Cardi B defends herself after saying she used to drug and rob men when she worked as stripper

'I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world with a perfect past'

Cardi B has defended herself after saying she allegedly drugged and robbed men who tried to pay her for sex when she worked as a stripper.

The rapper made the claims in a three-year-old Instagram Live, a clip of which resurfaced on social media over the weekend.

“N****s must’ve forgot, my n***a, the shit that I did to muthaf***in’ survive,” the Grammy-winner said in the video.

“I had to go strip. I had to go ‘Oh yeah, you wanna f**k me? Yeah yeah yeah, let’s go back to this hotel’. And I drugged n****s up and I robbed them. That’s what I used to do. Nothing was mothaf***in’ handed to me, my n***a. Nothing.”

The video inspired the hashtag #SurvivingCardiB, a reference to the controversial documentary Surviving R Kelly. There were also calls to boycott the artist.

The 26-year-old responded to the outrage in a lengthy Instagram post, writing that she did things in her past “I felt I needed to do to make a living”.

“I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world with a perfect past, I always speak my truth,” she wrote.

“I never glorified the things I brought up in that life. I never even put those things in my music because I’m not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it. I made the choices that I did at the time because I had very limited options.”

Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, added: “I was blessed to have been able to rise from that but so many women have not. Whether or not they were poor choices at the time I did what I had to do to survive.”

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The post was captioned: “All I can do now is be a better me for myself my family and my future.”

Cardi had initially defended herself on Twitter, writing: “I never claim to be an angel I always been a street b**ch. Ya be glorifying this street rappers that talk and do that grimmey [sic] street sh*t but they can’t stand a street b**ch.”

The rapper followed up by announcing she would be taking a break from the social media platform, but returned soon after. She has since posted the same message seen on Instagram to Twitter.