Cardi B, an American rapper, songwriter, television personality, and actor from the Bronx. covers the September 2020 issue of ELLE Magazine US. The initial release of her Steven Klein images comes days after her newest single “WAP” made by waves on the internet.

Alex White joins Cardi B’s personal stylist Kollin Carter to create a fashion story that glitters silver including a crystal wig from Area and crystal veil from Karen Wolf; fashion from Balenciaga, Paco Rabanne, Versace Atelier; and cuffs from Mordekai by Ken Borochov. / Hair by Tokyo Stylez; makeup by Erika La’Pearl; manicure by Jenny Bui

Marjon Carlos conducts the interview: The Politics of Being Cardi B.

UPDATED Aug 18: Cardi B Interviews Joe Biden

UPDATED Aug 18: Cardi B In Conversation with Joe Biden

As our nation faces two crises, COVID-19 and police brutality toward people of color, Cardi B gets real via Zoom with the man who could be our next president. Read the transcript at ELLE Magazine.

It’s a year ago that rap star Cardi B joined Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in a Detroit nail salon.

The polymathic force—former stripper/onetime reality star/raptress/ wife/mother/hellion—converted the salon into a backdrop for an earnest conversation around the most urgent issues facing Americans today: job creation, police brutality, a livable minimum wage, and workers’ rights. The scene was full of obvious asymmetry—Cardi’s glamour-puss persona played irreverently off Sanders’s mensch—but in many ways, it was just two New Yorkers talking about the issues of the day, with all the camaraderie of the politicking found at any Dominican bodega that dots Cardi’s native South Bronx neighborhood.

In May 2018 Cardi B was giving followers an American history lesson in the pages of the May 2018 issue of GQ.

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The Bronx rapper’s political cred was obvious two years ago, when she weighed in on Social Security, explaining that US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was "the real 'Make America Great Again’ [president] because if it wasn't for him, old people wouldn't even get Social Security."

Finishing off her macaroni and cheese, Cardi B explained exactly how social security for seniors came to be:

"Yes, from the New Deal. It was a system to get us back from the world Depression—then, on top of that, while he was president there was a fucking war going on. World War II was going on. So all this shit going on in the United States, while recouping the country from an economic tragedy, making sure that America won the war—and his wife? I would say she was almost like Michelle Obama. She was such a good humanitarian, and we both got the same birthday, October 11."

It seems like a historic and tragic moment for Cardi B to weigh in again on the state of American politics. As always, the star’s not at a loss for words, even if so many concerns from her 2019 Bernie Sanders chat with Bernie Sanders in a Detroit nail salon have come true.

Nor is Cardi weeping in her champagne glass over her candidate not being the Democratic presidential nominee. She’s committed to doing anything possible to get Joe Biden elected president. In a sentiment felt by more than one Democrat in COVID-19 America, Cardi vision of presidential leadership is light-years away from Trump.

“I want a president who makes me feel secure. I want a president who understands the pain of the people. I want a president who is going to give us answers,” she says, wistfully. “That’s why I like [New York governor Andrew] Cuomo. I like him because he makes me feel like he’s listening to me.” She’s been rallying her loyal Bardi Gang fan base to become more active in their electoral system, voting in elections at all levels: “You can vote for DAs. You can vote for mayors. You can vote for your district. Not everything is the president. You know what I’m saying?”

Marjon Carlos reminds us that Cardi B has her own rap sheet cluttered with charges of colorism and racism. The star insists that the latest attempt to cancel her over a fake Instagram account allegedly used to criticize Megan Thee Stallion, Ariana Grande, and eternal foe Nicki Minaj is bogus.

Two weeks later, Cardi B described her two-year-old daughter Kulture has having “chinky eyes’. Move over, Gigi Hadid.

“Never in my life, my 27 years, I never even knew that was a racial slur,” she tells me [ELLE]. “I was describing my husband’s and my sister’s eyes, and my daughter’s eyes.... I don’t even know how to describe their eyes anymore because that’s how I used to describe their eyes. I don’t even know the word. That they’re almond shaped? But it’s like, I never knew that. And for people to be like, ‘She’s using a racial slur. She’s disgusting.’ And it’s like, ‘Bro, I didn’t even know that was a racial slur.... I didn’t say it...with no bad ill intention.’ ”

Marjon Carlos sums up the situation this way: There is no learning curve in cancel culture.

This is how we’ll leave Cardi B until the rest of her fashion story is published. This interview is really solid, with lots more to read at ELLE US September 2020.