On Thursday night (Sep. 4), Cardi B accepted the 2025 Billboard impact of the year award at the R&B / Hip-Hop Power Players Event in Brooklyn.
After the presentation by this writer — Billboard‘s senior director of R&B / Hip-Hop — Cardi delivered a rousing speech, highlighting her love for hip-hop and building a long-lasting legacy in the game. “Hip-hop is a feeling. When I was growing up, I didn’t want to be the Shakiras, the J-Los, and the R&B artists; I wanted to be like Trina and Lil Kim. I wanted to be like them,” Cardi said.
Cardi’s affinity for the culture continued when she spoke on wanting to fulfill her passions for hip-hop as a child growing up, who once feared that her reality would shatter her dreams of MC fame.
“I’m just so happy that I’m a part of something that I love. I always dreamed about this career — I just felt like with the environment that I was in, dreaming was dreaming,” she shared. “Reality crushes your dreams. So I’m happy that my career is the career that I always dreamed of.”
She added, “I want to be spoken about forever. We talk about all these hip-hop artists who came out 20 years ago and 30 years ago, and I want to be a part of that. I don’t want to be a moment. I want to be a legacy so I can die in peace one day and my kids can be like, ‘That’s my mama.’”
Cardi was one of the handful of artists honored at the 2025 Billboard’s R&B / Hip-Hop Power Players Event. Legendary collective the Wu-Tang Clan was inducted into Billboard’s Hip-Hop Hall of Fame, while rising star Leon Thomas earned breakthrough artist of the year. Promising newcomers Gelo, Odeal and Ravyn Lanae were each named rookie of the year for hip-hop, African music, and R&B, respectively.
Watch Cardi B’s full acceptance speech above.