myself.
And, like, becoming a rapper,
to me, was like a dream.
But he took me to his home,
and in his basement,
he had, like, a whole studio.
So he just started playing
different beats, different beats,
and he was like, "Pick it.
Pick any beat you want."
And I picked a couple.
And from there, I just started,
like, writing slick things.
Going inside the booth, coming out,
going in, coming out, coming in.
It was that quick?
He wouldn't let me leave
until I write and recorded something.
I'm like, "This shit sounds fucking dumb."
He just kept saying, "You're doing
a good job. What are you talking about?"
[laughs] Why did it sound dumb?
Because I hadn't done it before.
I didn't like my voice.
And I'm just like, "Let me go home.
I want to go home."
That's interesting, because, typically,
a person in this situation
struggles with other people
telling them to go home.
Just, "You can't do this, go home."
But you're telling yourself,
"I can't do this. I should go home."
I just felt weird doing it, like,
and hearing my voice and sounding silly.
And then, like, the next day,
my manager at the time,
he kept saying, "You need to finish
the song you started yesterday."
I'm like, "You really serious about this?
Boy, if you don't leave me alone."
He's like, "No, I'm serious."
He picked me up, and then make me
he make me finish it.
He goes, "You just gotta find your voice.
You gotta perfect it."
And then we just started
working on that song.
And we worked and worked on that song
for, I'll say, about two, three weeks.
He was like, "We have to do a music video
to this song. This song sounds good."
-What was the song?
-Uh, used to be like
I need all my money makers
Bring that cash out ♪
I need all my D-boys to bring ♪
[laughing]
I was still a stripper at the time.
And you know what?
I started liking the idea of it,
and I just kept going,
and I finally found my voice.
It's fascinating to me
how stuff like this, uh, works out.
-Yeah.
-Because if it had not been this guy,
would have been somebody else,
would have been yourself,
or maybe it never
would have happened. I mean, it's
But it did,
and the results are incredible.
-Yeah.
-[Letterman] The success, remarkable.
You're nominated for Grammys.
You have number one best-selling songs.
And to think about the process
that you just described,
-that's a pretty good distance to cover.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
Once I started loving it
and taking it serious
and believing in myself,
I wanted to be the best.
"WAP" debuts to 93 million US streams,
the most for a song
in opening weekend history.
I wanna say thank you so much,
Megan Thee Stallion.
Like, I hope
I hope you're just as happy as I am.
Uh, "Wet Ass Pussy."
-[chuckles]
-[Letterman] Um
What exactly are we talking about?
Wet ass pussy.
[laughs]
It's fun to say, isn't it?
-It's naughty.
-[Letterman] Yeah.
How does this come to you,
in writing the song?
Well, it all came with the beat.
The beat goes
There's some hoes in this house
There's some hoes in this house ♪
There's some hoes in this house
There's some hoes in this house ♪
As soon as I heard that beat,
I was just like,
"What is the freakiest things
I could say?"
[Letterman laughs]
What is it meant to mean,
what is it meant to be, the song?
Is it funny? Is it, uh, just naughty?
Is it, uh, to just get people
worked up for no reason?
That song got a lot of people worked up.
I didn't understand it
because this is not the naughtiest
to me, it's not like the naughtiest song
that I ever heard in hip-hop.
We have Trina and Lil' Kim and Khia and
So many rappers that came before me
that said a lot of freaky-deeky stuff.
But a lot of people was asking me,
"Do you let your daughter
hear those lyrics?"
It's like, "No, I don't let my daughter
hear those lyrics."
It's like, "But why is it okay for you
to do those songs to our kids?"
It's like, "You do know
that you have a choice"
-Yeah.
-"to not let your kids hear this music."
-Like, you have a choice.
-Yeah.
There's a long list of things
more important to worry about than this.
Yes, especially right now.
It's a lot going on right now.
You mentioned you studied
political science
when you went to college,
and you got involved with Bernie Sanders,
-and supporting, also, President Biden.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
Uh, were people upset
that you worked with Bernie Sanders?
Why would that upset somebody?
The presidential elections was going,
and every time that I put out a statement
or a tweet about voting, they're like,
"What do you know about voting?
What do you know about America?"
"All you know is about wet ass pussy.
You're a bad example to your kids."
It's a hard time right now,
and I feel like no matter who's in power,
they're gonna have a difficult time
dealing with it.
[breezy jazz music playing]
Look at this. "The test of our progress
is not whether we add more
to the abundance of those who have much,
it is whether we provide enough
for those who have too little."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
That's it. That's the problem
of the human existence.
You know what I'm saying?
-Yeah.
-Let's go over here.
Social security and labor reforms and
-Unions.
-Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
The reason why I got into so much FDR,
and presidents, period,
was because I wasn't able
to make a school trip in third grade.
-Why not?
-I kinda forgot.
I think because I was behaving bad.
Oh. So you were not allowed
to go on the trip?
Yeah, I was not allowed to go on the trip.
So I had to sit,
like, in the principal's office
'cause I think the whole third grade
went to this trip.
And there was just books to read,
and I read a book
about Eleanor Roosevelt.
But, like, from the first page,
I saw that we had the same birthday,
and I guess that really excited me.
So I started reading
about Eleanor Roosevelt.
I'd go to the library,
I wanted to read about her,
then I started getting into her husband,
and then I just started, like,
just reading forever about presidents.
[Letterman] Anything here reminiscent
of your conversations with Bernie Sanders?
I always felt like Bernie Sanders
is like a natural humanitarian.
When I spoke to him,
I felt like it wasn't like a bluff.
It wasn't, like, pandering.
This is what he always wanted.
-He didn't seem phony to you?
-No, he didn't seem phony to me.
[Cardi B] Very handsome.
Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry.
Are you familiar with the fireside chat?
This was the way the president would try
to keep the spirits of America positive,
and he would talk to them on the radio.
[Cardi B] That's kind of the beauty
of back then.
You only had, like,
two, three stations to hear.
So I feel like the whole country
kind of knew what was going on.
Sometimes I feel like people don't know
what's going on because
We have so much choices now,
there's thousands of channels on TV.
They want to see celebrity gossip
or fun things. You know what I'm saying?
Last night, did you see The Bachelor?
-No, I don't watch The Bachelor.
-Oh.
-I never watched that show.
-Really? Oh man, it was crazy last night.
With the rose? [whistles]
Let's keep moving.
[laughs]
-[Cardi B] This is a middle-class home
-[Letterman] In the 1930s.
-Ugly, but
-This is what my house looks like.
-Right now?
-Yes.
-No way.
-Yeah.
I picked out the wallpaper. Home Depot.
Let me see pictures.
