Cardi B has responded to social media speculation purporting that she was paid to speak positively about Saudi Arabia in connection with her recent performance in the country.
In an Instagram Live session conducted after she returned to the States, the Am I the Drama? artist told fans she was only paid for the performance itself, nothing more.
“I see certain people saying that, like, the things that I’ve been saying about Saudi Arabia, like I got paid for that, like for promo or something like that,” she said, as seen below. “I wanna make it very clear: I only got paid to perform out there.”
During her trip, Cardi added, her previously held assumptions about certain aspects of the region’s strictness were changed. While Cardi said she did observe “a very strict dress code” and a similarly strict stance on alcohol consumption, she was surprised to see that women were living what she claimed were “very regular, cool” lives.
Cardi further praised Saudi Arabia for, in her opinion, making progress over the years despite remaining a “very religious” region. She also expressed a change of heart regarding artists who opt to not perform in the country in protest, something Cardi now argues harms fans more than those in power.
“Things have definitely changed out there,” she said. “I think it’s a very friendly country. The people are amazing. And I remember when, like, a lot of artists including myself refused to go out there because of the laws. But to be honest with you, that doesn’t affect nobody but the fans and the people out there. And the people out there, they are so amazing, they are so incredible. You have to meet them, you have to touch them. When we say stuff like that, we don’t punish nobody but the people from the country, but the fans.”
Overall, Cardi believes that people in Saudi Arabia currently “live happier than us” here in the States, more or less reiterating remarks she made during a previous IG Live session last week.
“It’s okay to explore places and learn things,” Cardi said, adding that Saudi Arabia was a “family-friendly” environment in her eyes. “You don’t always gotta turn up. You don’t always gotta pop your pussy. You don’t always gotta do that.”
Saudi Arabia has routinely faced criticism from fans and artists alike, specifically over the intentions behind its funding of high-profile festivals and similar projects in the region. Human Rights Watch, for example, says the country’s investments into entertainment and sports events are part of what they say is a larger effort to “whitewash the country’s abysmal human rights record.”
Earlier this year, multiple comedians—Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, and Pete Davidson among them—were criticized for taking part in the country’s Riyadh Comedy Festival. Several stars were later revealed to have declined invitations to perform at the festival, including Shane Gillis, who said he chose to take “a principled stand’ despite being offered a “significant” amount of money.