Cardi B Explains Why She Was ‘Afraid’ to ‘Go Live’ Her Life Last Year Amid Offset Split

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Image Credit: MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images

Cardi B is shedding light on living with anxiety. The 31-year-old rapper explained in a new interview how she “lost” herself while feeling “afraid” to appear in public throughout 2023. “Like last year, I barely dropped music,” Cardi admitted during a recent interview of 360 with Speedy. “It’s just like I was just afraid to do everything.”

“I just feel like I lost myself with everything,” the “I Like It” artist said, adding, “You know, like a lot of music commenters and everything, and a lot of people just be like, you know, ‘She’s afraid to drop an album, she’s afraid to drop music.'”

Cardi’s last album, Invasion of Privacy, was released in 2018. While she dropped music in recent years — such as “Bongos” with Megan Thee Stallion in 2023 — her fanbase is hoping for another full studio album. Earlier this month, Cardi dropped her latest singles, “Like What (Freestyle)” and “Enough (Miami).”

In her interview, Cardi also recalled feeling hesitant to release her 2022 remix of Ice Spice‘s “Munch (Feelin’ U).” The New York City native pointed out that she loved “the record” but “did not like how [she sounded].”

“You know it being on a drill beat, it’s not as easy as it look [sic],” Cardi said. “I was like, ‘They’re gonna drag me, and they’re going to drag the song bad.’ … The record is already great, I don’t want to f**k it up. I just hated my verse. … I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is embarrassing. I can’t catch the beat for s**t.”

Throughout 2023, the “WAP” hitmaker felt “afraid to go live” in the public eye because of the negative comments she had seen about her image and her music over the years.

“I was afraid to post a picture; I was afraid to go to the club, and then the next day seeing people, what they going to say about me, and everything,” Cardi said, before rehashing how she got involved in politics, mainly in 2019 when she brought Senator Bernie Sanders on her social media. “I love talking about politics and everything. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore because I’m just so afraid of just getting dragged every single f**king day, like, I’m tired,” Cardi concluded.

Perhaps one of the biggest headlines about Cardi was the public downfall of her relationship with Offset. The two got married in 2017 and had an on-and-off romance. By mid-2023, she revealed to her social media followers that she and the 32-year-old rapper were having marital problems after he accused her of cheating. While they patched things up over the summer, they separated before 2024 kicked off.