“Press, press, press, press, press, Cardi don’t need more press” — unless it’s the cover of Vogue, that is. Ahead of the new year, Vogue is kicking off a digital preview of its January 2020 cover series, featuring four influential women: model and soon-to-be mother Ashley Graham, designer Stella McCartney, filmmaker Greta Gerwig, and yes, our girl La Caldi. As if this quartet of covers wasn’t historic enough, it also turns out that Cardi B’s inclusion marks the very first time that a female rapper graces the United States cover of Vogue (yes Barbz, Nicki Minaj covered Vogue twice last year — but not in the U.S.)
While Cardi’s living her best life jet setting from Nigeria to Ghana, Vogue dropped its cover story an ocean away in the States this morning, December 9. If you caught her “73 Questions with Vogue” video weeks ago, then you may recognize similarities between the speed-round interview conducted by Joe Sabia and today’s feature by Rob Haskell. Cardi’s still cozied up at her abuela’s apartment in the Heights, baby Kulture waddles about and Offset chimes in. It’s characteristic of Cardi’s latest vision in life: Everything’s para la familia.
There may not be any Vivaporú or anything beyond the “Dominican cooking” mention of, say, bacalao on display in Vogue‘s piece, but Cardi’s representation in the magazine marks a significant milestone for Latinas and women in rap, more generally. Her messages about motherhood, marriage and feminism throughout the interview represent not only the themes of a new decade, but the changing face of Vogue-level celebrity altogether. That “regula degula schmegula girl from the Bronx” is still regula yet extraordinary enough to reach these heights.
“I feel like people are just so tired of me winning,” she said to Vogue at the start of her interview. But we, for one, are not.