Latest / The Breakfast Club / Cardi B, Colorism & Why Every Vote Matters

Transcript

Cardi B, Colorism & Why Every Vote Matters · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Let's get, let's get, let's get to it, time to
0:01
Speaker 1: do it.
0:02
Speaker 2: I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything
0:04
Speaker 2: and everybody. You hear that exclusive? You know she don't
0:07
Speaker 2: lie about that, right? Lauren came in hot. Hey y'all,
0:10
Speaker 2: what's up?
0:11
Speaker 3: It's Lauren LaRosa and this is the latest with Lauren LaRosa.
0:15
Speaker 3: This is your daily dig on all things pop culture,
0:18
Speaker 3: entertainment news, and all of the conversations that shake the room, baby! Y'all,
0:23
Speaker 3: it is election day. November 3rd, 2026, it is election day.
0:28
Speaker 3: Today is A big midterm election. And I'm going to
0:32
Speaker 3: be honest with y'all. You know, I've been voting since
0:35
Speaker 3: I was of age. My mom did not play about
0:37
Speaker 3: us voting the minute that I was able to register
0:39
Speaker 3: to vote in my high school, my senior year headed
0:41
Speaker 3: to college. My mom was like, voting is a tradition.
0:45
Speaker 3: Even before we could vote, honestly, though, my mom would
0:47
Speaker 3: make sure that, like, on voting day, we went to
0:50
Speaker 3: the polls with her. We understood the significance of it. Like,
0:53
Speaker 3: it's always been one of those things in my house, right?
0:56
Speaker 1: So.
0:58
Speaker 2: Now that I'm.
0:59
Speaker 3: Grown and I'm out here and I'm in the world,
1:01
Speaker 3: and Lord, I said I'm out here and I'm in
1:03
Speaker 3: the world. That sounds like, you know how the pastor
1:05
Speaker 3: be like, the heathens is in the world. But now
1:09
Speaker 3: that I'm grown and I'm out here and I'm living
1:10
Speaker 3: my life and, you know, I'm seeing how these things
1:12
Speaker 3: affect me directly. I'm grateful for my mom being as
1:20
Speaker 3: like a stickler about things as she was. Let's get
1:23
Speaker 3: into the checking behind the scenes of the grind and
1:26
Speaker 3: just talk about why and where that feeling is coming
1:28
Speaker 3: from for me. So I am registered in Delaware. Y'all
1:35
Speaker 3: know I'm from Delaware. I registered in Delaware to vote.
1:39
Speaker 3: And this past weekend, we were home in Delaware. I
1:43
Speaker 3: say we, me and my boyfriend, we were in Philly.
1:45
Speaker 2: He's from Philly. I'm from Delaware. So we were home,
1:47
Speaker 2: you know, Delaware, Philly, sister cousins.
1:49
Speaker 3: We were there and I made sure before we headed
1:52
Speaker 3: back to, Jersey, I got a chance to vote.
1:55
Speaker 2: My plan was to vote Friday.
1:57
Speaker 3: That was, like, my free day after we did the
1:59
Speaker 3: Breakfast Club live conversation down there in Philly.
2:03
Speaker 2: Wow, I haven't really talked to you guys since all
2:04
Speaker 2: of that. Oh, my God.
2:07
Speaker 3: I mean, I have, but, like, we haven't really gotten
2:09
Speaker 3: to the things, the things. But, yeah, we did this
2:11
Speaker 3: amazing live Breakfast Club broadcast from Philadelphia, which was cool.
2:16
Speaker 3: And it was so cool because, you know, being on
2:18
Speaker 3: the production side of things and wanting to build out
2:21
Speaker 3: the latest with Lauren La Rosa, the podcast, A live
2:24
Speaker 3: podcast and or two or three or five, you know,
2:27
Speaker 3: more video on my YouTube channel. Lauren La Rosa TV
2:31
Speaker 3: is the goal for this year. And I say this
2:33
Speaker 3: year because I'm always I'm already thinking about 2027.
2:36
Speaker 2: So being on the production.
2:37
Speaker 3: Side and seeing kind of how all that work, producing
2:40
Speaker 3: a live show and being a part of the production
2:42
Speaker 3: team as we did that was cool to see. And
2:45
Speaker 3: it was all in the name of HBCUs. Shout out
2:48
Speaker 3: to my HBCU, Delaware State University. The big game went
2:52
Speaker 3: down last Saturday on October 31st, 2026, Halloween. We beat
2:57
Speaker 3: Norfolk State University again. OK, not going to lie to y'all, though.
3:02
Speaker 3: I was in the suite that we had. I was
3:04
Speaker 3: there with like my cousins. You know, my uncle is
3:07
Speaker 3: one of the leadership and athletics department at Delaware State University.