[laughs]
-I refuse to believe your home
-[Letterman] Come up to the place one day.
[Cardi B] How much you think this costs?
In the old days, when it was brand new,
it was probably less than $100.
But in today's money,
that would be six, $700,000.
-No. No way.
-I don't know if I have the
Try not to ask questions
that make me look stupid.
-[Cardi B] Okay.
-Thank you.
All right, do you know that, back then,
going to war, it was such a big honor?
And everybody, like,
praised soldiers as much.
I don't feel like it is the same today.
I think a difference then
was we were attacked.
And collectively, as a nation,
up and down, left and right,
Americans rallied to defend themselves.
So it was a collective effort.
Everybody felt that sense.
I don't know
that people feel that way now.
I mean, I feel sometimes that people,
as a whole, don't love America as much.
-And I could understand that sometimes.
-Why do you think that happened?
-Mmm
-They take it for granted.
Seem to take a lot of things for granted.
-They take a lot of things for granted.
-I'm guilty of that.
We do take a lot of things for granted.
We definitely have more freedom
than other countries,
however, not all Americans get treated
the same.
So sometimes people feel a little cheated,
and people feel a little hurt,
and people feel a little unappreciated.
And sometimes people
just want to feel appreciated.
And maybe we could appreciate America
a little bit more.
[Letterman] Right.
There is a lot of freedom in this country
that, sometimes, we don't see, however
it's not equal.
The 2017 Super Bowl,
is that the one that you were gonna
perform at the halftime show,
and you declined?
-[Cardi B] Yes.
-Yeah. On what grounds?
I just didn't like what they did to
to Colin,
and what they were standing for
-at that time.
-Mm-hmm.
So I just felt like
they needed to be taught a lesson.
The deal was, he started kneeling
in protest of police brutality.
And it somehow became falsely identified
as a protestation of the American flag
and ended his playing career.
Why? How did we lose track
of what the kid was actually up to?
When things like this,
like police brutality,
it starts to become, like, normal,
people just, like,
start forgetting about it.
Or, like, people just start, like, "Oh."
-"I'm so over it."
-Yeah. Yeah.
However, though,
not all of that has went in vain.
People standing up for themself,
a lot of things have changed.
-Good.
-[Cardi B] Not all the way.
But some people have gotten justice.
So there was, not so long ago
in this neighborhood, this community,
a horrible apartment fire.
-Yes.
-[Letterman] And, um, you
uh
It's hard to say.
I mean,
it's just physically difficult to say,
emotionally difficult to say.
You used your resources
to cover the expense
of burying people who lost their lives.
Yeah, well
Least I could do. You know?
There has been a lot of Bronx fires
going on this winter, besides that one.
We just saw on the news,
this whole building exploded.
And, you know, things like that
usually happen in the winter time,
-with space heaters and everything.
-Yeah.
And I actually have family members
that lived on that block.
-[Letterman] Hmm.
-My dad was talking to me about it,
how they feel and everything,
and I just felt so horrible.
And just knowing that,
not only what the family that lost
their family members is going through,
everybody that just lived
in that building.
The city had to move everybody
and relocate them somewhere else.
And it's in the middle of the winter.
It's a lot.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-It's a lot.
Yeah.
Well, on behalf of mankind,
that was lovely.
Thank you.
Uh, not so long ago,
it was Martin Luther King Day.
And after he, uh, was assassinated,
his wife worked long and hard
to get Martin Luther King Day
a national holiday.
-Yeah.
-It didn't happen, and it didn't happen,
and one of the pivotal reasons
that it did happen was music.
And it came in the form
of Stevie Wonder's song, "Happy Birthday"
to Martin Luther King.
And I thought, "This speaks volumes."
"This tells you everything
about the power of music."
-Yes.
-Yeah.
People in your position have a strength,
in terms of political activism,
and changing the world, and changing
the way people feel and think,
not only about themselves,
but the problems of the world at large,
is wonderful.
I don't really put
a lot of political things in my music,
but I use the fuck out of my platform.
And I have used my platform
even when I was a dancer.
Because you might think
that people are not looking,
but they are.
Yeah. People may not understand,
people may be ignorant.
And so, somebody that they admire,
that they respect,
expresses a viewpoint
on something current and controversial,
that's great.
-[Cardi B] Yes.
-That's like being in class.
That's direction.
I mean, I'm a hood chick,
and I'm from the Bronx.
And a lot of people
relate to me and follow me
because they want to see
how I'm dressed, my lifestyle.
So I feel like I have a responsibility
to also share to them,
like, "Hey, while you here
and you checking my outfit,
and checking my music,
check out what's going on over here
in this part of the world."
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] Here's Eleanor Roosevelt.
Talk about a woman with a platform.
You know,
we're all carbon-based life-form, right?
You and I, and Martin Luther King,
and Eleanor Roosevelt, everybody,
made out of the same thing.
But look what they did
with what they're made of.
Yeah. You just have
to use your platform right.
[Letterman] But it's daunting.
You have to admire the courage.
The courage is as great
as the accomplishments.
These are some of the books she published.
Wow. Here's one.
Fiery Passion and Plenty of It:
The Eleanor Roosevelt Story.
What?
None of my business.
Herbert Hoover's FBI file
of, uh, Eleanor Roosevelt.
So wait. So you know what?
He's a fuck-ass motherfucker.
It says, "Hoover falsely believed she was
a communist or a communist pawn."
Fuck him!
See, this is why he fucked up America,
because of his beliefs.
[sniffs] Yep.
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] You know what this is, Cardi?
This is fantastic.
[Cardi B] "Eleanor Roosevelt's wallet."
So this was all in her wallet?
At her death, 1962.
Look at this, a gift card to Denny's.
"Six Grand Slam breakfasts."
-Wow!
-It doesn't say that.
Oh my gosh, credit cards were so ugly.
[Letterman] That's why
they didn't catch on.
A lottery ticket. It's a Pick-Six.
She just was one off. Dang.
-Free double-dip cone at Dairy Queen.
-[Cardi B laughs]
Look at her business card.
"Mrs. Roosevelt."
You should have business cards like that.
That's so cool.
-Do people even carry business cards?
-[Letterman] That would be the cool thing.
Like when we were having
the chopped meat sandwich.
"Here you go."
Give him your business card.
Oh, here. FDR's drinking fountain.
That is not FDR's drinking fountain.
But I am thirsty.
-I might
-[Letterman] Yeah.
-Would you drink out of a fountain now?
-Go ahead.
Actually, no, I wouldn't.
-Let me see. You do it, I'll do it.
-Okay, I'll do it. You'll do it.
-If you do it, I'll do it.
