Cardi B tops the Charts

In 1998, female rapper, Lauryn Hill, reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with her song “Doo Wop (that thing).” In the past 19 years no other female rapper has topped the Billboard charts, until now. Rapper Cardi B reached number one on the charts this week with her debut single “Bodak Yellow.”

According to Cardi B, “Bodak Yellow” is a shout-out to haters as demonstrated by her lyric, “I don’t let these bros bother me. They see pictures, they say goals. I’m who they tryna be.”

According to sophomore Sarah Piceno, Bodak Yellow is three minutes and fifty-four seconds of pure hype.

“It’s a song that just gets me pumping. I know all the lyrics to it. It just gives me like a “Yah” vibe,” said Piceno.

Although it was released in June of this year and has currently been on the charts for 12 weeks, Bodak Yellow finally made its way to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 29th of last month, surpassing “Look What you Made me Do” by Taylor Swift and “Rockstar” by Post Malone.

Brooke Zuniga, sophomore, feels “Look What you made me Do” doesn’t compare to Bodak Yellow.

“Her [Taylor Swift] songs just get me emotional sometimes. Bodak Yellow doesn’t really do that and that’s what I like about it,”said Zuniga. “Bodak Yellow just really gets me pumped up.”

The Billboard Hot 100 is based on a number of factors: radio airplay, both retail and digital sales, and streaming activity on online sources such as Spotify or Pandora. Cardi B has over 14 million monthly listeners on Spotify and according to Billboard.com she has made the most revenue through digital sales.

Sophomore, Macie Torres thinks publicity the key to Cardi B’s success.

”Since people already knew who she was from like Instagram and vine, she really didn’t have to do much to get her single out there,” said Torres.

Cardi B’s debut single has been well received by the public, and has recently been re-released now featuring rapper Kodak Black, who, according to Cardi B, inspired the beat of Bodak Yellow.