3:11
Speaker 3: Shout out to Tony Tucker. and my friends, and some
3:14
Speaker 3: people I went to school with. And by the third quarter,
3:17
Speaker 3: I was like, yo, Del State ain't... I don't know
3:19
Speaker 3: if we'd be taking this home. I didn't see it.
3:22
Speaker 3: But we did it. We pulled it off. It was
3:24
Speaker 3: a very, very, very entertaining game, especially those last two quarters. So,
3:28
Speaker 3: shout-out to the team. Shout-out to Deshaun Jackson, who is
3:30
Speaker 3: the head football coach at Delaware State University currently.
3:33
Speaker 2: And Mike Vick.
3:34
Speaker 3: Shout-out to Mike Vick, who is the head football coach
3:36
Speaker 3: at Norfolk State University currently as well.
3:40
Speaker 1: Now.
3:42
Speaker 3: After this whole thing went down, you know, my plan
3:45
Speaker 3: was to vote within it and make it to Delaware.
3:47
Speaker 3: It's about a 30 to 40 minute drive from Philadelphia
3:51
Speaker 3: to Delaware, depending on traffic.
3:53
Speaker 2: But it didn't happen. We were out enjoying all the time.
3:56
Speaker 2: I'm mad, though.
3:57
Speaker 3: I missed the tailgate for the Delaware State University and
4:00
Speaker 3: Norfolk State University game. That is like our second homecoming
4:03
Speaker 3: that we get in the October season. And I missed
4:06
Speaker 3: the tailgate. I was so tired from the days before
4:09
Speaker 3: and all the things. By the time we got there,
4:11
Speaker 3: it was time to go to the game. So I
4:12
Speaker 3: didn't get to see a lot of people, but I
4:13
Speaker 3: did see some people, but not everybody. But I didn't
4:17
Speaker 3: get the vote at that time. So Sunday, when I
4:19
Speaker 3: was headed back to Jersey, getting ready for the breakfast club,
4:22
Speaker 3: I stopped at the PAL League. It's the Police Athletic League.
4:26
Speaker 3: And Wilmington, Delaware is on the north side of Wilmington, Delaware,
4:29
Speaker 3: where I voted. Now, traditionally, where me and my family
4:33
Speaker 3: vote is not there. But this year, a lot of
4:36
Speaker 3: the voting locations, polling locations changed. My mom was calling
4:42
Speaker 3: it a conspiracy child. She kept saying, this is what
4:45
Speaker 3: they're doing. They're trying to get us. They're trying to
4:48
Speaker 3: confuse us. And, you know, she's from, you know, an
4:51
Speaker 3: older generation where that is— All of that could have
4:56
Speaker 3: been true. But whatever the case may have been, there
4:59
Speaker 3: was a government website where we were able to find
5:01
Speaker 3: out our current voting locations.
5:03
Speaker 2: I went, knocked it out the park pretty easy.
5:06
Speaker 3: But what I was excited about was seeing other young
5:09
Speaker 3: people there, people I knew, on their way in, on
5:12
Speaker 3: their way out, making it a regular thing to get
5:14
Speaker 3: out and cast their vote. And also, I love always
5:17
Speaker 3: speaking to the women at the polls when I go.
5:21
Speaker 3: And there were, you know, four or five older black
5:24
Speaker 3: women that were there. So welcoming, so excited to just
5:28
Speaker 3: see us coming in and voting, especially the young people.
5:32
Speaker 3: And I told them as I was leaving, I'm like, y'all,
5:34
Speaker 3: thank you guys. Like, you know, now that I'm older
5:37
Speaker 3: and I'm understanding why my mom was yelling, kicking and
5:39
Speaker 3: screaming about making sure we voted no matter what, even
5:41
Speaker 3: when I was in California, she did not play about
5:43
Speaker 3: the absentee ballots and all of those things.
5:46
Speaker 2: I just get it.
5:48
Speaker 3: And, you know, as I'm thinking about what my day-to-day
5:51
Speaker 3: life is like, and man, I'm trying to save some money.
5:54
Speaker 3: I'm trying to buy a house. I'm really trying to
5:57
Speaker 3: set myself up financially. People talk about financial freedom. I'm
6:01
Speaker 3: trying to set myself up financially where I can even
6:04
Speaker 3: begin to even think about what that looks like for
6:05
Speaker 3: me and then eventually for my family as I build one.
6:09
Speaker 2: People standing, you know, and working these polls.