-[Letterman] All right.
Ah.
-[Cardi B] Okay, I'll do it.
-Oh man, that hit the spot.
All right, I'll do it,
just because it's cool.
But now that I'm older,
I'm just gonna let the water run.
You always gotta let the water run
just a little bit. Just a little bit.
[Letterman] Okay.
-That was really cool.
-[Letterman] Not bad, eh?
-I haven't done that in years.
-[Letterman] Nor have I.
-[Cardi B] I feel 20 years younger.
-[Letterman laughs]
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] I came here, the first time,
-a few years ago with my family.
-[Cardi B] Mm.
We had all wanted to come up here
and spent the whole day in the house.
Okay.
And that's where I got crazy
because there is a room where Churchill
and FDR had meetings,
uh, about the war in Europe, and strategy.
And they didn't tell
Stalin what they were up to.
And there was some mystery
about why they didn't want Stalin
in on this meeting.
Stalin was a communist.
So it's like, "Okay, we're allies,
but can I really trust you?"
Sure.
When you stand in that room
-Yeah.
-where this happened,
whether my version of it
is accurate or not,
is overwhelming.
I would like my husband to come up here.
He's not really like a historian.
Well, that's the beautiful thing.
You don't have to be an historian
to come here and appreciate
what this man's life was.
-Are you coming?
-[Cardi B] I'm coming.
-How do you get along in those?
-Got these boots. Whoo!
[knocking]
[Letterman] Franklin?
We're here to look at the pool.
[Cardi B laughs]
[jazz music playing]
[Cardi B] So this was
his actual home, right?
[woman] This was his home.
He grew up here,
and as an adult, he lived here on and off.
Oh, I like this couch.
Is any of this stuff for sale?
-[woman] Mm, no. [laughs]
-[laughs]
Look at this. 1,001 Funniest Dirty Jokes.
-That's That's not real.
-That's crazy, this guy.
[Cardi B laughs]
[Letterman] I'm sorry. Did we get your
Did we get your name?
Did I just tear this?
[Cardi B] No.
[woman] I don't know.
I don't think so.
There are rips in this.
Did I just do that?
[woman] I don't think so.
I think I just ripped it.
I think when I brushed up against it,
it caused these tears.
-It's okay.
-[groans] It's not okay. I'm sorry.
[Cardi B] You sure you did that?
Yeah, I am. I am kinda sure.
That's sort of what I do.
I show up and ruin things.
Churchill would be in this room with FDR?
[woman] Yes, he spent weekends here.
Would he just get roaring drunk?
I don't know if he got roaring drunk,
but, certainly, um,
he always had liquor provided for him.
He got roaring drunk.
Take me everywhere.
I want to go to his bedroom.
I want to I just want to see everything.
-[woman] Okay. I'll be happy to.
-Come on, girl.
[woman] This was where he was born,
right in that bed.
He was ten pounds.
-Wow. Ten pounds?
-Yes.
Jesus.
[woman] In the mornings,
he didn't get right up.
He might meet in here with his advisers.
Can you imagine that?
Beginning your day in bed
and having people come in
to talk about your life, your activities,
and what was happening today,
and you're still in bed.
-That's what happens with me.
-[laughs] Really?
I swear. Like
For example, right,
today, I like literally woke up,
and my makeup artist
had to do my makeup in bed.
I've had that happen.
[Letterman] In terms of your career,
what do you want to do,
if there is something you want to do,
beyond music?
[Cardi B] Yeah.
You know, just entrepreneurship.
I just want to set a good example
to my kids.
'Cause one thing that I really want
my kids to know
-is the importance of working.
-Mm-hmm.
And, like, nothing feels greater to know
than nobody gave it to you.
You worked your ass off for it.
Well, you're a prime example of that.
Nobody gave this to you.
-Yeah.
-[Letterman] Yeah.
But for Kulture and Roger,
I wish them all the best.
Thank you very much for your time.
It's a lot of fun.
-[Cardi B] Thank you.
-Means a lot to me.
-Thank you.
-Yeah.
-[Cardi B] Should I read it?
-[Letterman] Yeah.
"Dear Franklin, let me begin by saying
I, more than most,
understand the great and grave weight
upon your shoulders."
"I certainly could not live with myself
if I added only one ounce
to the trouble we face as a nation."
"But for the love of Christ,
will you please put the goddamn cap
back on the fucking toothpaste?"
"Who do you think
has to clean up this dump?"
"Your beloved Eleanor. PS Fuck Hitler."
Yeah.
That's some letter, isn't it? Thank you.
That's her saucy side.
-I mean, hello. We have the same birthday.
-[Letterman laughing]
[Letterman] Thank you, Cardi.
[Letterman] What are you doing tonight?
Well, tonight, I'm planning to get
my mustache waxed and my eyebrows waxed.
I'm sorry
-I'm sorry, you said, "mustache"?
-Yeah.
Right there, see?
You know, you don't
you don't have a mustache.
I have a lot of makeup covering it,
but it's very visible right now.
-Really?
-Yeah. It's keeping my lips warm. [laughs]
Oh. I didn't know
-You asked me what I'd do tonight.
-[Letterman] I know.
And I made it a priority,
I have to get it done today.
What do they do to it?
They just, you know, wax it off.
[clicking tongue]
Is it painful?
Yeah. It's not my favorite thing to do.
Yeah, I was thinking
maybe I need to get my mustache waxed.
No. That
I feel like you would bleed a lot.
[laughs]
[audience cheering]
[theme music playing]
[upbeat ambient music playing]
[Letterman] I like your dress.
[Cardi B] Thank you.
Welcome to my side of town.
-You ever been in this building before?
-Never been here before.
Isn't it cool?
-Yes, cool.
-Very cool.
Who are these people?
Leave her alone! Get away from this woman.
Oh, you got some people too.
-[Cardi B giggles]
-[Letterman laughs]
How are the kids?
They're good. I love them.
Hard to be away from them
on a thing like this, isn't it?
'Cause when my son was born,
when I would just go to the store,
I'd want to get right back to see him.
It must be crazy for you.
Yes. I just went to court, right?
And I had to be away from my kids
for two weeks,
and I literally was going crazy.
[Letterman] Yeah.
Because when you get back,
little changes have taken place.
-Yes.
-You feel like, "I've missed something!"
-Yeah, especially when it's a baby.
-How old is the baby now?
-[Cardi B] Four months.
-[Letterman] Do we have a name?
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
-[Letterman] What's the name?
It hasn't come out yet,
but I could tell you in your ear.
So, you named the baby Roger?
Yeah. [laughs]
[laughs]
-Uh, and his older sister, Kulture?
