Cardi B is "not proud" of the things she did to "survive" when she was a strippper.
Cardi B
The 'I Like It' hitmaker has spoken out after an old Instagram Live post resurfaced, in which she told of drugging and robbing men, and insisted she has never tried to "glorify" her past.
In a lengthy statement posted to Instagram, she wrote: "I'm seeing on social media that a live I did 3 years ago has popped back up. A live where I talked about things I had to do in my past right or wrong that I felt I needed to do to make a better living.
"I never claim to be a perfect or come from a perfect world wit a perfect past I always speak my truth I always own my s**t.
"I'm a part of a hip-hop culture where you can talk about where you come from, talk about the wrong things you had to do to get where you are.
"There are rappers that glorify murder violence drugs an robbing. Crimes they feel they had to do to survive. I never glorified the things I brought up in that live I never even put those things in my music because I'm not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it."
"I made the choices that I did at the time because I had very limited options.
"I was blessed to have been able to rise from that but so many women have not. Whether or not they were poor choices at the time I did what I had to do to survive.(sic)"
But the 26-year-old star - who has nine-month-old daughter Kulture with husband Offset - insisted the men she was involved with were "conscious, willing and aware".
She added: "The men I spoke about in my live were men that I dated that I was [involved] with men that were conscious willing and aware. I have a past that I can't change we all do."
Cardi has also vowed to be a "better me".
She captioned the statement: "All I can do now is be a better me for myself, my family and my future."
In the original Instagram Live, the 'Bodak Yellow' hitmaker - who started stripping when she was 19 - admitted she "drugged and robbed" men who wanted to sleep with her.
She said: "I had to go strip, I had to go, 'Oh yeah, you want to f**k me? Yeah yeah yeah, let's go back to this hotel,' and I drugged n****s up and I robbed them. That's what I used to do."
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