6:12
Speaker 3: For hours and hours at a time, especially these older,
6:15
Speaker 3: you know, It's like the lineage of like black women
6:19
Speaker 3: and black people, black men as well. But just people
6:22
Speaker 3: in general that are out there making sure these things
6:24
Speaker 3: get done. I'm grateful because they don't they don't have
6:28
Speaker 3: to do it. It's not like they're getting a bunch
6:30
Speaker 3: of money and paid to be there. They're doing it
6:32
Speaker 3: because they understand the importance of it. And they come
6:35
Speaker 3: from a time where we weren't even allowed to do that.
6:38
Speaker 3: So if you out there and you work in the
6:39
Speaker 3: polls right now, I'm telling you right now, thank you.
6:42
Speaker 2: As I was telling them. And get out there.
6:44
Speaker 3: You know, if you have not already, if you're listening
6:46
Speaker 3: to this episode, it is 10 a.m.
6:48
Speaker 2: In New York City.
6:49
Speaker 3: You can still go and vote in your prospective polling locations.
6:55
Speaker 2: If you are listening to this episode and it is,
6:57
Speaker 2: the day is.
6:57
Speaker 3: Over and the day is done and you have voted,
7:00
Speaker 3: I hope you feel important. I really, really, really hate
7:04
Speaker 3: to hear people say, you know, I'm only one vote.
7:07
Speaker 2: Did it even matter? Every single vote matters.
7:08
Speaker 3: And right now, the way our midterm elections are set up,
7:12
Speaker 3: We need all the power to come together to fight
7:14
Speaker 3: the powers that be. So, you know, I'm excited and
7:18
Speaker 3: energized for today. It feels like it's like Christmas, like
7:21
Speaker 3: a holiday. But I think, again, I'm just in that
7:24
Speaker 3: mode of things because that's how my household has always
7:27
Speaker 3: treated voting. It's always been like it's a holiday. Like
7:31
Speaker 3: we normally all make sure we go together. We have
7:33
Speaker 3: like our T-shirts on. We do all the things. But
7:35
Speaker 3: this year was a little bit different. And I'm going
7:38
Speaker 3: to end this evening off actually, you know, talking about
7:42
Speaker 3: elections and voting and all the things with Miss Angela
7:45
Speaker 3: Rye of the Native Land Podcast. So I'll be joining
7:49
Speaker 3: her along with the rest of the Breakfast Club, so
7:50
Speaker 3: Charlamagne and Envy, Jess.
7:53
Speaker 2: I'm not for sure if Jess is going to go
7:55
Speaker 2: or not, though, but we'll be there.
7:57
Speaker 3: And we'll be joining the co-hosts of the Native Land Podcast,
8:01
Speaker 3: Bakari Sellers and Andrew Gillum, along with Nick Cannon, Ed Gordon,
8:07
Speaker 3: Garrison Hayes, Fat Joe, Keith Boinkin, Kevin Ortega Rojas, Ellie Mistel,
8:17
Speaker 3: Eli Mistel, and Janae Nelson for the People's Election Night.
8:25
Speaker 3: So the People's Election Night is going to be a
8:28
Speaker 3: live streamed, live election coverage situation. It's going to intersect politics, media,
8:36
Speaker 3: and culture. And if you missed this, so if you
8:40
Speaker 3: are listening in right now and it is, you know,
8:43
Speaker 3: the day is done and we have moved on, you
8:44
Speaker 3: can always go back and watch it. It'll be on
8:47
Speaker 3: The Breakfast Club's YouTube channel as well as the Native
8:50
Speaker 3: Land Podcast YouTube channel as well, too. So pretty excited
8:53
Speaker 3: to be a part. We did this some years ago
8:55
Speaker 3: with the Native Land Podcast back when Kamala was running
8:59
Speaker 3: for president. And we were down at Howard University and
9:02
Speaker 3: we were there literally until the last vote was counted.
9:04
Speaker 3: And we found out Kamala was not winning and she
9:06
Speaker 3: was supposed to take the stage at night at Howard
9:08
Speaker 3: and give a speech. And she did not. So we
9:11
Speaker 3: were there waiting for that as well, too. But it
9:12
Speaker 3: was exciting to be a part of it in real time.
9:15
Speaker 3: So excited for that. And I'll be back here talking
9:18
Speaker 3: to you guys about it. And we can bring some
9:20
Speaker 3: of the coverage back here in the latest one on
9:21
Speaker 3: the Rose of the Podcast as.
9:22
Speaker 2: Well, too.
9:23
Speaker 3: So speaking of voting, let's get on into the latest. Now,
9:28
Speaker 3: there's been a pretty interesting conversation about colorism that has
9:33
Speaker 3: been happening and At the center of the conversation is
9:37
Speaker 3: my girl, Damona. Don't call me white girl, podcaster. I'm
9:40
Speaker 3: also part of the Joe Budden podcast. And my other girl,
9:44
Speaker 3: Cardi B. Now, this conversation all started, you know, about
9:50
Speaker 3: a week or so ago, or rehashed about a week
9:52
Speaker 3: or so ago, because we will always have these conversations
9:54
Speaker 3: about Cardi. When Mona, she posted a video reacting to
9:59
Speaker 3: a live a clip of an Instagram live that Cardi
10:02
Speaker 3: B did.
