What's Going On With Cardi B and Makeup Artist Blacswan?

In this edition of Unwrapping the Beef, we’ve got a lightly spiced, slow-cooked buffet: Cardi B and makeup artist/YouTuber Blacswan are embroiled in a recently revitalized feud that dates back at least a year.

On January 10, 2018, MUA Blacswan posted a 36-minute long video on Youtube titled “Storytime: My worst client EVER (Cardi B) …sorry not click bait” where she describes, in arguably unnecessary detail, her negative experiences with the rapper. These criticisms range from Cardi’s bad “attitude” and “aggressive language” to something much more damning.

She says she got a “bad first impression” from Cardi the first time they worked together in September 2017, when Blacswan was hired to do Cardi’s makeup for an appearance in Houston. Their second interaction is where the dirt really gets going. Four months later, in December 2017, Cardi’s back in Texas and Blacswan said she was told that the rapper requested her specifically. Upon arrival to the location, Blacswan said she was informed she’d have to wait an hour for Cardi to get off the phone. In that time, she said a manager warned her that Cardi’s “just not in a good mood.”

When Cardi was finally off the line, MUA Blacswan says she didn’t acknowledge her or the hair stylist and complained the whole time. In one instance, Cardi was allegedly impatient for the white setting powder to set and screamed, “Bitch, I’m not dead yet. I’m not caucasian.” It proceeded to get more unruly, Blacswan claims, and when Cardi’s makeup was only half-done, she yelled for her to “Get the fuck outta here.” The makeup artist said she left and that she wasn’t compensated for her time. In retelling the event on YouTube, Blacswan cried.

The video, ten months after posting, has gone viral and now approaches five million views.

This, unsurprisingly, got back to Cardi B, who was asked to address the video during an Instagram live session. She told viewers:

“You don’t know how to do your job. Somebody contacts you and you come mad late. You come mad high, high as fuck. In the middle of the process I tell you, ‘I don’t like how my makeup is looking.’ ‘I’m not finished yet.’ ‘Aight, whatever, you’re the makeup artist. You’re acting like you know what you’re doing.’ Then when I don’t like it I wipe my face off and I tell you to get the fuck out. Leave. How are you crying over something that happened two years ago? They’re clout chasing.”

Cardi then gestured off screen, presumably to a makeup artist, and asked, “As a makeup artist, does anyone ever tell you they don’t like your makeup?” A voice responded, “All the time.”

She continued: “It’s unprofessional to go online and talk shit. You know what that do? That makes people not want to hire you.”

MUA Blacswan then responded on Instagram live and denied that she showed up high or that she was late. She included a series of text screenshots from the date in question which she says show that she actually showed up early, and that she thinks Cardi has her “confused… with a different situation.”

And that’s the beef. It does seem like both parties may be guilty of hyperbole, but it is kinda funny to think that Cardi might actually be mad at someone else instead of MUA Blacswan. Whatever the case, you know the latter is raking in subscribers from all this. Even if it’s not clout chasing, it’s certainly clout receiving.