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
[Letterman] Yeah. That's very cute.
Congratulations.
Do you remember anything
about your parents raising you
that you use to raise your kids?
Um, I remember everything,
but I just feel like
we're raising them differently.
-What were your parents like with you?
-[Cardi B] Well, my mom was very strict.
When I tell you
my mom didn't even let me go
to a movie theater,
like to the movies or anything, no.
-She was like, "I want to go with you."
-[Letterman] Really?
I don't think I'm as strict,
but I could tell with my daughter,
she has a lot of personality.
-She's very manipulative.
-[Letterman laughs]
When I was younger, grown-ups
used to be like, "You look very slick."
And I used to wonder,
"What does that mean?"
But when I look at my daughter,
she just has this slick look
that I know what people mean.
-Let me tell you, she's very slick.
-[laughs]
For example?
Like, if I was to tell her
that I say no to something,
she'll go to her dad.
And it's like, "Dad,
Mommy said that I can have ice cream
because I'm hot."
And you're not hot.
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] You grew up here,
right in the Bronx. Is that correct?
Yeah, in the Bronx
and, like, Washington Heights.
[Letterman] Mm-hmm. Yeah.
-My grandmother, she's Trinidadian.
-Mm-hmm.
My grandfather, he's Spaniard,
and then he lived in Trinidad
for a long time.
And that's where he met my grandmother,
but they came here.
The whole family is here.
And my dad is Dominican.
I read that you lived near
like 37 cousins in this neighborhood.
Is that true?
Yeah, all my cousins,
all my family members live in New York.
And the ones from my mother's side,
-they had 12 kids.
-Mm-hmm.
And, like, each kid
had, like, four or five kids.
-I mean, my dad himself had eight kids.
-Okay.
So I have a lot of family members.
Yeah. Did they all help raise one another,
or just get together
on holidays and picnics and stuff?
[Cardi B] I used to see my cousins
all the time.
Even when I became a teenager
and everything,
uh, me and my cousins,
we used to cut school together.
-What would you do when you cut school?
-Go to hooky parties.
-Go to hooky parties?
-[laughs]
I don't know what a hooky party is.
[chuckles]
-It's bad. [laughs]
-[Letterman] Really?
Yes.
Well, give me a hint.
I don't know what kids nowadays do now,
but, like, when I used to go
to hooky parties,
we used to, like, literally just dance,
and probably drink alcohol.
Probably smoke weed.
Sometimes, we would see the police coming,
so we'd hop out the of the fire escape.
We used to run out the apartments
from the fire escape.
Nobody wanted to get caught.
Well, I must say, this description
makes it seem like nothing but fun.
-[laughs]
-It was kinda fun.
I remember one time
I was going to a hooky party,
and I randomly saw my cousin on the train
going to the same hooky party!
-[laughs]
-That was so fun.
-Yeah.
-To me, that was so fun.
Yeah, and when I was a kid,
I only did that once.
My senior year in high school,
me and my buddies
thought we were big shots.
-Yeah.
-[Letterman] And one afternoon,
we just ditched school
and we went skateboarding.
-[Cardi B] You know what?
-Once. Once!
Oh. [clicks tongue]
-What kind of grades did you get?
-[Cardi B] Bad grades.
Because I was very smart,
but I also had my popular life.
Know what I'm saying? I wanted to be
in the parties. I don't want to miss it.
Did you ever get caught going to a party?
Did your mother ever find out?
And how much longer
do I have to say "hooky party"?
-We can stop.
-[Letterman] Thank you.
Did your mom ever catch you?
She kind of used to find out
I was skipping school when
What would she do? What discipline?
-She just didn't let me go out.
-Mm-hmm.
I think I was grounded
my whole teenage life.
My whole teenage life I was grounded.
I was never un-grounded.
So I'd just do things,
like, when I skip school.
You look back on it now
and everything was
You were more or less happy as a kid?
It was tough seeing my mom work so hard.
[Letterman] What did she do?
So she was a cashier on the weekdays
for a university.
And in the weekends, she would work
It was almost like a small Home Depot.
It was called Home Front.
But every single night,
she would take hours and cook.
Like, it's like I don't have that energy.
What I know of you, what I've seen of you,
your energy is, uh, inestimable.
-It's incredible, it's endless.
-[Cardi B] Yes.
Yes, but me, like, once I get home,
I do not have the energy
to freaking cook a whole meal.
-I just don't have it.
-Mm-hmm.
I don't know how she used to do that.
-[Letterman] And your father?
-[Cardi B] My dad was a cab driver.
My parents separated when I was around 13.
And this is terrible to say.
It wasn't horrible to me
because I felt like,
"Now that my dad is not living with us,
I have a little bit more freedom."
[laughs]
I had a little bit more freedom,
so I could do more things
-[Letterman] Yeah.
-while my mom was at work.
While your mom was working two jobs,
cooking all night.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
-Yeah. Yeah.
[upbeat ambient music playing]
-[Cardi B] We're gonna get chopped cheese.
-Look at this menu. I want one of each.
[Cardi B] That's a lot.
I don't think you'll be able to eat all.
-[Letterman] We'll be here till Labor Day.
-[laughs]
[Letterman] This stuff is beautiful.
All right, the chopped che What is it?
It's called a chopped cheese,
and it's delicious.
And And I feel like it has become
our staple food these past ten years.
Green peppers, onions, mayonnaise,
ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes?
-[Cardi B] I don't want no pepper on it.
-I'll have the same.
-Mayonnaise, ketchup, tomatoes?
-Yeah.
And yours is? Just chopped,
mayonnaise, lettuce, onions?
-Yeah. We get tomato?
-Yeah, whatever you want.
Everything but the peppers.
-Got it.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
-And, uh, we have no money.
-[Cardi B laughs]
-[jazz music playing]
-[sizzling]
[Letterman] When's the last time
you had one?
Oh, I think about two, three months ago.
Yeah, I get them often.
-[Letterman] Does your daughter eat 'em?
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
Let me see the nails.
Oh my goodness.
Have you ever been at a place
where somebody comes around
with hors d'oeuvres
and you just spear one with your nail?
-I do it all the time.
-[Letterman] You don't.
Yes, I do. Especially with sushi, like
[laughs]
[Cardi B] See? That's the chopping.
[Letterman] Oh, there we go.
I like the steam rolling off of that.
[Cardi B] It actually look good.
Look how the cheese
-See that cheese?
-[man] Nice and melted.
-[Letterman] Beautiful.
-Fucking melted!
That's the beauty of New York.
Like, you can literally
get anything at any time.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-I don't know how to drive. Do you?
Wait a minute.
Why don't you know how to drive?