10:03
Speaker 2: And this is what Mona had to say.
10:06
Speaker 1: I love Cardi B. Huge fan. We chat sometimes. The
10:09
Speaker 1: reason why dark-skinned women don't get the same brand deals
10:13
Speaker 1: as she is because she's light-skinned and she's Dominican. I
10:18
Speaker 1: don't care if you consider yourself a nigga or not.
10:20
Speaker 1: You're still Dominican, which is like some type of fancy
10:22
Speaker 1: on it in this country. It makes you better than
10:25
Speaker 1: a nigga in this country. But yeah, the reason why
10:28
Speaker 1: there's no, I don't give a fuck if it was
10:29
Speaker 1: a match of Cardi B and the bitch was equally
10:33
Speaker 1: as talented, but she was dark skinned. There's no way
10:35
Speaker 1: that that person would make it as far as Cardi B.
10:37
Speaker 1: It would take extra special type of fucking pull from God.
10:41
Speaker 1: This is just not going to happen. I used to
10:43
Speaker 1: say all the time, like, I know that if I
10:44
Speaker 1: was big and black when I started this, it might
10:47
Speaker 1: not have went this far. because colorism is real racism
10:50
Speaker 1: is real it's almost shocking that everybody don't know that
10:53
Speaker 1: in 2026 like shocking but y'all just called me white
10:58
Speaker 1: and a colorist so i'm gonna stay the fuck out of.
10:59
Speaker 3: It for context uh cardi b has clarified you know
11:03
Speaker 3: since this video has went out there and conversations have
11:05
Speaker 3: started um that the live that mona was responding to
11:10
Speaker 3: was from 2024 and that the clip that she was
11:12
Speaker 3: responding to in particular was something that was like botched
11:15
Speaker 3: it wasn't like clipped well in context it was kind
11:17
Speaker 3: of like you know altered whatever but it did start
11:20
Speaker 3: a conversation um it started a conversation about colorism and
11:24
Speaker 3: you know lack thereof or you know the the need
11:27
Speaker 3: to acknowledge the fact that it is there across entertainment
11:30
Speaker 3: and various industries when it comes to women and i'm
11:33
Speaker 3: gonna be honest with you guys like you know i
11:35
Speaker 3: you know the moniker is brown girl grinding and a
11:37
Speaker 3: lot of that moniker for me not a lot of
11:40
Speaker 3: it all of it came because Going into Hollywood and
11:45
Speaker 3: moving to L.A., you know, I had an agent tell
11:47
Speaker 3: me it's not impossible, but it is going to be
11:50
Speaker 3: a little different for you to sell in this industry.
11:53
Speaker 3: You're a black woman, you're brown skin. Look across television.
11:57
Speaker 3: Tell me how many of those, you know, women you
11:58
Speaker 3: can you see and you can point to right now.
12:01
Speaker 3: And at the time, I mean, there just weren't many
12:02
Speaker 3: black women on daytime or even nighttime TV in a
12:06
Speaker 3: talk show space at all. Like there was Tamron Hall
12:09
Speaker 3: and Tamron Hall at this time didn't have the Tamron
12:11
Speaker 3: Hall show.
12:13
Speaker 2: She was on TV, though. She was an anchor.
12:16
Speaker 3: Wendy Williams had the Wendy Williams show. And Wendy Williams
12:18
Speaker 3: show was kind of like the zeitgeist. And you had
12:23
Speaker 3: Bevy Smith. But this was a little bit before Bevy
12:26
Speaker 3: Smith did, you know, the show that she was a
12:28
Speaker 3: part of on page six. But it was all around
12:31
Speaker 3: that time. But the conversation that he had with me,
12:35
Speaker 3: he was an Asian older guy. It wasn't, you know,
12:38
Speaker 3: a knock. It was him being honest about, you know,
12:40
Speaker 3: what opportunities were out there.
12:42
Speaker 2: It being hard for.
12:43
Speaker 3: Personalities and VJs and journalists to get into the on-camera
12:46
Speaker 3: space in general at the time. And this was 2014.
12:49
Speaker 3: That was the first time I moved to L.A. And
12:54
Speaker 3: I didn't use that to stop me. I'm like, yo, look,
12:56
Speaker 3: if you're telling me that there's not a lot of
12:57
Speaker 3: me in a certain space, I'm going to be here
12:59
Speaker 3: loud and proud. And I'm going to make it where
13:01
Speaker 3: I'm going to brand myself. I want people to know, yes,
13:03
Speaker 3: I am proud to be the black girl here. I
13:05
Speaker 3: am not the token, but I am who I am.
