‘It’s not about competition’ Cardi B gets real about building her business and chasing respect

“Money does not make you respectable,” Cardi B says, reflecting on launching her haircare brand Grow-Good Beauty.

This year, Cardi B is proving that the B in her name stands for “business.” Between her album rollout and a world tour, the “Bodak Yellow” star has found time to launch an already sold-out haircare brand, “Grow-Good.” 

Recently, Cardi B sat down with businesswoman Emma Grede to open up about her business-savvy mindset, which has not only helped her grow her brand as an artist but also enter highly saturated markets like haircare and alcohol.

“I like that people just probably think that I’m dumb or an airhead or stuff like that. I don’t know. Is it because of my accent? But it’s like the best thing ever. It’s a superpower,” Cardi B told Grede. “When I want to learn something, I study it all night, all day. When I want it, I have to have it. And I will learn it. I’ll study it. I study who’s great at it. And I just think that I think this is why I’m so successful.”

She continued, “I don’t know if it was like the divorce or I don’t know if something just woke me up. And I feel like I’m definitely a new person […] Like a lot of artists or like celebrities that have really big major businesses that are successful, they didn’t build their brand in their second or third year of being big celebrities. They build their brand when they’re 7 to 10 years in the business. And I feel like right now is the perfect time.”

In February, as the “Am I The Drama?” rapper announced plans to launch Grow Good Beauty, a haircare brand inspired by the old-school hair remedies fans have seen her use on her natural hair for years. Her line joins a growing collection of celebrity haircare lines, including Tracee Ellis Ross’ Pattern Beauty, Beyoncé’s Cécred, Rihanna’s Fenty Hair, Taraji P. Henson’s TPH by Taraji, and more. However, Cardi B says she’s not concerned about competition in the haircare aisle.

“It is not even about competition. It’s about what’s gonna have your hair growing,” she shared. “Like I’ve used Cécred, and it’s very f—g good. And that’s what I want. And I’m saying it with confidence, so I want people to be like, ‘Yo, her shit is really f—g good.’ We are not just trying to sell f—g hair products. I want people to be online talking about [these products] are life changing!”

From posting recipes on her Instagram stories to now launching Grow-Good, Cardi B revealed that her hustle isn’t motivated by money. 
“Money is gonna always be important, but  money does not make you respectable,” she explained. “Like, there’s a lot of people that got money, and it’s like, I still don’t respect you. I feel like you’re lame. I feel like at this point I touch money so much, and of course, like who don’t wanna be super rich, who don’t wanna be able to afford everything? But it’s just like, it’s that respect, that congrats that you get like randomly at the airport, at the store, at the, like that congrats means everything. So many people got money, but so many people don’t got that respect.”

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