-They never taught me.
-Who never taught you?
-My parents.
-[Letterman] For heaven's sakes.
Why am I just finding this out now?
I don't know. I feel like a lot
of New Yorkers don't know how to drive.
-My friend, you know how to drive?
-[man] Yes.
-[Cardi B] Just me then. [laughs]
-I'll teach you to drive.
I can teach you to drive tomorrow.
I can get your license tomorrow.
One-stop shopping.
I'll teach you how to drive,
I'll get your license, your insurance,
and your down payment on a car.
-[laughs]
-[upbeat jazz music playing]
Do you know they opened
a chopped cheese truck in LA?
[Letterman] I'd never heard of them
till last week.
See? And we did that.
I don't care what nobody say.
The fucking Bronx made the chopped cheese!
The Bronx made the chopped cheese!
Don't let nobody
from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens
tell you that they made
the chopped cheese.
That shit started in the Bronx, period.
-Oh!
-Ooh.
-[both laughing]
-[man] That was close.
That happened once when
-You ever been to Australia?
-Yes.
-Did you ever have kangaroo steaks?
-No.
-That's not real.
-[Letterman] It is.
I made the mistake of ordering mine rare,
and the bastard hopped off my plate.
No way! [laughs] I knew you was playing.
I'm gonna try
my motherfucker right here.
[laughs]
-Oh my God.
-[Cardi B] That's good.
-[man] I did it?
-[Cardi B] Mm-hmm.
This reminds me of something
that my mom used to make.
-[man] There you go, sir.
-Thank you very much.
Wow, that's really good.
-Good, and good for you.
-Not that good for you, but you know.
I can feel arterial veins clogging.
[Cardi B] It's good for the soul.
All right, we got to go.
Thank you very much.
-Thank you for stopping by.
-[Letterman] I appreciate it.
[Letterman] When did you learn
that you had this in you?
I went to a school
called Renaissance High School
for Musical Theater and Technology.
And I always wanted to be an artist.
I thought I could sing back then,
you know what I'm saying?
But it's almost like
a popularity contest, and
you kind of forget
what you go to school for.
Right.
And after I graduated high school,
I completely forgot about my dreams.
I forgot about being an artist,
I forgot about being anything.
All I put my head into was,
"What can make me money?"
"What can make me successful fast?
What could get me out of situations?"
[Letterman] When I was a sophomore
in high school, I figured out
what I wanted to do with my life,
and everything else became secondary.
But you're saying, in your case, you knew,
but then that left you when you graduated.
Where does that come from?
All right, so I was pretty rebellious
when I was a teenager.
Beyond the hooky parties?
Oop, I said it again.
[Cardi B] Beyond the hooky parties, yeah.
Because my mom practically,
like, kicked me out 'cause I just
I just wasn't, uh
You know, I wasn't there.
And, uh, I lived in my boyfriend's house.
Was your mother crushed that you moved out
and moved in with your friend?
[Cardi B] Yes. She was crushed,
but, um, she also felt like it was
an experience that I needed to have.
'Cause once I left home,
-I saw how good I had it.
-[Letterman] Yeah.
When you're a teenager, you be like,
"I can't wait till I turn 18
so I can get the fuck out this house!"
I feel like all teenagers say that,
all of them,
and I was one of those.
But I always tell people,
"Stay at your mama's house
as long and as much as you can."
"Trust me, her rules
are not as bad as the real world."
-Right.
-She was the reason why I went to college.
Even after I got kicked out of home,
I made a decision to go to college
because I did not want to disappoint her.
College was very important to her,
so I went.
And where did you go to college?
I went to college
-in Chambers Street, BMCC.
-Mm-hmm.
I went for a couple of semesters,
and I just dropped out.
What things did you study there?
-Uh, I took political science.
-Oh. Well, there you go.
Yeah, I took Western Civilization.
And why did you leave?
Because it seems to me,
and again, knowing what I know of you now,
but the political science,
there's a pretty good connection there.
First of all, to go to college here,
just because they give you financial aid,
you still need money.
And I didn't really had a job.
I got a job around my school,
and it just wasn't enough.
I was getting 250 a week.
A place called the Amish Market,
that you got the job?
-Yes.
-Was it operated
Horse and buggies out front?
That's what I always asked.
I was like, "Nothing about this is Amish."
-[laughing]
-"Nothing about this place is Amish."
The food was very delicious, very organic.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-It doesn't mean Amish, but okay.
-It was ran by Turkish people. [laughs]
-[Letterman] What did you do there?
Once you do those jobs, it's like cashier,
-but you also gotta stock shelves.
-Sure.
Put pricing on items.
A whole bunch of things.
My experience was one
of the best jobs I ever had.
I worked in high school, and part-time
in college, at the supermarket.
I loved it. Loved everything about it.
The only thing I really liked about it
was that sometimes I would get free lunch.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-But other than that, I hated it.
It was just so busy all the time,
and the coldness of the refrigerator,
people coming in and out.
I was always freezing. I hated it.
Yeah. Well, you quit
the, uh, grocery store,
and then you begin working as a dancer.
Do I have this correct?
-Yes.
-Yeah.
Now this was also
not operated by Amish people?
No, it wasn't.
[both laughing]
[Cardi B] No, they was not.
I really didn't know
what I was getting myself into at all.
But this experience, while I think
others would find it difficult,
was important to you,
and a learning and growing experience.
It was a learning and growing experience
because you have to invest in yourself.
You have to invest
in your makeup, in your hair,
in your outfit, in your body.
You have to be top-tier look
to make top-tier money.
And on top of that, you need to learn
how to talk and how to entice.
Some girls don't have that.
So sometimes a girl will ask herself,
"Why I'm leaving with $200 a night
and this other girl
is leaving with $3,000 a night?"
And you start to think,
"I'm prettier than her.
I dance better than her."
"I'm this-and-that about her."
No, you need to learn the game.
And I feel like I learned.
It took me, like, a year to learn.
And little by little,
I started like, "Oh, okay."
Just, like, when I came out on that stage,
I looked amazing.
But the goal is always to get out.
The goal is always to make enough money
so you can invest in things.
Yeah.
I always said, "I want
to make at least $200,000."
"I want to open a laundromat.
I want to open a salon."
"I just want a business
to get me the fuck out of here."
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-I was just very fortunate
that the way I got out
was following my dreams.
I'm number one! I'm number one!
[Letterman] When you're working
at this club,
this is when you start
posting stuff on Instagram?
Yeah, and that just became,
like, an overnight thing.
I just one day came home from work,
and I was a little frustrated.
I just had a break-up.
Let me tell you something, Instagram.
I'm not in the mood today.