13:07
Speaker 3: And I'm never going to escape that. So if I'm
13:09
Speaker 3: coming in the room, so is all my blackness. So
13:11
Speaker 3: I started hashtagging brown girl grinding and people always are like, well,
13:14
Speaker 3: why brown girl grinding? Why not black girl grinding? Because
13:18
Speaker 3: for me, it was about literally the color of my skin, period.
13:24
Speaker 3: So when we have the colorism conversations, I am and,
13:29
Speaker 3: you know, I've talked about this on The Breakfast Club
13:30
Speaker 3: and other places. I'm always, you know, one that is
13:33
Speaker 3: pointing out that it's here. Like colorism is a real thing.
13:38
Speaker 3: not just in 2026, growing up as a brown skin girl,
13:41
Speaker 3: like having my mom as light skin as H-E double
13:44
Speaker 3: hockey sticks with freckles and very different texture hair.
13:48
Speaker 2: Than I have.
13:51
Speaker 3: I remember being asked, you know, was she really my
13:54
Speaker 3: mom or was I adopted?
13:56
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
13:56
Speaker 3: And I remember just, you know, people receiving her differently
13:59
Speaker 3: in a room versus, you know, other parents because of
14:03
Speaker 3: her skin complexion and different things.
14:05
Speaker 2: And not to say that my mom didn't have her struggles.
14:06
Speaker 2: She was a single mother.
14:08
Speaker 3: Black mother entrepreneur my whole life in the real estate
14:12
Speaker 3: industry in the real estate world she had her you
14:15
Speaker 3: know she's had her fair share she's she's went through
14:17
Speaker 3: her things um but growing up as a brown-skinned woman
14:22
Speaker 3: and and seeing how my mom navigated the world and
14:24
Speaker 3: growing up as.
14:25
Speaker 2: A brown-skinned woman.
14:27
Speaker 3: And just going to school and getting into the work
14:30
Speaker 3: field like it was there you you couldn't and a
14:34
Speaker 3: lot of it to me I used to say all
14:36
Speaker 3: the time like I don't even know if people know
14:37
Speaker 3: what they're doing sometimes. I think we are just, you know,
14:41
Speaker 3: taught what is good and what is not. And we
14:45
Speaker 3: don't educate ourselves. Like even when people have the hair
14:47
Speaker 3: texture conversations. I remember when Chris Rock came out with
14:51
Speaker 3: the good hair doc. Right. And the conversations that that
14:55
Speaker 3: were had there. And to this day, when people say
14:59
Speaker 3: to me that they'll say like good hair, I'm always
15:01
Speaker 3: quick to push back.
15:02
Speaker 2: What is good hair? Hair is hair.
15:04
Speaker 3: We don't we don't texture. We don't literally lean into
15:07
Speaker 3: various textures here like that. That's not a thing that
15:09
Speaker 3: we do. But even that goes into I mean, that's
15:11
Speaker 3: not even like a colorism. But I think that there
15:13
Speaker 3: is a certain way because I mean, you have brown
15:15
Speaker 3: skin girls with various textures here as well. But I
15:18
Speaker 3: say all that to say that people have their preconceived
15:22
Speaker 3: prejudices and preferences in a lot of times. don't even
15:28
Speaker 3: know that they're doing certain things and even if they
15:30
Speaker 3: do know that they're doing it it causes this unknowing
15:33
Speaker 3: like microaggression for darker skinned women where you know and
15:40
Speaker 3: I've and I've had to talk myself out of this
15:41
Speaker 3: where like you may walk in a room feeling like
15:44
Speaker 3: you're battling the world when the room is opening its
15:49
Speaker 3: arms to you but a lot of times it's not
15:51
Speaker 3: even that you know you're walking and feeling that way
15:54
Speaker 3: because you pulled it out of thin air it's just
15:57
Speaker 3: It's what you've dealt with.
15:58
Speaker 2: I guess what you're used to.
15:59
Speaker 3: It's like being a black person and you get out
16:01
Speaker 3: the car and you got a large bag and you
16:03
Speaker 3: instantly are like, let me not take this bag in
16:05
Speaker 3: the store.
16:05
Speaker 2: They're going to think I'm stealing. I get what I'm saying.
16:09
Speaker 3: The conversation with Cardi B, though, I mean, we can
16:12
Speaker 3: look at the Flo Millie's. And I remember there being
16:15
Speaker 3: a conversation around Flo Millie and what did or did
16:18
Speaker 3: not happen with her brand wise. And she was right there.
