Cardi B is addressing skepticism over her $70 million tour gross and says promoters are eager to sign a deal for her next.
During a X Space on Tuesday (May 19), the Am I the Drama? rapper recalled a tweet that questioned her personal finances for accepting numerous brand deals and raised doubts about the box office receipts for her recently-concluded Little Miss Drama Tour.
“I want to make this very clear: even if I didn't go on tour, I don't be hurting for money at all,” Cardi said during the stream.
“My tour didn't ‘supposedly’ gross $70 million. It actually did gross $70 million,” she emphasized. “But you know, y'all a little bit slow. So when ya’ll hear ‘gross $70 million,’ y'all not really making maths.”
She explained Live Nation gave her an advance of $20 million and gave a percentage of it to talent agency, management, and then the production itself. Cardi claims she personally financed her own money into the spectacle, bringing the final production cost to $35 million. From there, Cardi said additional money had to be spent on repairs and pointed out that the arenas could charge overage fees for not leaving the premises on time.
Cardi defended her choice to take “miscellaneous TikTok deals” and lucrative “walk-in” appearances for her tour’s official afterparties.
“Not only do I take care of my four kids, I take care of my whole family. And when I'm talking about whole family, I'm not talking about just mom and dad: I got a big ass fucking family,” she explained.
She continued, “If I got to do a fucking walk-in for 30 minutes and I'm getting paid 200,000 or 150,000 the minimum? I'm going to take it. Especially if they're going to give me half of it in cash … What is 30 minutes to go to the fucking club, enjoy yourself? You're going to go out anyways. After a concert, people want to go out. My crew want to go out. Might as well get paid for it.”
Cardi added, “If you're going to say no to a bag, that's on you. But I'm not going to say no to a bag.”
Although she had previously floated the idea of a second North American leg or bringing her tour to Europe, Cardi says she’s holding off for now.
“A lot of people been asking about another leg for a tour, I do want to go on tour real soon,” she said. “I will ideally like to go on tour, I'll say about September, October so I could be off November and December and January. However, motherfuckers gotta come correct. I feel like I showed them how much money I could make and could gross. I just feel like there's so many people that's giving me so many different offerings … different promoters. They're giving me different offerings and I just want to make sure I make the best decision and the best money and the best promotions.
“I'm just weighing my options. When you sell tickets, you got options. You actually have people fighting for you. So that's what I'm really waiting on. Like, what choice am I going to make? I'll probably make my decision in two weeks or so. Me and my lawyer.”
Cardi’s Little Miss Drama Tour began in February and ran for 35 shows across major cities in North America. Per Billboard, the tour grossed more than $70 million and sold 453,000 tickets.
Last month, Cardi said her “goal” was to someday sell out a 90,000-capacity stadium like Bad Bunny.
