Cardi B Says Being a Working Mom Is 'the Hardest Challenge Ever' at Beautycon NYC Panel

Cardi B at Beautycon 1280
Noam Galai/Getty Images for Beautycon

The rapper opens up about balancing her career and motherhood, equal pay and money management.

Cardi B is getting real about motherhood. 

The rapper stopped by Beautycon Festival NYC for her "Making Money Moves" panel moderated by Beautycon CEO Moj Mahdara on Sunday. The busy star, who performed in the early hours at the Palms Casino Resort's KAOS nightclub in Las Vegas, apologized to the audience for being late to the stage and shared, "I'm gonna overbook myself. I'm always chasing the bag." 

Although she got ready in the plane and car, Cardi did not disappoint with her look as she rocked a large white custom Sarah Sokol Millinery hat, vintage Paco Rabanne furry coat, and metallic Casadei shoes, which soon came off as she got deep into conversation. 

Noam Galai/Getty Images for Beautycon
Cardi B in Ralph & Russo at Palms Casino Resort's KAOS nightclub opening in Las Vegas. - Courtesy of Palms Casino Resort

The 26-year-old is always on the go and revealed she struggles with balancing her explosive career and being a mom to 8-month-old daughter Kulture, whom she shares with rapper Offset. 

"It's very hard. It's like the hardest challenge ever," Cardi told the audience. "I don't even like talking about it. I really don't like talking about it because it's, like, very hard. For example, I haven't seen my baby now in two days because I was in Vegas, now I'm here. And it's just hard because I be like, damn, will she forget about me, like, in two days?" 

"When I was pregnant, I used to be like, it's gonna be easy. I'm just gonna hire a nanny and my baby's gonna come with me everywhere," she continued. "But it's like once you have the baby, it's hard to get a nanny because you don't trust nobody with your kid! And then it's like, OK, my mom is helping me and sister helps me take care of [Kulture], but, like, my mom do not want to go from city to city, two and three cities in less than 72 hours." 

Cardi B and Moj Mahdara on stage at Beautycon NYC. - Noam Galai/Getty Images for Beautycon

Cardi expressed it's even more difficult since her and Offset's schedules take them to different locations. However, she emphasized they're working hard to provide the very best for their daughter. 

"On top of that, me and her dad, we're always in different places. Like I used to think, oh we gonna be in this house in Atlanta, big this, big that, but we haven't even been in our house for, like, two months! And we chasing the bag. And we be sad as hell, but we be you know what? She will be all good because she's gonna have a lambo when she be like 18." 

Cardi also opened up about how she took matters into her own hands when she wanted to get paid as much as her male counterparts. 

"I get paid equally. I definitely get paid equally. You wanna know why? Because sometimes, I think that sometimes, like, you know, as I came up and everything, I used to see some male rappers, right? And we used to do, you know, hostings together, shows together. And I used to ask, bro, why this man making more money than me when I'm the one bringing out all the b***hes?" 

"So you know what I said? I said I'm gonna stop taking bookings until y'all start paying me more and that bag doesn't f**k up." 

Cardi B and her sister Hennessy Carolina at the Beautycon NYC red carpet. - Noam Galai/Getty Images for Beautycon

So what's Cardi's top career advice when it comes to making the most of what you earn? 

"Always take a business class because sometimes the career that you studied for one day is not gonna make you happy and you wanna become your own boss, but you cannot be your own boss because you don't know how to manage a business," Cardi said. "Me? I got mad money. Mad money! But you wanna know something? I have to hire business managers and sh*t and pay extra money for these people just to run a business because I didn't took the class. So I gotta depend on somebody else to run my business. That's why you gotta take a business class and they don't tell you." 

Reporting by Marisa Runyon. 

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