Cardi B is standing up for Tyla, who recently faced intense online criticism.
During a late-night X Spaces stream from Los Angeles, the Am I The Drama? rapper reflected on some of the “straight up disrespectful” comments she receives online before sharing her disbelief at the relentless negativity directed toward the “Push 2 Start” singer.
“Look at Tyla,” Cardi said near the one-minute, 10-second mark in the video linked above. “People been dragging the shit out of Tyla and it’s, like, the girl don’t even fucking address or talk about nothing.”
Cardi continued, “I’m starting to feel that people just don’t like celebrities. It’s like the only way that that people like celebrities [is] if you don’t fucking say nothing at all.”
Although she said she wasn’t sure why Tyla was the internet’s latest punching bag, Cardi questioned the logic of the hate.
“[What] I do know is every single time I scroll down on my TikTok, there’s a video of her and people are talking shit and it’s like, Goddamn, what do you want her to fucking do, cut her fucking veins? Like, enough. Enough,” Cardi said.
In a new interview with Variety published earlier this month, the South African singer reflected on the unexpected scrutiny over her ethnic identity stemming from a resurfaced 2020 TikTok in which she called herself a “colored South African.”
When asked in a June 2024 interview with the Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne Tha God to address the debates surrounding her identity, Tyla declined, fueling further discussion and controversy.
In a statement issued hours after the interview was uploaded, Tyla clarified online, “I don’t expect to be identified as Coloured outside of [South Africa] by anyone not comfortable doing so because I understand the weight of that word outside [of South Africa]. But to close this conversation, I’m both Coloured in South Africa and a Black woman.”
When speaking to Variety, Tyla looked back on the controversy, admitting, “That [controversy] was really confusing for me. I understood both sides of the story, but I was left asking, ‘OK, but what do I do now?’ When who you are is challenged, especially when it’s all you’ve ever known, it shakes you. You want to stand your ground, because if you don’t, someone else will try to define it for you.”
Last month, Tyla released a four-track EP, WWP. Her second album is expected to arrive this year.
Meanwhile, Cardi B’s sophomore album Am I The Drama? arrives on Sept. 19.
