Conservatives’ near-comical (and arguably performative) anger over “WAP,” no doubt one of the best songs of 2020, is seemingly going to persist for the foreseeable future.
That ridiculousness was once again revived this week following Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s performance of the empowering anthem at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
On Monday, Cardi herself jumped into the wholly predictable commentary from conservatives by noting that—despite repeated efforts to conflate the two—the popularity of a piece of art like “WAP” is in no way related to recent events like Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to cease publishing a number of Seuss books including “hurtful and wrong” portrayals.
As you may recall, conservatives have been hung up on the Dr. Seuss news for a minute now, with many Republican leaders intentionally misrepresenting this development as an example of what they often refer to as “cancel culture.”
“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…” Cardi tweeted. “Well I can DEFINITELY tell some of ya ONLY read dr Seuss books 🙄 cause ya mind lacks comprehension.”
Also on Monday, as we all sadly should have expected by now, conservative figure Candace Owens appeared on (where else?) Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to equate “WAP” with the so-called “destruction of American values” and “corrosion.” Furthermore, Owens told parents to be “terrified.”
Cardi ultimately responded, joking to fans about having made it on Fox News. “Yaaaayyyyyyy WE MADE FOX NEWS GUYS !!!” Cardi captioned the clip. “Wap wap wap.”
She then sent a message directly to Owens. “Matter fact I’m just going to thank Candy. She put my performance on Fox News giving it more views that boosted the views on YouTube and is counting towards my streams and sales.”
Owens responded by saying she didn’t have a problem with Cardi’s success, but was simply expressing her objections to the message Cardi was sending. “I don’t work for Fox News, Belcalis, nor do I take issue with you having success,” Owens tweeted. “I take issue with you being used to encourage young women to strip themselves of dignity. Men typically treat women how they treat themselves. You know that.”
Cardi fired back by once again thanking Owens for the exposure, and included a NSFW photo of former first lady Melania Trump. “I don’t know why candy is so bothered by WAP I was just inspired by our former First Lady 😔” Cardi tweeted. “Anyways congrats on your new show I hope you speak more about WAP I need it to reach a new Audience to go 6x platinum. Any exposure will help. Love you candy 😘 STREAM UP.”
It didn’t end there. Cardi later shared a screenshot of headline that claimed Owens’ husband had cheated on her with her brother. She also shared a screenshot of an alleged Owens tweet in which she confirmed the cheating scandal. “Not you talking about two women thrusting their vaginas together while your husband and brother slap cocks and balls together,” Cardi wrote. “WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! wow.”
Owens responded by claiming the screenshots were clearly Photoshopped and then took a dig at Cardi’s past marital issues with Offset. “Only one of us has a husband that sleeps around,” Owens tweeted.
Cardi continued to go in, which prompted Owens to threaten legal action.
Cardi then posted a series of blog posts that addressed the whole husband-brother cheating rumor, as well as Owens’ purported confirmation tweet. Owens fired back by saying those blogs were also fooled by the Photoshopped post. She then confirmed she would sue Cardi for defamation.
“Yes. Just spoke with my family. I am 100% suing Cardi for that nonsense,” Owens wrote. “You can’t just start throwing out wild lies against private members of my family because you’re upset someone called your out on your degenerate performance.”
The Bronx rapper questioned why she was the one who would be sued, as multiple online outlets reported on the rumor in November. Cardi suggested if anyone should be sued it should be Owens, as she falsely accused her of Photoshopping images.
“Didn’t you just tweeted that Me and my team are photoshopping shit to take you down and now your saying that the blog was wrong even if you was trending in November all day cause of the tweet? Which one is it?” Cardi wrote. “I should sue you for saying I’m photoshopping shit.”
Of course, the more conservatives attempt to condemn “WAP” and other artistic expressions like it, the cooler those things become. History has shown this to be true.
Here’s how the whole thing played out, along with some reactions from the timeline:
