Cardi B said she wasnât âgonna engageâ with Carole Baskinâs disparaging remarks on the use of big cats in the rapperâs video for âWAP,â but she does have one thing to say to the âTiger Kingâ star.
âLike, thatâs just ridiculous, you know? Oh, Lord. Like, girl, you killed your goddamn husband,â the 27-year-old said an i-D interview published on Thursday. She was repeating an unproven allegation about the 1997 disappearance of Baskinâs second husband.
Cardi Bâs pushback comes after the CEO of Big Cat Rescue told Entertainment Weekly in a statement earlier this week that she believed Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion likely used âbig cat pimpsâ in the making of their video for âWAP.â
âYou have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image, and that doesnât happen in the wild. It canât happen in sanctuaries like ours where cats have plenty of room to avoid a green screen (or would shred it if offered access and could die from ingesting it). That tells me they probably dealt with one of the big cat pimps,â said Baskin, who added that âbig cat pimpsâ make a living from âbeating, shocking and starving cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio.â
Baskin also said that featuring big cats in videos âglamorizesâ them as possible pets when theyâre not.
The âWAPâ video has caused quite a stir since it dropped a few days ago, prompting some very public pearl-clutching from conservatives over the salacious lyrics. Of that response, Cardi told i-D that sheâs been âreally surprised by the reaction, honestly.â
âI knew it was gonna have a big impact, I guess, because of me and Megan. But I didnât know it was going to be so controversial. I never expected that, you know, conservatives and Republicans were going to be talking about the song. I didnât think the song was as vulgar as they said it was, you know? Like, Iâm so used to it. Iâm such a freak that I didnât think it would be a big deal. I didnât think people would think it was so out of this world,â she said.
But, Cardi admitted, it all makes her âhappy,â not angry.
âThey keep talking and the numbers keep going up. At the end of the day, whatever theyâre saying, the numbers speak for themselves,â she said.