Cardi B has never been shy about where she comes from, but her latest Instagram Live went somewhere darker.
Speaking after the shooting death of 15-year-old Javits Frimpong in the Bronx, the Grammy-winning rapper said the kind of bullying she faced growing up is exactly what pushes kids toward gangs.
“That makes you want to join a gang,” she said, explaining how relentless harassment leaves young people hunting for safety and acceptance.
She described her own childhood in the borough, where feeling threatened and vulnerable eventually led her into gang involvement as a way to protect herself.
Frimpong had recently relocated to New York from Ghana and was attending DreamYard Preparatory School. He was reportedly shot in the abdomen while walking to school and later collapsed from his injuries.
His father has raised concerns about ongoing bullying, saying disciplinary action had recently been taken against students involved in conflicts with his son.
Police are still searching for teenage suspects, and investigators have not established a definitive motive.
That gap matters. The bullying concerns come from the family, and authorities have not officially tied them to the shooting, so Cardi’s comments are landing in a story where key facts are still missing.
Cardi didn’t soften her take on the city’s young people. She called New York kids mean and said “they got the devil in them,” aiming much of her frustration at how immigrant and foreign-born students get treated by their peers.
She also doubled down on her position that she will never raise her children in New York. For her, the Frimpong case confirmed her decision to keep her kids away from the city’s public school environment, where she believes bullying and social pressure can turn deadly.
Reaction online moved fast. A clip posted by the account livebitez on October 31 isolated her harshest lines about New York kids, and it circulated widely on its own.
Some fans responded by sharing the full livestream. “Y’all love clipping things out of context to make a narrative and it will never work,” the account BardisMedia wrote.
The post argued that anyone who lives in New York would understand where she was coming from and that she was relaying her own experience and that of many other Bronx residents.
Both readings have some weight. Calling an entire city’s kids cruel is an easy line to criticize, but Cardi was speaking as someone who says she lived through the exact pressure she was describing, not as an outside commentator.
Her remarks have pulled more attention toward the circumstances around Frimpong’s death, especially what newly arrived immigrant kids face when they walk into a city school. Frimpong had only just started his new life in New York before it ended on the way to class.
For now, the Bronx is waiting on answers. Investigators are still looking for the people responsible, and Frimpong’s family is still pressing questions about what was happening to him at school before that morning.
