Cardi B found herself at the center of yet another internet scuffle earlier this week when a three-year-old video of the rapper resurfaced. In it, the rapper revealed that during her days as a stripper in New York, she would sometimes use the pretext of sex to get her customers alone, before drugging and robbing them. The admission of these rather serious crimes understandably sparked some outrage online, inspiring the less than tasteful and somewhat disingenuous #SurvivingCardiB hashtag. And while the loudest voices in the debate seemed to be those criticizing the Bronx rapper and her past actions, there were those who came to Cardi’s defense.
The latest person to speak out in support of the 26-year-old is none other than Rick Ross. On Thursday, the Miami rapper hopped on Snapchat to give his two cents about the situation. “Leave Cardi B alone and the reason I tell you that is in a lot of circumstances, that’s what come with that lifestyle. She never hid that,” the Maybach Music Group head remarked.
Ross is no stranger to controversy himself. In 2013, a line in his verse on the Rocko song “U.O.E.N.O.” became the subject of scrutiny similar to that which Cardi now faces. “Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it,” he rapped. The line and the backlashed that followed it ended up costing the 43-year-old a lucrative endorsement deal with Reebok. He reflected on that incident in his Snapchat video, “I needed to understand that I was a king — and they’re right, I didn’t need to promote that. The parties I attended at the time, where I’m from, that was the lifestyle.”
Ross concluded his remarks by saying that he felt that it was unproductive to attack a person for their past misdeeds, so long as they had changed their behavior. “If you stole a car in the past, that don’t mean you shouldn’t get money in the future. As long as you change your ways and we all know Cardi B focused on the money now and she is a leader,” he said.
You can watch the video above.
