Make sure you're in the know about Cardi, who is performing with Bruno Mars on Sunday and could potentially make history.
Queen B -- as in, Beyoncé -- will be in attendance for Sunday's GRAMMY Awards, but expect Cardi B to reign over the evening. The rapper, 25, had an absolutely massive 2017 that has continued into 2018, beginning with her first ever trip to the GRAMMYs. The so-called "regular degular shmegular girl from the Bronx" has one of the most anticipated performances of the night -- her "Finesse" remix with Bruno Mars -- and could potentially make history.
"What I'm most excited to see on the GRAMMYs Sunday is just, like, me, hopefully winning an award," Cardi laughed when interviewed at Warner Music Group's pre-GRAMMYs party with V magazine. "Like, what else? That's all I think about, to be honest. I don't think about nobody else, but me."
If you need a quick catch up on who exactly Cardi B is -- or want to relive some of her biggest hits from the past year -- check out our primer below, where we answer every question you could possibly have about Cardi.
First of all, is "Cardi" short for something?
Sort of! Cardi B was born Belcalis Almanzar but was nicknamed "Bacardi" as a child. "My sister's name is Hennessy, right?" she explained during a bonkers interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "Everybody used to call me Bacardi, so I always call myself Bacardi, right? And then it was my Instagram name...but for some reason my Instagram keep getting deleted. And I think it was Bacardi that had something to do with it. So, I just shorted it to Cardi B." (If you haven't seen this interview, you must.)
Cardi it is! Where did she come from? And how is she suddenly everywhere?
Cardi has had quite the come up. She blew up as something of an Instagram celebrity, posting hilarious videos where she waxed poetic about stripping, her previous profession, and produced soundbites like, "It's cold outside, but I'm still looking like a thotty, because a hoe never gets cold."
From there, a genius VH1 producer cast her on season six of Love & Hip Hop: New York. During her two season stint on the reality series, she released two mixtapes, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, the latter of which included "Lick" with her now-fiancé Offset. She was signed by Atlantic Records, quit Love & Hip Hop and released her debut single, "Bodak Yellow."
Have I heard "Bodak Yellow"?
I guaran-f**king-tee it. The music video alone has 435,283,462 views and rising and the song, which was near omnipresent in the summer of 2017, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Cardi the first female rapper to land there since Lauryn Hill in 1998. (Cardi knocked Taylor Swift off the top of the chart to get there.)
Does she have any more songs?
Cardi released a second single, "Bartier Cardi," featuring 21 Savage, at the end of 2017. You've heard "Bartier Cardi" if you've been anywhere near a club within the last month or are a big fan of Timothée Chalamet's red carpet interviews.
She's also collaborated with Bruno Mars, G-Eazy and Migos and Nicki Minaj.
More fun facts: With "No Limit" and "MotorSport," she became the first female rapper to land her first three songs in the Hot 100's top 10 and then, with "Bartier Cardi," became the first woman to have five simultaneous singles in the top 10 of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart.
Wow! OK, back to the GRAMMYs, what is Cardi nominated for?
"Bodak Yellow" is nominated for Best Rap Song -- alongside Danger Mouse's "Chase Me," Kendrick Lamar's "HUMBLE.," Rapsody's "Sassy" and Jay-Z's "The Story of O.J." -- and Best Rap Performance, facing off against Big Sean ("Bounce Back"), Jay-Z ("4:44"), Kendrick Lamar ("HUMBLE") and Migos ("Bad and Boujee").
If Cardi wins in either category, she would be the first woman to ever do so. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee either of her categories will be presented during the broadcast, because Cardi B would give one hell of an acceptance speech.
The GRAMMY Awards air on CBS on Sunday, Jan. 28. Tune in for the red carpet live stream, hosted by ET's Nancy O'Dell, Kevin Frazier and Keltie Knight, at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 PT on The Recording Academy Facebook page, the CBS Facebook page and GRAMMY.com.
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