I was just ranting about men
and people in the strip clubs,
and my videos started
to go viral very quickly.
Y'all promoters need to stop
putting me in these expensive hotels.
Nothing's fucking free,
the water's, like, five dollars.
Put me in the Quality Inn,
the Comfort Inn.
They give motherfucking
complimentary breakfast and shit,
with the waffle maker.
At first, it was kind of cool,
it was kind of funny.
And then I'm starting
to get booked around America
'cause people just wanted to see me
and meet me and just be friends with me.
And I I was very overwhelmed
with the love.
I had a manager at the time,
and I told him, "I really want to get
on this show called Love & Hip Hop."
I'm just a regular degular
shmegular girl from the Bronx.
What's popping? [groaning]
And, of course,
it gave me a bigger platform,
it gave me a TV platform.
And people, I guess,
fell more in love with me again.
-[Letterman chuckles]
-I told myself,
"When I go on this show,
I'm gonna stop dancing
because I just want to take
my music career seriously,
and I want to take this"
[inhales deeply]
"I want to get out of here."
And I feel like that was my window.
When did the music overtake you,
uh, at this point?
When I used to, you know, drive
to these host things and everything,
and rap songs would come up,
I would start, like,
you know, doing quick rhymes,
changing the words around
very quickly, swiftly.
And my manager was like,
"Have you ever rapped on a beat?"
"Have you ever write something?
Ever write a rhyme?"
And I was like, "No, I just be coming up
with shit in my head."
And he was like, "Why don't you try it?"
And I'm like, "For what?" [laughs]
"For what?"
Like, there's a million people
that are doing what I do.
What makes me think
that I'm going to be the one?
I understand that.
On the other hand, it's part of you.
It's part of the mechanism.
It's part of what got you where you are.
So, you know, I don't think anything
needs to be changed.
I think a little self-doubt
is helpful in humans.
I always been a person
that always feels like
I just set realistic goals for myself.
And, like, becoming a rapper,
to me, was like a dream.
But he took me to his home,
and in his basement,
he had, like, a whole studio.
So he just started playing
different beats, different beats,
and he was like, "Pick it.
Pick any beat you want."
And I picked a couple.
And from there, I just started,
like, writing slick things.
Going inside the booth, coming out,
going in, coming out, coming in.
It was that quick?
He wouldn't let me leave
until I write and recorded something.
I'm like, "This shit sounds fucking dumb."
He just kept saying, "You're doing
a good job. What are you talking about?"
[laughs] Why did it sound dumb?
Because I hadn't done it before.
I didn't like my voice.
And I'm just like, "Let me go home.
I want to go home."
That's interesting, because, typically,
a person in this situation
struggles with other people
telling them to go home.
Just, "You can't do this, go home."
But you're telling yourself,
"I can't do this. I should go home."
I just felt weird doing it, like,
and hearing my voice and sounding silly.
And then, like, the next day,
my manager at the time,
he kept saying, "You need to finish
the song you started yesterday."
I'm like, "You really serious about this?
Boy, if you don't leave me alone."
He's like, "No, I'm serious."
He picked me up, and then make me
he make me finish it.
He goes, "You just gotta find your voice.
You gotta perfect it."
And then we just started
working on that song.
And we worked and worked on that song
for, I'll say, about two, three weeks.
He was like, "We have to do a music video
to this song. This song sounds good."
-What was the song?
-Uh, used to be like
I need all my money makers
Bring that cash out ♪
I need all my D-boys to bring ♪
[laughing]
I was still a stripper at the time.
And you know what?
I started liking the idea of it,
and I just kept going,
and I finally found my voice.
It's fascinating to me
how stuff like this, uh, works out.
-Yeah.
-Because if it had not been this guy,
would have been somebody else,
would have been yourself,
or maybe it never
would have happened. I mean, it's
But it did,
and the results are incredible.
-Yeah.
-[Letterman] The success, remarkable.
You're nominated for Grammys.
You have number one best-selling songs.
And to think about the process
that you just described,
-that's a pretty good distance to cover.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
Once I started loving it
and taking it serious
and believing in myself,
I wanted to be the best.
"WAP" debuts to 93 million US streams,
the most for a song
in opening weekend history.
I wanna say thank you so much,
Megan Thee Stallion.
Like, I hope
I hope you're just as happy as I am.
Uh, "Wet Ass Pussy."
-[chuckles]
-[Letterman] Um
What exactly are we talking about?
Wet ass pussy.
[laughs]
It's fun to say, isn't it?
-It's naughty.
-[Letterman] Yeah.
How does this come to you,
in writing the song?
Well, it all came with the beat.
The beat goes
There's some hoes in this house
There's some hoes in this house ♪
There's some hoes in this house
There's some hoes in this house ♪
As soon as I heard that beat,
I was just like,
"What is the freakiest things
I could say?"
[Letterman laughs]
What is it meant to mean,
what is it meant to be, the song?
Is it funny? Is it, uh, just naughty?
Is it, uh, to just get people
worked up for no reason?
That song got a lot of people worked up.
I didn't understand it
because this is not the naughtiest
to me, it's not like the naughtiest song
that I ever heard in hip-hop.
We have Trina and Lil' Kim and Khia and
So many rappers that came before me
that said a lot of freaky-deeky stuff.
But a lot of people was asking me,
"Do you let your daughter
hear those lyrics?"
It's like, "No, I don't let my daughter
hear those lyrics."
It's like, "But why is it okay for you
to do those songs to our kids?"
It's like, "You do know
that you have a choice"
-Yeah.
-"to not let your kids hear this music."
-Like, you have a choice.
-Yeah.
There's a long list of things
more important to worry about than this.
Yes, especially right now.
It's a lot going on right now.
You mentioned you studied
political science
when you went to college,
and you got involved with Bernie Sanders,
-and supporting, also, President Biden.
-[Cardi B] Yeah.
Uh, were people upset
that you worked with Bernie Sanders?
Why would that upset somebody?
The presidential elections was going,
and every time that I put out a statement
or a tweet about voting, they're like,
"What do you know about voting?
What do you know about America?"
"All you know is about wet ass pussy.
You're a bad example to your kids."
It's a hard time right now,
and I feel like no matter who's in power,
they're gonna have a difficult time
dealing with it.
[breezy jazz music playing]
Look at this. "The test of our progress
is not whether we add more
to the abundance of those who have much,
it is whether we provide enough
for those who have too little."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
That's it. That's the problem
of the human existence.
You know what I'm saying?
-Yeah.
-Let's go over here.
Social security and labor reforms and
-Unions.
-Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
The reason why I got into so much FDR,
and presidents, period,
was because I wasn't able
to make a school trip in third grade.
