Wild Side

Normani Says She’s So ‘Bad’ At Social Media That Even Her Grandma Gives Her Tips

by
normani.jpg
Getty Image

Normani may be close to finishing up her debut album, but she’s still riding the success of her 2021 Cardi B collaboration “Wild Side.” As Normani knows, part of being a chart-topping pop star is being an expert at promoting yourself and your music on social media to some extent. But while Normani is great at crafting bangers like “Wild Side,” she admits her strengths don’t quite lie in the art of social media — and that’s where her grandmother comes in.

Normani recently sat down for a conversation with Ciara on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where she spoke about the viral success of “Wild Side,” which was turned into a TikTok dance challenge, the status of her debut album, and the fact that her grandma is better at using social media than she is:

“I’m really bad with social media — it’s bad. My grandma at this point has me beat. She’ll be sending me TikToks and videos and people doing the dance challenge. […] She’s better than me. I’m the grandmother. It’s terrible, we’ve reversed roles.”

Of course, Normani also gave some updates on the status of her new music, saying she’s “almost done” with her debut album. The singer knows fans are impatient to hear her songs, but Normani says “people really underestimate” how much work really goes into one body of work. “Coming out of a girl group, there was a lot I had to figure out about myself; fears I had to deal with head-on. I was always so safe being in a girl group,” she said. “I remember when I was little, my mom was like, ‘Why do you want to be in a girl group so bad? Is it because you want to hide?’ And I think that was pretty much the answer. But God had other plans for me.”

Watch a clip of Normani’s conversation with Ciara above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Normani Pays Homage To Janet Jackson With A Gleaming Performance Of ‘Wild Side’ At The 2021 MTV VMAs

by
Getty Image

After spending the better part of two years out of the musical spotlight, Normani made her grand return earlier this year with the release of “Wild Side,” he collaboration with Cardi B. The track’s release certainly marked a new era in Normani’s career, one that will hopefully lead to the release of her long-awaited debut album. While a timeline for that project’s release is unknown at the moment, the singer continues to promote the new track with a gleaming performance at the 2021 MTV VMAs.

Normani showed off her dance moves while donning a metallic outfit, all without losing a step with her vocals with the performance. To close the performance, the singer did her own version of Janet Jackson’s iconic 2002 Live In Hawaii performance of “Would You Mind” with help from Teyana Taylor.

Earlier this year, during an interview with Rolling Stone, Normani revealed that she is “about halfway through the album” and added that she hoped to have a lead single for it out by the summer, which she achieved with the release of “Wild Side.” She also spoke about trying to be more open and authentic with her music.

“I want to be able to feel like I was represented in the most authentic way possible because I know what it feels like coming from a girl group and being told who to be,” she said. “[It’s] just overwhelming now to have the opportunity to be all that I want to be.” Normani added, “I want every girl out there to feel like I’m going through the same thing.”

You can watch the singer’s performance in the video above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Normani’s Dad Thinks ‘Wild Side’ Is ‘Fire’ Despite The Singer Being ‘Terrified’ To Play It For Him

by
Getty Image

Last month, Normani blessed the world with her latest single, “Wild Side,” featuring Cardi B — her first lead release in almost two years. The song arrived with a music video that highlighted Normani’s excellent dance skills. The hope is that the song will lead to her debut album. Until then, Normani will continue to promote the song, as she did during a recent appearance on Ebro Darden’s radio show Apple Music 1.

Nomani spoke about “Wild Side” and how she felt about letting her parents hear the sultry track. “You have no idea. I was so terrified to play this song for my dad… terrified… oh my goodness… avoiding it,” she said. “He kept asking to hear the record because everyone else heard it but he didn’t hear it. And my dad is my biggest fan, like I tell you. … He works night shifts. He hustles for his family, and so to get through the night, sometimes he listens to all my records, and he was dying to listen to this one.”

Normani’s dad did eventually hear “Wild Side,” thanks to her mom. “I was just like ‘Dad, um… I’ll play it for you later.’ And eventually my mom ended up playing it for him, and he was like, ‘That sh*t is hard,’ he’s like, ‘That sh*t is fire,’” she said. “And he told me all the time, every single day, I kid you not: He’s like ‘Are you ready to take over the world? Are you ready to take over the world?’ He loves the song, he loves the record.”

