Cardi B Becomes The First Female Rapper With 3 Solo Top 10 Debuts

With the debut of her latest single “Outside” from her upcoming album “Am I the Drama?”, Cardi B has made history as the female rapper with the most solo top 10 debuts on the Billboard Hot 100. While Cardi has 13 top 10 hits overall, “Outside” marks her third top 10 solo debut, with the others being “Enough” and “Up.” The milestone of her solo hits solidifies her as a force to be reckoned with in the hip-hop and music industries, which only underscores her enduring presence since the release of her last album in 2018.

What makes Cardi’s milestone so special is the fact that many rappers, both male and female, past and present, obtain most of their Billboard entries through collaborations and features with other artists across the hip-hop and pop genres. Even with Cardi’s 13 entries, 10 are through collaborations. For example, her verses on songs like G-Eazy’s “No Limit” or GloRilla’s “Tomorrow 2”, one of my personal favorite entries in her discography, if I’m being honest, helped push those tracks to the top 10 through the sheer force of her flow and celebrity.

Fan and Cultural Context

Following her breakout success on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York, Cardi was able to leverage her newfound TV fame, along with her vibrant personality, into the now-certified diamond hit “Bodak Yellow.” From there, she continued to release hit after hit, with each of her top 10 Billboard debuts demonstrating her versatility as a rapper, spanning genres such as rap, pop, hip-hop, reggaeton, and more. Achieving so many hits as a rapper is already a significant accomplishment, but having three of them as solo debuts, something rappers often struggle with regardless of gender, is truly iconic.

Cardi’s fan base, known as the Bardi Gang, often creates a sort of “fan cast” for artists she might collaborate with or hope that she’ll feature in existing songs, just like many fandoms do with their favorite artists. More importantly, her fans have played a vital role in her solo success. They show up, spread the word, engage, and most importantly, buy the music. Charting on the Billboard Hot 100 is a feat for any artist but having a loyal fan base and additional fans outside of it that help you score multiple top 10 hits—something many of her peers across genres haven’t achieved is proof of one thing: Cardi B is here to stay.

Future Possibilities for Female Rap

Cardi, as the first female rapper in history to achieve this with only one album, signals a significant shift in the industry. Currently, there is a wide range of female rappers with diverse styles that cater to a variety of tastes, allowing anyone to find what they’re looking for, without needing to conform to a single mold. The female rappers she has collaborated with, including those with flows ranging from the deep South all the way to NYC, such as Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, Lizzo, and Latto, are each carving out their own paths in the industry and reshaping what hip-hop looks like for current and future generations of female MCs.