-Why not?
-I kinda forgot.
I think because I was behaving bad.
Oh. So you were not allowed
to go on the trip?
Yeah, I was not allowed to go on the trip.
So I had to sit,
like, in the principal's office
'cause I think the whole third grade
went to this trip.
And there was just books to read,
and I read a book
about Eleanor Roosevelt.
But, like, from the first page,
I saw that we had the same birthday,
and I guess that really excited me.
So I started reading
about Eleanor Roosevelt.
I'd go to the library,
I wanted to read about her,
then I started getting into her husband,
and then I just started, like,
just reading forever about presidents.
[Letterman] Anything here reminiscent
of your conversations with Bernie Sanders?
I always felt like Bernie Sanders
is like a natural humanitarian.
When I spoke to him,
I felt like it wasn't like a bluff.
It wasn't, like, pandering.
This is what he always wanted.
-He didn't seem phony to you?
-No, he didn't seem phony to me.
[Cardi B] Very handsome.
Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry.
Are you familiar with the fireside chat?
This was the way the president would try
to keep the spirits of America positive,
and he would talk to them on the radio.
[Cardi B] That's kind of the beauty
of back then.
You only had, like,
two, three stations to hear.
So I feel like the whole country
kind of knew what was going on.
Sometimes I feel like people don't know
what's going on because
We have so much choices now,
there's thousands of channels on TV.
They want to see celebrity gossip
or fun things. You know what I'm saying?
Last night, did you see The Bachelor?
-No, I don't watch The Bachelor.
-Oh.
-I never watched that show.
-Really? Oh man, it was crazy last night.
With the rose? [whistles]
Let's keep moving.
[laughs]
-[Cardi B] This is a middle-class home
-[Letterman] In the 1930s.
-Ugly, but
-This is what my house looks like.
-Right now?
-Yes.
-No way.
-Yeah.
I picked out the wallpaper. Home Depot.
Let me see pictures.
[laughs]
-I refuse to believe your home
-[Letterman] Come up to the place one day.
[Cardi B] How much you think this costs?
In the old days, when it was brand new,
it was probably less than $100.
But in today's money,
that would be six, $700,000.
-No. No way.
-I don't know if I have the
Try not to ask questions
that make me look stupid.
-[Cardi B] Okay.
-Thank you.
All right, do you know that, back then,
going to war, it was such a big honor?
And everybody, like,
praised soldiers as much.
I don't feel like it is the same today.
I think a difference then
was we were attacked.
And collectively, as a nation,
up and down, left and right,
Americans rallied to defend themselves.
So it was a collective effort.
Everybody felt that sense.
I don't know
that people feel that way now.
I mean, I feel sometimes that people,
as a whole, don't love America as much.
-And I could understand that sometimes.
-Why do you think that happened?
-Mmm
-They take it for granted.
Seem to take a lot of things for granted.
-They take a lot of things for granted.
-I'm guilty of that.
We do take a lot of things for granted.
We definitely have more freedom
than other countries,
however, not all Americans get treated
the same.
So sometimes people feel a little cheated,
and people feel a little hurt,
and people feel a little unappreciated.
And sometimes people
just want to feel appreciated.
And maybe we could appreciate America
a little bit more.
[Letterman] Right.
There is a lot of freedom in this country
that, sometimes, we don't see, however
it's not equal.
The 2017 Super Bowl,
is that the one that you were gonna
perform at the halftime show,
and you declined?
-[Cardi B] Yes.
-Yeah. On what grounds?
I just didn't like what they did to
to Colin,
and what they were standing for
-at that time.
-Mm-hmm.
So I just felt like
they needed to be taught a lesson.
The deal was, he started kneeling
in protest of police brutality.
And it somehow became falsely identified
as a protestation of the American flag
and ended his playing career.
Why? How did we lose track
of what the kid was actually up to?
When things like this,
like police brutality,
it starts to become, like, normal,
people just, like,
start forgetting about it.
Or, like, people just start, like, "Oh."
-"I'm so over it."
-Yeah. Yeah.
However, though,
not all of that has went in vain.
People standing up for themself,
a lot of things have changed.
-Good.
-[Cardi B] Not all the way.
But some people have gotten justice.
So there was, not so long ago
in this neighborhood, this community,
a horrible apartment fire.
-Yes.
-[Letterman] And, um, you
uh
It's hard to say.
I mean,
it's just physically difficult to say,
emotionally difficult to say.
You used your resources
to cover the expense
of burying people who lost their lives.
Yeah, well
Least I could do. You know?
There has been a lot of Bronx fires
going on this winter, besides that one.
We just saw on the news,
this whole building exploded.
And, you know, things like that
usually happen in the winter time,
-with space heaters and everything.
-Yeah.
And I actually have family members
that lived on that block.
-[Letterman] Hmm.
-My dad was talking to me about it,
how they feel and everything,
and I just felt so horrible.
And just knowing that,
not only what the family that lost
their family members is going through,
everybody that just lived
in that building.
The city had to move everybody
and relocate them somewhere else.
And it's in the middle of the winter.
It's a lot.
-[Letterman] Mm-hmm.
-It's a lot.
Yeah.
Well, on behalf of mankind,
that was lovely.
Thank you.
Uh, not so long ago,
it was Martin Luther King Day.
And after he, uh, was assassinated,
his wife worked long and hard
to get Martin Luther King Day
a national holiday.
-Yeah.
-It didn't happen, and it didn't happen,
and one of the pivotal reasons
that it did happen was music.
And it came in the form
of Stevie Wonder's song, "Happy Birthday"
to Martin Luther King.
And I thought, "This speaks volumes."
"This tells you everything
about the power of music."
-Yes.
-Yeah.
People in your position have a strength,
in terms of political activism,
and changing the world, and changing
the way people feel and think,
not only about themselves,
but the problems of the world at large,
is wonderful.
I don't really put
a lot of political things in my music,
but I use the fuck out of my platform.
And I have used my platform
even when I was a dancer.
Because you might think
that people are not looking,
but they are.
Yeah. People may not understand,
people may be ignorant.
And so, somebody that they admire,
that they respect,
expresses a viewpoint
on something current and controversial,
that's great.
-[Cardi B] Yes.
-That's like being in class.
That's direction.
I mean, I'm a hood chick,
and I'm from the Bronx.
And a lot of people
relate to me and follow me
because they want to see
how I'm dressed, my lifestyle.
So I feel like I have a responsibility
to also share to them,
like, "Hey, while you here
and you checking my outfit,
and checking my music,
check out what's going on over here
in this part of the world."
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] Here's Eleanor Roosevelt.