16:21
Speaker 3: I mean, she was right in Flo Millie's fire. Flo
16:25
Speaker 3: Millie is still doing her thing. But there was a
16:27
Speaker 3: point in time where, you know, there was a comparison
16:30
Speaker 3: between her and Ice Spice and what did or did
16:32
Speaker 3: not happen between her and Ice Spice. Cardi B has
16:34
Speaker 3: been able to become very, very, very freaking successful. Like,
16:39
Speaker 3: another level of success that I ain't never seen before, right?
16:43
Speaker 3: In her own way. And, yeah, she is a lighter-skinned woman. Um...
16:48
Speaker 3: you know, Dominican and I'm not even, I know she
16:51
Speaker 3: classifies herself as so many different things. Um, you know,
16:55
Speaker 3: her ethnic background, but there's no denying that, that, that
17:01
Speaker 3: plays a part into society and how they look at you.
17:06
Speaker 3: But at the same time, I think that there are
17:08
Speaker 3: such a nuance that people don't like to discuss. And
17:11
Speaker 3: I think having direct examples to point to like a
17:14
Speaker 3: Cardi B makes it where you have to talk about
17:16
Speaker 3: the nuance where it's like, Yeah, Cardi was ice-skinned, but
17:19
Speaker 3: people wasn't fooling with Cardi in the beginning of all
17:21
Speaker 3: of this. Like, literally, I literally remember, shout-out to Patience
17:27
Speaker 3: Foster and the Cream agency. Cream was an agency that
17:32
Speaker 3: she started a long, long time ago when she first
17:34
Speaker 3: began working with Cardi. I remember when Cardi and Patience
17:39
Speaker 3: decided to team up and work together, and they were
17:42
Speaker 3: trying to brand her, you know, they didn't want to
17:44
Speaker 3: lean too much into reality TV, but that was like
17:46
Speaker 3: a big thing for her loving hip hop in the
17:48
Speaker 3: time that she was there. They were trying to break
17:50
Speaker 3: her out of just being the girl on Instagram, right?
17:52
Speaker 3: The stripper girl on Instagram. And a part of that
17:56
Speaker 3: was like her look and they wanted to break her
17:59
Speaker 3: into fashion and do all these things. I remember the
18:02
Speaker 3: issues they were having, finding her, um, uh, not representation,
18:08
Speaker 3: but like brands that would give her clothes. And I
18:10
Speaker 3: wanted to work with her magazines that would feature her.
18:14
Speaker 3: And those magazines and those brands didn't care nothing about
18:16
Speaker 3: the fact that she was a light-skinned woman at all.
18:23
Speaker 3: Literally cared nothing about that. In 2016, Cardi B did
18:29
Speaker 3: her first editorial photo shoot with Fashion Bomb Daily. This
18:33
Speaker 3: was a big deal for her because— and it's so crazy
18:36
Speaker 3: because I remember— And seeing it and then the conversation that,
18:40
Speaker 3: you know, I had later with patients who, you know,
18:43
Speaker 3: still works for her to this day, you know, in
18:45
Speaker 3: the brand business management, management and creative director space. I
18:50
Speaker 3: remember the conversation we had just about them wanting to
18:53
Speaker 3: people to understand that she's a force in fashion and
18:56
Speaker 3: will be a force in fashion and wants to be right.
18:59
Speaker 3: Nobody saw it then. I mean, it was the love
19:01
Speaker 3: and hip-hop stuff. It was the way she talked. It
19:04
Speaker 3: was how vulgar cis got.
19:06
Speaker 2: Nobody cared.
19:07
Speaker 3: That was a huge, huge major moment for her. It
19:10
Speaker 3: was one of her early major style features as she
19:12
Speaker 3: transitioned from love and hip-hop into this rising mainstream star.
19:17
Speaker 3: Fashion Bomb Daily, owned by Claire Sumners, a black woman,
19:20
Speaker 3: understood that. Mind you, Claire is beautiful. Brown-skinned woman as well, too,
19:25
Speaker 3: understood that. But it wasn't easy. Cardi had to work
19:29
Speaker 3: her behind off. And to be honest with you, there
19:31
Speaker 3: are still some times now, and Cardi said this, she
19:33
Speaker 3: got on Twitter and she, I mean, she posted a long, long,
19:39
Speaker 3: long statement. It is about two paragraphs long. And when
19:41
Speaker 3: I say paragraphs, I mean like hefty paragraphs long. Because she,
19:46
Speaker 3: you know, she saw all the conversation online that this
19:47
Speaker 3: had sparked. And one of the things she said was like,
19:51
Speaker 3: you know, I'm going to always defend myself because I've
19:54
Speaker 3: worked really, really hard to be here. She says, you know,
19:58
Speaker 3: in the beginning, people didn't see just a light skinned woman.