You can watch Normani’s full Apple Music 1 interview here.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Cardi B Responds To Accusations Of ‘Queerbaiting’ In Normani’s ‘Wild Side’ Video

by

As usual, new music from Cardi B means lots of huge reactions from fans and critics. While the overall response to Normani’s “Wild Side” video, which features a cameo from Cardi B, is positive, accusations of the two female artists “queerbaiting” with their naked dance scene have begun to pop up. On Friday, Rolling Stone posted about the phenomena of queerbaiting, which is when a straight artist engages in queer romantic or sexual behavior to “bait” queer audiences purely for commercial gain. It can be harmful because it continues to play into the lack of representation for queer audiences by capitalizing on that desire.

But the accusations can also be off base, because interrogating someone’s sexual identity simply because of clothing or dancing in a music video is invasive and harmful, too. That was part of Cardi B’s response to the accusations that were leveled for the “Wild Side” scene, where she was naked, primarily to help hide the growing baby bump. She hadn’t publicly disclosed her second pregnancy at the time the video was shot.

“Uuummmm @RollingStone queer baiting?” Cardi wrote on Twitter. “You do know we was trying to hide a whole baby bump right ?Also I’m married to a man but I have express soo much about my bisexuality and my experiences wit girls. All of a sudden ‘queer baiting’ is the new word & people use it to the ground !”

She followed that initial response up with some more thoughts: “I don’t like this new ‘queer baiting’ word. I feel like it pressure artist to talk about their sexuality or their experiences that they don’t feel comfortable speaking about. If a artist kiss a girl on a video does that means she gotta show videos & text wit wit other women?”

Check out the “Wild Side” video above and decide for yourself.

Cardi B Dons A Leather Bikini To Show Off Her Baby Bump And Rap ‘Wild Side’

by
Getty Image

The past month has been busy for Cardi B. Towards the end of June, she popped up at the BET Awards and revealed that she is pregnant again. Then, a few days ago, she hopped on Normani’s new single, “Wild Side.” Now she has brought those two events together in a new Twitter video.

Cardi begins the clip lip-syncing Normani’s hook while wearing a green mesh outfit. When it comes time for Cardi’s verse, everything changes. The scene shifts to Cardi sitting on a black box and wearing a leather bikini, which offers a good look at her baby bump.

After the original “Wild Side” video dropped, Cardi declared that had she not been pregnant, the visual would have looked a lot different. She tweeted, “If I wasn’t pregnant I would of done a lit ass pole video to wildside ….but I am so imma just have to do a video rolling on the floor like peppa pig.”

Also recently, Cardi showed off how she was able to hide her baby bump for so long by demonstrating with a video that made clever use of angles.

Check out the “Wild Side” clip above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Normani Flaunts Her ‘Wild Side’ With Cardi B To Begin A New Era In Her Career

by

Normani’s last single came back in 2019 with “Motivation.” It’s an uptempo effort that was released with an eye-popping visual that made references to Ciara’s “Goodies,” Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” and Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” videos among others. However, after its release, Normani took a big step out of the spotlight and stayed out of it for nearly two years until, finally, she returned with her first single in nearly two years. “Wild Side” arrives today with help from Cardi B who steps up to provide a guest verse on the bass-driven track.

The track also comes with a video that sees Normani showing off her impressive dance moves while beckoning for the special man in her life to step up to the plate and enjoy a sultry night with her. Cardi later accompanies Normani for her guest verse where both artists appear discreetly nude from head to toe.

The singer originally previewed the song in an Instagram video she posted back in February. She captioned it, “Know it’s been a while,” an obvious tease towards new music on the way and while it took five months for it to land in the hands of fans, late is far better than never. As for Normani and Cardi’s connection, some may remember that Normani appeared in Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion’s video for “WAP” last fall. On a more recent note, Cardi B recently revealed that she’s pregnant with her and Offset’s second child. She broke the news during a performance at the 2021 BET Awards.

You can check out the new song in the video.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Normani Is Teaming Up With Cardi B For Her First Single In Almost Two Years

by
Getty Image

Many believed that Normani would have her moment a couple of years ago after her previous group, Fifth Harmony, split and left its respective artists to set out on their solo paths. Normani released a collection of singles from 2018 to 2019, which included work with Sam Smith, 6lack, and Khalid, but after one of her most popular efforts, “Motivation,” arrived in 2019, the singer seemed to disappear, apart from guest features. Luckily, the singer is finally ready to share some new tunes.

On Friday, July 16, Normani will share her first single in almost two years: a track titled “Wild Side,” which will come with a guest appearance from Cardi B. Normani shared the news on her social media accounts.

The announcement comes after she previewed a new song back in February. “Know it’s been a while,” she wrote in the caption of the Instagram post. It’s still unknown whether or not the previewed track is “Wild Side,” but the song is quite the slow-tempo effort, making it a huge contrast to “Motivation” and its upbeat production. She also used the video to remind viewers of her impressive dance skills.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.