Talk about a woman with a platform.
You know,
we're all carbon-based life-form, right?
You and I, and Martin Luther King,
and Eleanor Roosevelt, everybody,
made out of the same thing.
But look what they did
with what they're made of.
Yeah. You just have
to use your platform right.
[Letterman] But it's daunting.
You have to admire the courage.
The courage is as great
as the accomplishments.
These are some of the books she published.
Wow. Here's one.
Fiery Passion and Plenty of It:
The Eleanor Roosevelt Story.
What?
None of my business.
Herbert Hoover's FBI file
of, uh, Eleanor Roosevelt.
So wait. So you know what?
He's a fuck-ass motherfucker.
It says, "Hoover falsely believed she was
a communist or a communist pawn."
Fuck him!
See, this is why he fucked up America,
because of his beliefs.
[sniffs] Yep.
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] You know what this is, Cardi?
This is fantastic.
[Cardi B] "Eleanor Roosevelt's wallet."
So this was all in her wallet?
At her death, 1962.
Look at this, a gift card to Denny's.
"Six Grand Slam breakfasts."
-Wow!
-It doesn't say that.
Oh my gosh, credit cards were so ugly.
[Letterman] That's why
they didn't catch on.
A lottery ticket. It's a Pick-Six.
She just was one off. Dang.
-Free double-dip cone at Dairy Queen.
-[Cardi B laughs]
Look at her business card.
"Mrs. Roosevelt."
You should have business cards like that.
That's so cool.
-Do people even carry business cards?
-[Letterman] That would be the cool thing.
Like when we were having
the chopped meat sandwich.
"Here you go."
Give him your business card.
Oh, here. FDR's drinking fountain.
That is not FDR's drinking fountain.
But I am thirsty.
-I might
-[Letterman] Yeah.
-Would you drink out of a fountain now?
-Go ahead.
Actually, no, I wouldn't.
-Let me see. You do it, I'll do it.
-Okay, I'll do it. You'll do it.
-If you do it, I'll do it.
-[Letterman] All right.
Ah.
-[Cardi B] Okay, I'll do it.
-Oh man, that hit the spot.
All right, I'll do it,
just because it's cool.
But now that I'm older,
I'm just gonna let the water run.
You always gotta let the water run
just a little bit. Just a little bit.
[Letterman] Okay.
-That was really cool.
-[Letterman] Not bad, eh?
-I haven't done that in years.
-[Letterman] Nor have I.
-[Cardi B] I feel 20 years younger.
-[Letterman laughs]
[jazz music playing]
[Letterman] I came here, the first time,
-a few years ago with my family.
-[Cardi B] Mm.
We had all wanted to come up here
and spent the whole day in the house.
Okay.
And that's where I got crazy
because there is a room where Churchill
and FDR had meetings,
uh, about the war in Europe, and strategy.
And they didn't tell
Stalin what they were up to.
And there was some mystery
about why they didn't want Stalin
in on this meeting.
Stalin was a communist.
So it's like, "Okay, we're allies,
but can I really trust you?"
Sure.
When you stand in that room
-Yeah.
-where this happened,
whether my version of it
is accurate or not,
is overwhelming.
I would like my husband to come up here.
He's not really like a historian.
Well, that's the beautiful thing.
You don't have to be an historian
to come here and appreciate
what this man's life was.
-Are you coming?
-[Cardi B] I'm coming.
-How do you get along in those?
-Got these boots. Whoo!
[knocking]
[Letterman] Franklin?
We're here to look at the pool.
[Cardi B laughs]
[jazz music playing]
[Cardi B] So this was
his actual home, right?
[woman] This was his home.
He grew up here,
and as an adult, he lived here on and off.
Oh, I like this couch.
Is any of this stuff for sale?
-[woman] Mm, no. [laughs]
-[laughs]
Look at this. 1,001 Funniest Dirty Jokes.
-That's That's not real.
-That's crazy, this guy.
[Cardi B laughs]
[Letterman] I'm sorry. Did we get your
Did we get your name?
Did I just tear this?
[Cardi B] No.
[woman] I don't know.
I don't think so.
There are rips in this.
Did I just do that?
[woman] I don't think so.
I think I just ripped it.
I think when I brushed up against it,
it caused these tears.
-It's okay.
-[groans] It's not okay. I'm sorry.
[Cardi B] You sure you did that?
Yeah, I am. I am kinda sure.
That's sort of what I do.
I show up and ruin things.
Churchill would be in this room with FDR?
[woman] Yes, he spent weekends here.
Would he just get roaring drunk?
I don't know if he got roaring drunk,
but, certainly, um,
he always had liquor provided for him.
He got roaring drunk.
Take me everywhere.
I want to go to his bedroom.
I want to I just want to see everything.
-[woman] Okay. I'll be happy to.
-Come on, girl.
[woman] This was where he was born,
right in that bed.
He was ten pounds.
-Wow. Ten pounds?
-Yes.
Jesus.
[woman] In the mornings,
he didn't get right up.
He might meet in here with his advisers.
Can you imagine that?
Beginning your day in bed
and having people come in
to talk about your life, your activities,
and what was happening today,
and you're still in bed.
-That's what happens with me.
-[laughs] Really?
I swear. Like
For example, right,
today, I like literally woke up,
and my makeup artist
had to do my makeup in bed.
I've had that happen.
[Letterman] In terms of your career,
what do you want to do,
if there is something you want to do,
beyond music?
[Cardi B] Yeah.
You know, just entrepreneurship.
I just want to set a good example
to my kids.
'Cause one thing that I really want
my kids to know
-is the importance of working.
-Mm-hmm.
And, like, nothing feels greater to know
than nobody gave it to you.
You worked your ass off for it.
Well, you're a prime example of that.
Nobody gave this to you.
-Yeah.
-[Letterman] Yeah.
But for Kulture and Roger,
I wish them all the best.
Thank you very much for your time.
It's a lot of fun.
-[Cardi B] Thank you.
-Means a lot to me.
-Thank you.
-Yeah.
-[Cardi B] Should I read it?
-[Letterman] Yeah.
"Dear Franklin, let me begin by saying
I, more than most,
understand the great and grave weight
upon your shoulders."
"I certainly could not live with myself
if I added only one ounce
to the trouble we face as a nation."
"But for the love of Christ,
will you please put the goddamn cap
back on the fucking toothpaste?"
"Who do you think
has to clean up this dump?"
"Your beloved Eleanor. PS Fuck Hitler."
Yeah.
That's some letter, isn't it? Thank you.
That's her saucy side.
-I mean, hello. We have the same birthday.
-[Letterman laughing]
[Letterman] Thank you, Cardi.