Bodak Yellow

Bodak Yellow

Cardi B

On “Bodak Yellow,” Cardi brings up her past as a stripper and how she has cemented her legitimacy in the rap game with her peerless work ethic. It’s the first single she released with Atlantic Records since signing to the label in 2017.

The chorus and Cardi’s flow throughout the song is reminiscent of Kodak Black’s August 2014 song, “No Flockin.” The title’s also a play on Kodak’s name as “Bodak” alludes the “B” in “Bloods” as Cardi is a member of the Bloods gang, and “Black” is changed to “Yellow” as she’s a yellow bone or light-skinned.

In an August 2017 Billboard interview, Cardi revealed that she wrote the lyrics to the song while listening to the beat on an airplane:

I heard the beat […] on the airplane, I kept writing to it.