20:03
Speaker 3: They couldn't see behind her teeth. They couldn't see behind
20:06
Speaker 3: her acne, her forehead, her dusty braids. They called her
20:09
Speaker 3: a dirty stripper. She was not the traditional beauty standard. And, again,
20:16
Speaker 3: I think if it was anybody else who would have
20:18
Speaker 3: been saying this from, you know, a lighter-skinned tone, or
20:22
Speaker 3: not even tone, but, like, a lighter-skinned woman that was
20:24
Speaker 3: saying this, it would be like, yeah, you guys have
20:26
Speaker 3: your struggles, too, but, like, woe is me, right? But
20:30
Speaker 3: Cardi worked her behind off. And don't get me wrong,
20:35
Speaker 3: and that's why I think I liked... I hated that
20:40
Speaker 3: the conversation came back up because it was like it
20:41
Speaker 3: came out of nowhere. But I did like the fact
20:43
Speaker 3: that it came back up and Cardi was the center
20:45
Speaker 3: of it because I think for the first time people
20:46
Speaker 3: had to acknowledge that, yes, colorism is a thing. But
20:50
Speaker 3: at the same time, you got to work your ass off.
20:55
Speaker 3: You cannot take the work that Cardi B has done.
20:57
Speaker 3: I mean, Pepsi Super Bowl commercials, Grow Good Hair products
21:03
Speaker 3: selling out, you know, everywhere online. Cardi really, and you
21:08
Speaker 3: know what's crazy, too, is people make fun of Cardi,
21:11
Speaker 3: and she's always asked in interviews about when she's going
21:14
Speaker 3: to stop responding, you know, to her people online and,
21:19
Speaker 3: you know, the people who follow her and all these things.
21:22
Speaker 3: But she even says in the statement, like, she pays
21:24
Speaker 3: a lot of attention to her followers and her consumers
21:26
Speaker 3: and her market and what they like from her. And
21:29
Speaker 3: she learns from that. And it has paid off to
21:32
Speaker 3: be very, very successful for her. Extremely successful. Even in
21:36
Speaker 3: how she drops music, you know, more recently with, like,
21:39
Speaker 3: you know, teasing songs and taking her time to really
21:42
Speaker 3: go through what she was going through, figuring out what
21:43
Speaker 3: she was going to talk about. On her tour, knowing that, like,
21:47
Speaker 3: we coming and we seeing the music. We want to
21:49
Speaker 3: see Cardi dance, but Cardi's on the poles. And we
21:52
Speaker 3: love that about her. It's a part of her journey
21:54
Speaker 3: and her story, but she's also hilarious. She's literally hosting
21:57
Speaker 3: and entertaining us throughout the tour. And her tour making
22:01
Speaker 3: history for her. And there's so much more that we
22:04
Speaker 3: could point to when it comes to Cardi. But at
22:05
Speaker 3: the same time, you know, one of the examples in
22:08
Speaker 3: conversation that came up when we were having this conversation
22:10
Speaker 3: with The Breakfast Club was Alondria from Love Island. And
22:14
Speaker 3: all of the things that she's been able to do
22:17
Speaker 3: since leaving Love Island.
22:20
Speaker 2: Like brand deals and all the things, right?
22:22
Speaker 3: And I was literally saying to Charlamagne that, Alondria has
22:29
Speaker 3: been a big part of the reason why I am like, yo,
22:32
Speaker 3: I got to tighten up my business and I need
22:33
Speaker 3: to tighten up my team. Because Alondria and Shelly leaving
22:38
Speaker 3: Love Island and, you know, Alondria more so because I
22:42
Speaker 3: feel like she's way more out there with a lot
22:44
Speaker 3: of things.
22:45
Speaker 2: But shout out to Shelly, though. I love her. She's beautiful.
22:49
Speaker 3: She is really, really taking... the beauty and brand industry by,
22:54
Speaker 3: by storm. I just saw her on the carpet at
22:57
Speaker 3: the CFDA awards here in New York, looking amazing. She
23:00
Speaker 3: was on the carpet with the likes of Tiana Taylor,
23:02
Speaker 3: Kiki Palmer, Zoe Zodana, all of the tons of big
23:08
Speaker 3: names in, in a winter, you know, that is a
23:11
Speaker 3: huge night in fashion.
23:12
Speaker 1: Right.
23:15
Speaker 2: But she's also been able to deal harder.
23:17
Speaker 3: These brand deals, uh, the deal with Nick's, um, the
23:20
Speaker 3: deal with Barbie and, Brandon Blackwood, black, you know, handbag designer. MAC,
23:26
Speaker 3: that MAC deal, there was a MAC deal that she did.
