How Cardi B’s ‘Bodak Yellow’ Took Over the Summer

Cardi B jumps eagerly and ferociously into her single “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” beginning to rap while the intro is still finishing up. From the outset, she’s taunting at gale force, boasting about her Louboutins — “These expensive, these is red bottoms, these is bloody shoes/Hit the store, I can get ’em both, I don’t wanna choose” — aiming her words at those who might have underestimated her, a former stripper turned Instagram celebrity from uptown New York, who has now become one of hip-hop’s most thrilling new presences.

“Bodak Yellow” is Cardi B’s first true hit, but it is by no means her introduction to the world. A few years ago, she became an uproarious force on Instagram for her frank sexual talk and her comically acerbic wit, and her casually wise and ground-level relatable videos became part of the app’s lingua franca. That earned her a spot on the reliably raucous reality series “Love & Hip Hop: New York,” though it was clear from the beginning that her personality was far too grand for that show’s microdramas.

With encouragement from one of her managers, she took up rapping, and has released a pair of mixtapes that mold her off-the-cuff verve and improvised bon mots into something stickier. “Bodak Yellow” feels like one of her Instagram clips come to life, funny and self-aware and savage.

The song rose to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in only its seventh week of release, a rapid ascent for a relatively unknown performer (at least, not one best known for music) and also for a female rapper. In recent years, Nicki Minaj has gone as high on the charts, but typically with her more pop-leaning songs like “Super Bass” and “Bang Bang,” or “Anaconda,” which benefited from a provocative video. The white rapper Iggy Azalea reached No. 1 with her emphatic mimeographs.

But no female rapper has moved as quickly from street hit to chart topper, an assertive reframing of the pathways typically available to them. Trevor Anderson, a chart manager at Billboard focused on R&B and hip-hop, said, “We haven’t seen a song from someone brand new go up the charts this quick since Meghan Trainor,” noting that was typically the preserve of more established stars like Justin Bieber or Rihanna. That it happened “without a meme, without a dance, it makes it that much weirder,” he added.