Cardi B is spilling the beans on those headline-making PDAs she keeps sharing with husband Offset.
During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday alongside her fellow Rhythm + Flow judges T.I. and Chance the Rapper, the 26-year-old “I Like It” rapper was asked to explain the luscious licks she and Offset keep having, which have been caught by red carpet photographers at events like the Grammy Awards and the Billboard Music Awards.
Of course, the outspoken Cardi had a hilarious practical explanation as to why she and Offset decide to touch tongues instead of lock lips.
Turns out, it’s all an attempt to protect her glam from winding up on Offset’s face.
“Sometimes when we do all of that, you know what I’m saying, I have on makeup,” Cardi told DeGeneres. “Then all that lip glosses and the concealer gets up on his face, and it looks like he ate a donut or whatnot!”
“That’s never happened before to you?” Cardi asked, to the laughs of the audience.
She got support from T.I., who joked, “The lips are in the way! Get straight to the good stuff!”
Offset and Cardi B. CHELSEA LAUREN/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Offset and Cardi B. STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE
Offset and Cardi B. STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE
Cardi and Offset have been married for two years, after secretly walking down the aisle in September 2017. They share 15-month-old daughter Kulture Kiari, who was born on July 10, 2018.
“Marriage is such a crazy unity, in a good way,” Cardi said on Ellen — a nod to the brief 2018 split she and Offset had following rumors of his infidelity.
Despite that bump in the road, it was actually Offset who encouraged Chance the Rapper to walk down the aisle himself.
Chance explained: “I was at Coachella when Cardi performed two years ago and I met Offset, he had a party at French Montana’s house. We were all in the backyard and he pulled me aside and told me that [he and Cardi] had just gotten married in the backyard. He was like, ‘Yo, you gotta take care of business.’ And then I came back home and I proposed like, two months later.
The Grammy winner (né Chancelor Johnathan Bennett) and wife Kirsten Corley Bennett — who have have known one another for nearly 16 years — married last December, but had their wedding ceremony back in March.
“That is so beautiful and nice,” Cardi said on Ellen, after hearing the story.
Meanwhile, Cardi, T.I. and Chance the Rapper were on Ellen to promote Rhythm + Flow — Netflix’s new reality hip-hop competition series, which will drop episodes across three Wednesdays beginning on Oct. 9.
All three serve as judges on the series. “[We’re] seeing the greatest talent in hip-hop across the nation, bringing them into one place and trying to see what they got,” Chance said.
“There’s so many phenomenally talented artists that we had the opportunity of working with and kind of shaping and molding their journeys.”
Added Cardi: “When it comes to women, you have to have the whole package. You have to have the right voice. There’s some women on Instagram, they can rap but their voice, I don’t think people want to hear it for too long. You have to have the confidence. You have to be like an open book. Everybody wants to know you. You want to be that girl that guys want to be with and girls want to be like.”
T.I., Chance the Rapper and Cardi B with Ellen DeGeneres. MICHAEL ROZMAN/WARNER BROS.
Though all later admitted that they joined the project for “the check,” they said they really got involved with the artists.
“I grew a connection to the contestants and to everybody. I was really emotional the last day. I couldn’t believe it. I was so sad,” Cardi said. “I feel bad because I feel like we crushed a couple of people’s dreams but the labels would have done that.”
T.I. didn’t seem to feel bad. “People have something in them, like a gift, that they were put on earth to do,” he said. “Music is not it for some of them and we need to get them off that path so they can find their life’s purpose.”
The Ellen DeGeneres Show airs weekdays in syndication (check local listings).