Up is still catchy, and it’s still impossible not to dance to it. The rapper behind the viral hit, Cardi B spills about her big family and a locality full of cousins in a rare interview with David Letterman. The rapper just recently became a mother for the second time. She welcomed a baby boy with her husband Offset. The couple already had a daughter, Kulture, before this.

Cardi B was always grounded growing up in the Bronx with 37 cousins 

Cardi B shared that her grandfather was a Spaniard. He met her Trinadadian grandmother in Trinidad, and they got married. Soon after, the entire family moved to the Bronx. Her mother has 12 siblings and her Dominican father has eight siblings of his own. So Cardi B was never short of cousins to play or skip school with while growing up. All 37 cousins growing up in the same neighborhood meant they would see each other all the time and even bunk school to go to hooky parties together. Once she met her cousin on a train going to the same hooky party!

Her upbringing was very strict 

The most shocking revelation on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman was when the rapper shared how strict her mother was. Her mother never let her go to the movies and even grounded her for skipping school. She got bad grades and was always more interested in going to the parties. She recalled, “My whole teenage life I was grounded. I was never ungrounded.” 

When her parents separated, she was 13. But she saw it as a sign of more freedom and less restrictions. However, she noted that her mother worked two jobs to raise the kids. And still had the energy to cook meals every weekend. Now having a daughter of her own, she doesn’t think she’s as strict as her mom. Instead, she shared that Kulture is really “slick” and knows how to get her way. 

Catch the whole interview here.