“She’s the first person to grab her phone and start talking sh*t into it.”
Pardison Fontaine considers Cardi B to be a “pioneer” on social media and a catalyst for both artists and fans being unafraid to speak their mind and voice their opinion.
During an interview with Complex, Pardi was asked about previously calling Cardi “a marketing genius,” prompting the rapper to point out her impact on the landscape of social media since rising to stardom nearly a decade ago.
“I say this all the time, she’d have been a star no matter what she chose to do,” said Fontaine. “She really pioneered a lot of the energy that you see on the internet right now. She’s the first person to grab her phone and really start talking sh*t into it. She crafted that from her own iPhone. Unapologetically herself.”
The rapper also recalled an instance following the release of his 2013 single “Oyyy”, in which the Bronx bombshell took it upon herself to use her social media presence in an attempt to promote the record to a larger audience.
“When I was first coming up, I had this song called “Oyyy,” Pardi began. “Out of nowhere, unprovoked, just out of being my homie, she makes a video on her Instagram at a gas station dancing to the song, turning up to the song. And it was a Honda Sonata or something, just a regular car.
“And people are just commenting like, ‘Oh, why she pump her own gas,’ [or] ‘Why she got this car? That’s the car she got,’ and I’m like ‘Yo, that was genius.’ I couldn’t have done that on my own. Either it’s genius or she just keeps getting lucky.”
Pardison Fontaine and Cardi B have built a strong professional and personal relationship, with Pardi helping the former dancer and reality TV star create her multiplatinum debut album Invasion of Privacy, which was released in 2018. That same year, Cardi appeared alongside Fontaine on his own single “Backin’ It Up,” which peaked within the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Earlier this month, Pardi released his latest project Sext8pe, an eight-song EP with a feature from Sexyy Red.
