Music

Cardi B Roasts Conservatives After They Compared ‘WAP’ Performance To Banning Dr Seuss Books

"Ya mind lacks comprehension."

by Jules LeFevre  16 March 2021
cardi b grammy wap backlash photo

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The dust has finally settled on the Grammys for another year — Megan Thee Stallion, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift emerging as the big winners of the night.

Unusually, the general consensus is that the Grammys got it right this year: Megan Thee Stallion deservedly won Best New Artist and a few gongs for ‘Savage’, folklore was a solid Album of the Year winner, and H.E.R.’s stunning protest song ‘I Can’t Breathe’ was appropriately gifted Song of the Year.

Related
The Backlash To 'WAP' Proves How Uncomfortable We Still Are With Women's Sexuality

Perhaps the only mild upset was Billie Eilish snagging Record of the Year for ‘Everything I Wanted’, a curious choice in a very strong category that included ‘Savage’, Dua Lipa’s ‘Don’t Start Now’ and Doja Cat’s ‘Say So’. Eilish also thought it was bizarre: in her acceptance speech she said it was “embarrassing” that the Grammys had given her the award over Megan Thee Stallion.

But the biggest moment of the evening, as predicted, was owned by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, who performed their explosive 2020 single ‘WAP’ live for the very first time. It was visually incredible — Cardi B twisting around a gigantic stiletto heel, the two of them grinding on a bed the size of Texas, the overpowering green screen effects. The only jarring bit was the lyrics, which were censored beyond comprehension — even the words ‘hard’ and ‘large’ were blanked out.

And, as expected, conservative pearl-clutchers reacted in precisely the way they did back when ‘WAP’ was first released — by labelling it degrading, anti-feminist, too sexually explicit, and anything else they could think of.

A common thread within the criticism was a comparison between ‘WAP’ and Dr Seuss; recently, the estate of the author announced that six of his books would no longer be published due to racist and insensitive portrayal of people of colour. Of course, it’s a false equivalence: ‘WAP’ pushes the restrictive boundaries of public female sexuality, Dr Seuss children’s books contain racist imagery and stereotypes — they are not a part of the same discussion, and it’s nonsense that conservatives are pretzeling themselves by making the comparison. Additionally, ‘WAP’ isn’t intended for children, and never has been.

None of this escaped Cardi B, who has spent the last day fighting with dickheads on Twitter. “When has a school made kids read the lyrics to ‘WAP’?” She tweeted early this morning. “I get it ‘WAP’ might be a lil vulgar but stop comparing a sensual song to books that has RACIST content! How can ya not tell the difference?”

“Conservatives been making viral tweets comparing WAP to the banning of some of Dr Seuss books as if there’s any correlations between the two,” she continued. “Well I can DEFINITELY tell some of ya ONLY read dr Seuss books cause ya mind lacks comprehension.”

Don’t come for Cardi B unless you’re sure you’re not speaking nonsense. As this tweet so rightly points out:

Anyway, you can watch the full performance of ‘WAP’ below:

Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images