Cardi B had to censor out the spicy parts of “WAP” for her Grammys performance, but she’s cheering that she still managed to make Fox News.
Pundits on the conservative network have been clutching their pearls this week over the rapper’s steamy Sunday night awards show performance with Megan Thee Stallion.
Right-wing commentator Candace Owens went on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday to voice her grievances, saying she was “terrified” that such content was leading to a “weakening of American society” and declared that “we are about to see the end of an empire.”
“Yaaaayyyyyyy WE MADE FOX NEWS GUYS !!! Wap wap wap,” Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, tweeted in response that night.
In a follow-up tweet on Tuesday, the rapper thanked Owens personally for giving her performance airtime and boosting her sales and YouTube views.
This led to a full-blown Twitter beef. Owens took the bait, going on to criticize the rapper’s dancing and telling her, “You have transformed into a stain on culture and what it means to be a woman.”
Owens’ complaints are nothing new. Conservatives reacted this week exactly as they did when “WAP” ― a celebration of female sexuality ― was first released. The song has been labeled degrading, anti-feminist, vulgar and much more. Yet those same critics have been notably less incensed by the scores of sexually explicit songs by male artists.
Cardi B tweeted back, “Imagine if wap caused the downfall of the American empire and not North Korea bomb threats, terrorism, racism or bad government?”
“THAT WOULD BE SO ICONIC !!!” she added. (In August, she referred to the initial conservative uproar over her song with the same descriptor).
If you’ve got popcorn and a lot of free time, the feud was still going strong on Twitter at the time of this writing.