Cardi B hasn't the time for criticism from Carole Baskin, who recently joined the wave of self-proclaimed moral leaders demonizing the artist's latest music video.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Tiger King participant said the wild cats used in the production of "WAP" were probably forced to pose in front of a green screen and thus possibly exposed to a dangerous environment.
"You have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image and that doesn't happen in the wild," Baskin said. "It can't happen in sanctuaries like ours where cats have plenty of room to avoid a green screen or would shred it if offered access and could die from ingesting it."
She added that the animals in the video are probably from "big cat pimps," like "the ones shown in Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, who make a living from beating, shocking and starving cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio."
"That's never good for the cat," Baskin said.
According to Complex, Cardi B responded with a brief statement, adding fuel to speculations that Baskin killed her own husband.
"I’m not gonna engage with Carole Baskin on that,” the artist said. “Like, that’s just ridiculous you know? Oh, Lord. Like, girl you killed your goddamn husband.”
Baskin, who is the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, believes the song "glamorizes the idea of rich people having tigers as pets" and puts the animals at risk of facing more abuse in the hands of humans.
"That makes every follower of these artists, who doesn't know better, want to imitate by doing the same," she said. "After tigers are too old for pay to play sessions by people like Joe Exotic, Bhagavan [Doc] Antle, Marc McCarthy, Mario Tabraue and others, they become a liability instead of an asset."
While Baskin is making speculations about the animals used in the production, conservatives continue to lose their minds over the sexually explicit content in the video. The leader of that club is political pundit Ben Shapiro.
“This is what feminists fought for,” Shapiro said on his show while ranting about the song. “This is what the feminist movement was all about … and if you say anything differently it’s ’cause you’re a misogynist, you see.”
Ben Shapiro reads "WAP" lyrics pic.twitter.com/bIVH1Pnwvx
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) August 10, 2020
Comedians Desus and Mero gladly took the opportunity to roast Shapiro after his tantrum.
“He talks like the head person of the Lollipop Guild. There’s no way a grown man could have a voice that high,” Desus said. “His natural speaking voice is what it sounds like when you listen to a podcast at 4x the speed.”
The comedian didn't stop there.
“We once had the chopped cheese from Whole Foods, and what it tasted like is what he sounds like. There’s no soul, there’s no cadence, there’s no rhythm,” he added.
Cardi B, who produced the music video and song with fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion, has created an OnlyFans account to provide a platform exclusively for her fans.
"I have a lot of people that claim they don't like me," Cardi B told CNN. "I want to have conversations with my real fans."