How Cardi B Escaped Poverty to Become the First Female Rapper in 19 Years to Top the Charts

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Bronx-born rapper Cardi B has done the impossible. She’s dethroned Taylor Swift to top the Billboard Hot 100, becoming only the second female rapper to ever score a chart topping solo song after Lauryn Hill did so in 1998.

Before her music career, the 24-year-old rapper made her living as a Vine and Instagram celebrity for the past four years, delivering bold, raunchy one-liners in hilarious 6-second clips.

But her backstory is more interesting than that. Here’s how the Cardi B went from working as a stripper in Manhattan to starring on a reality tv to becoming one of today’s most prominent female artists: