"Bodak Yellow" is released

Why it matters

"Bodak Yellow" came out as a single June 16, 2017, on Atlantic. Cardi B (Belcalis Almánzar) was a Bronx-raised former stripper and reality-TV personality (Love & Hip Hop: New York) who had been releasing mixtape rap singles since 2015. "Bodak Yellow" was her first major-label single. The song was produced by J. White Did It with input from Klenord "Shaft" Raphael. The cadence and flow are explicitly modeled on Kodak Black's "No Flockin'" (Kodak being credited on the song's writing credits, hence the title). Cardi opens with "said little bitch, you can't fuck with me if you wanted to" and the song does not slow down for the next three and a half minutes. The conceit is direct working-class boast-rap delivered with the kind of native-New-York pacing rap audiences had not heard a woman MC do on a major-label record in a long time. By August the song had hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, ending a nineteen-year solo-female-rap #1 drought. You can argue Cardi B's career has had its complications (the Quality Control disputes, the public divorce, the assault charges). The chart record stands. She made it.