23:31
Speaker 3: And it was in partnership with a celebrity makeup artist
23:34
Speaker 3: painted by Esther for MAC, which was great timing because
23:37
Speaker 3: it was a conversation about, you know, painted by Esther and,
23:40
Speaker 3: you know, makeup and ownership in a beauty industry, not
23:45
Speaker 3: giving proper credit and ownership to black creators. And then boom,
23:49
Speaker 3: here comes Alondria again, And painted by Esther. And painted
23:54
Speaker 3: by Esther for a long time has become synonymous with blush.
23:59
Speaker 3: And there was a viral transitional blush technique that, you know,
24:04
Speaker 3: was not being accredited. And then you have Alondria, this beautiful,
24:10
Speaker 3: dark-skinned black woman. And they pair up and then boom,
24:14
Speaker 3: it's right here in your face. You can't deny it.
24:17
Speaker 3: I remember at one point when beauty deals and, you know,
24:20
Speaker 3: these glam deals were, like, the most sought after. I
24:23
Speaker 3: don't think people understand. To represent brands in that space
24:27
Speaker 3: is very coveted. It is not easy to do. And
24:30
Speaker 3: that's why when you see, like, a Tiana Taylor, you know,
24:32
Speaker 3: drop her Revlon commercials. When you see, you know, a
24:35
Speaker 3: Cardi B doing everything that she does across beauty, Mugler
24:39
Speaker 3: as a brand, a fragrance brand, was the sponsor on
24:43
Speaker 3: her Little Miss Drama tour. When you see these type
24:46
Speaker 3: of things, you got to know these these women work
24:49
Speaker 3: their behinds off for them. But again, I love the
24:52
Speaker 3: nuance that this conversation has started because, yes, they have.
24:57
Speaker 3: But the colorism is still there. And I like that
25:00
Speaker 3: we acknowledge it, especially, you know, as a person who
25:02
Speaker 3: has I've I've I know what it's like to be
25:06
Speaker 3: the darker skin girl in the room or in the
25:08
Speaker 3: family and all the things.
25:09
Speaker 1: Right.
25:09
Speaker 2: I know what that's like.
25:11
Speaker 3: So I'm always gonna love that we acknowledge it because
25:13
Speaker 3: it is there and people should be aware of it.
25:15
Speaker 3: But at the same time, I'm never going to take
25:17
Speaker 3: nothing from nobody who has worked their behind off to
25:19
Speaker 3: prove that they deserve it. And every single day gets
25:21
Speaker 3: up to continually remind you, I'm here and I ain't
25:23
Speaker 3: going nowhere.
25:25
Speaker 2: Period.
25:27
Speaker 3: So let's consider these conversations ones that are ongoing and
25:31
Speaker 3: learning and constructive. Cardi also, what I loved, you know,
25:35
Speaker 3: because she knew all the chatter was happening, people were
25:37
Speaker 3: talking and her statement was going.
25:38
Speaker 2: To pick up.
25:40
Speaker 3: She then posted a final tweet that said, you know,
25:43
Speaker 3: she knows that social media is all the talk debates
25:46
Speaker 3: and chatter but make sure you can get out and
25:48
Speaker 3: vote today so you can make the change you want
25:50
Speaker 3: to see very cardi-esque okay she knows what's going on
25:53
Speaker 3: she's going to talk straight to her people but she
25:56
Speaker 3: knows what's going on in the world as well too
25:58
Speaker 3: and is always going to be an advocate for you
25:59
Speaker 3: know making things a better place winning wherever she can
26:02
Speaker 3: or cussing you out depending on depending on how you
26:04
Speaker 3: coming for but yeah shout out to all the girls
26:06
Speaker 3: in the conversation love mona love cardi hopefully you know
26:09
Speaker 3: they figure it out because of course it's caused a
26:11
Speaker 3: little bit of riff there but um hopefully they figure
26:13
Speaker 3: it out because i think we do need to be
26:16
Speaker 3: able to have conversations about each other without it being
26:19
Speaker 3: something that tears each other down or makes one person
26:21
Speaker 3: feel like that's what you're trying to do because behind
26:23
Speaker 3: the scenes we need each other we need to be
26:25
Speaker 3: discussing girl how you doing that well what lawyer what
26:28
Speaker 3: about this number all those type of things This has
26:30
Speaker 3: been another episode of The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. I
26:33
Speaker 3: am your host, Lauren LaRosa, and I tell you guys,
26:35
Speaker 3: every single episode, y'all could be anywhere with any old body,
26:39
Speaker 3: but you guys choose to be right here with me,
26:41
Speaker 3: my lowriders.
26:42
Speaker 2: I appreciate you, and I'll catch you in my next one.