The Last Time A Bronx Dominicana Was On Billboard’s Top 30 Was Exactly 10 Years Ago
Cardi B, born Belcalis Almanzar. This week Cardi B’s song “Bodak Yellow” made an impressive jump on Billboard’s Hot 100 list from #49 to #28. This is the first top 30 hit for the Bronx fav of Dominican and Trini origin. She celebrated the feat on Instagram with a post thanking everyone for their support.
Bodak Yellow is New York’s Summer anthem: it can be heard playing from cars and homes when walking down the streets of the city. And the #28 spot couldn’t be more timely for the half-Dominican artist, the last time a Dominican woman (also from the Bronx) reached the top 30 spot was exactly ten Summers ago with Kat De Luna peaking at #29 on the week of July 28, 2007. The song was “Whine Up” featuring Elephant Man.
Cardi is a pioneer in her own way. The Grio reports of her Top 30 hit: “The only other two female rap artists to get this distinction are Young Ma and Nicki Minaj, and Cardi B herself is also the first Love & Hip-Hop star to land a solo Top 30 hit since the show’s inception.” Cardi B, born Belcalis Almanzar, has been hailed as an empowering figure for women for her unapologetic call to them to not be taken advantage of by men, and for exuding sex positivity.
About her recent success in music, she told Apple’s Beats 1 Radio, “I always wanted to be an artist, like I always liked poetry, that’s how I’m witty with certain words, I was always like writing but I never like did writing on beats type of shit…when there’s a song I always used to remix it. When I got older, I lost interest in all of that, reality hit me”.
We can’t wait to see what’s next for Cardi B’s music career. She posted a photo earlier today in the studio with El Messiah, the Dominican rapper and Spanish Trap music extraordinaire who’s also from New York.*
*This is a revised version. A previous version incorrectly indicated El Messiah is from the Bronx.
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