'7 years later, four kids later, I'm still here': Cardi B on balancing motherhood and music career

Cardi B has opened up about the demands of combining motherhood with a high-profile music career, saying raising four children has required difficult compromises but has not stopped her from pursuing professional success. The 33-year-old rapper said she hopes her experience demonstrates that becoming a mother does not have to prevent women from continuing to work towards ambitious career goals. Reflecting on the years since she first became a mother, Cardi said she had faced public criticism and the pressures of raising children while remaining active in the entertainment industry. “Seven years later, four kids later, I’m still here,” she said.

Mother of four

Cardi is mother to daughters Kulture, eight, and Blossom, 23 months, and son Wave, four, with estranged husband Offset. She also has a nine-month-old son with NFL player Stefon Diggs. The rapper said she tries to keep her children with her whenever possible, but the demands of recording, touring and other professional commitments sometimes require her to spend time away from them.

Rather than presenting her situation as unique to celebrity life, Cardi compared it with the choices faced by working mothers in other professions who may have to travel or remain away from their families because of their jobs.

She said such decisions can be painful, but families sometimes have to consider their longer-term circumstances.

Hopes children understand

Cardi said one of her priorities is ensuring that her children eventually understand why she sometimes had to miss time with them.

She wants them to recognise that those absences resulted from work and her effort to provide them with greater opportunities, rather than from choosing a social life over her family.

The rapper described motherhood as involving sacrifices and said her children remain central to the decisions she makes about her career and personal life.

She also rejected the idea that becoming a parent had fundamentally altered her personality or her distinctive approach to fashion, though she acknowledged becoming more conscious of certain choices.

Career continued after motherhood

Cardi became a mother for the first time in 2018, a period that coincided with her rapid rise in the music industry.

A year later, she became the first solo female rapper to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album when her debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, took the honour in 2019.

She has since continued releasing music and performing while expanding her family.

Looking back on that period, Cardi said she believes she has overcome the assumption that motherhood necessarily limits a woman’s ability to maintain a demanding career, pointing to her continued presence in music seven years and four children later.