Safety doesn’t come cheap!
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion lifted our spirits with the release of their new track WAP and accompanying music video, but shooting something of that caliber during a pandemic has a big price!
Related: Cardi B Joined OnlyFans! See WAP Outtakes And ‘Private Stuff’ Now!
In a new interview with i-D, the 27-year-old revealed just how much it cost to get everyone on-set tested:
“It was kind of weird shooting the video in the age of corona. We had to spend $100,000 dollars just on testing. Everybody on the shoot had to get tested for coronavirus.”
WOW! Better to be safe, but that’s a big expense!!
She added (below):
“Everything has completely changed because of the pandemic. I was constantly on the road, now I’m mostly at home with my baby. Everything that I had planned for this year has to be rescheduled for God knows when. So it’s just crazy, it’s a lot.”
Speaking of Kulture, Cardi and Offset‘s daughter celebrated her second birthday just last month, and this momma has learned a thing or two about having to hold her tongue around her growing girl:
“When your baby is really tiny, you don’t really have to watch what you say. Now I gotta be so careful with what I do and anything I say so she won’t be out here repeating it. She gets little tantrums and I have to decide how to deal with those. Like, do I wanna be a chill mom, or an aggressive mom?”
Something else the Grammy winner has to be careful with? Shooting with live animals! Returning to the topic of WAP, viewers saw exotic animals controversially appeared in the video! But continuing with the theme of making safety a priority on set, Cardi shared:
“We had a tiger and a leopard there, but we didn’t film with them in there because of safety and because of the pandemic. We spliced those scenes together.”
The use of the large cat, in particular, drew backlash from Tiger King star Carole Baskin, who was less than pleased by the use of the big cat as an “ego prop” on set. According to a statement previously issued to ET, the Netflix personality noted:
“That makes every follower of these artists, who doesn’t know better, want to imitate by doing the same. That never works out and the cats either die or end up dumped in sanctuaries or, worse yet, breeding mills. There have been some accounts of tigers just being turned loose on communities when they no longer served as ego props. No matter how you cut it, it’s always abusive to the cat and dangerous to the public.”
Much like the controversy which came from including Kylie Jenner in the video, it doesn’t seem to phase the rapper much, who referenced Don Lewis — Baskin’s husband who went missing in 1997 — in her response:
“I’m not gonna engage with Carole Baskin on that. Like, that’s just ridiculous you know? Oh, Lord. Like, girl you killed your goddamn husband.”
Was the WAP video worth the cost and backlash, y’all?! Let us know your thoughts (below) in the comments.
[Image via WENN/Avalon.]
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