Why Cardi B Turned Down Super Bowl Halftime Show

Cardi B is holding off on performing at the Super Bowl—for now.

The “WAP” rapper said she previously passed on playing at the NFL event’s prestigious halftime show because she felt she didn’t have enough hit songs under her belt to be a headliner.

“I got asked to do the Super Bowl and I denied it,” Cardi told Billboard in an interview published Sept. 3. “I feel like soon, if I get to do it, I’m going to have more hits. I’m going to be more experienced and I’m going to eat that up.”

And the 32-year-old—who previously said she turned down the gig at Super Bowl 2019 to “stand behind” quarterback Colin Kaepernick in his activism—isis serious about honing her craft.

“I do my job well and I take my time with my music—clearly you can see that,” she said. “So many [rappers] come and go, and I’m still here. You can downplay my accent, but I put a lot of thought into my work. I don’t half-ass anything I do.”

That’s why it took her more than seven years to release Am I the Drama?, the much-awaited follow-up to her 2018 debut album Invasion of Privacy.