Cardi B sat down with Vogue for their January cover and poured out her feelings about juggling motherhood, marriage, her career and the press. 

Despite the 27-year-old achieving instant success with the 2017 hit "Bodak Yellow," she said she started to question herself after the song "Press" paled in comparison. 

"I thought ‘Press’ was fun and it was gangsta, and then because it didn’t perform as good as my other songs, people was like, 'Oh, she’s a flop; oh, she’s dying out,'” she explained. “This whole year has just been a lot for me. I feel like people are just so tired of me winning. I will look for my name on Twitter, and it’s like hate tweets, hate tweets, hate tweets.”

In her quiet moments, the rapper said she frequently checks her phone, becoming overwhelmed with comments on the social media platforms that catapulted her into stardom. 

“Social media really made me,” she admitted. “Before I got on Love & Hip Hop, I had millions of followers just off the way I speak. Just me talking. And that’s how I got discovered. But now social media makes everything hard.”

Although it was social media that saw her rise to fame, it became the platform for public commentary on her marital issues with Atlanta-based rapper Offset. 

After privately getting married, the two separated in December 2018 after bouts with infidelity. Eventually, they reunited, a decision Cardi says her female fans were disappointed in. 

"A lot of people were so mad at me. A lot of women felt disappointed in me,” she said. 

“But it’s real-life shit. If you love somebody and you stop being with them, and you’re depressed and social media is telling you not to talk to that person because he cheated, you’re not really happy on the inside until you have the conversation. Then, if you get back with them, it’s like, 'How could you? You let all of us down,'" she said.

In spite of this, Cardi has used the advantages of social media to speak on political issues and rally behind a presidential candidate for the 2020 presidential election. 

She recently met with Bernie Sanders to discuss police brutality, gun control, health care and education. 

“One thing that I like about Bernie is that, you know, there’s proof that he’s been doing this for years. That he been caring about people for years. That it’s inside of him, being a humanitarian," she said.

The artist hasn't always been the one to discuss politics. The self-described “regula degula schmegula girl from the Bronx” said she was a class clown in school and was often distracted by the streets. She eventually dropped out of community college after failing an English class and landed a gig as a stripper across the street at New York Dolls. 

She said the money she worked for at the strip club helped her escape a toxic relationship with an ex-boyfriend. 

"He and I used to get into arguments, hitting each other a lot. Girls like to say, ‘I will beat a n***a’s a**.’ I used to have that mentality. I used to hit my first boyfriend, until he started hitting me back and it just got out of control," she recalled.

Cardi has never shied away from discussing her career as a stripper. Her time in the strip club has served as inspiration for some of her songs and has emboldened her unpopular views of feminism.

“Women always want to talk about feminism and supporting everybody except if it doesn’t fit your category of what to support. Certain women that claim they are feminists only think that a certain type of woman should represent that. Like oh, you have to have a college degree, and you have to fucking be, practically, like, a senator or Mother Teresa or a Christian holy woman. No, you do not. Feminism means being equal to a man. And I am,” she said.

Since stepping on the scene, Cardi has continued to break records and create a name for herself. She's remained busy since her first song hit the charts, but motherhood has become her solace.

“Being a mom—how can I say it? Things are a little bit harder to balance, but it’s good for the mental. Like, if I’m playing with my daughter, I forget about the issues,” the New York native said.

While she's certainly not done with music, she said she's working toward creating a lasting legacy with her daughter Kulture. 

Cardi said she and Offset are working on codesigning a children's clothing line with Kulture designated as the CEO.