Cardi B Wins Historic Best Rap Album Grammy for Invasion of Privacy

On “music’s biggest night” Sunday, Cardi B won Best Rap Album at the 61st Grammy Awards for her debut album Invasion of Privacy. This marks the first time in Grammy history that the award has gone to a female solo artist. Her fellow nominees included Pusha T’s Daytona, Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD, Mac Miller’s Swimming and Nipsey Hussle’s Victory Lap.

Only five other female rappers have been nominated for Best Rap Album since the award’s inaugural year in 1996, including Rapsody, Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea, Eve and Missy Elliott. Missy Elliott was nominated four times between 1998 and 2006, but never won, while Lauryn Hill won the award in 1997 as part of the Fugees.

Cardi B received five nominations at the Grammys this year, including nods for Album of the Year, Song of the Year for “I Like It,” Best Rap Performance for “Be Careful” and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her collaboration with Maroon 5 on “Girls Like You.” The Bronx rapper born Belcalis Almánzar took the stage with her date Offset to accept the award with a heartfelt speech.

She carried on thanking her friends and family backstage from a video on Instagram, in which she says she read that the family of Miller, her fellow nominee who passed away suddenly last year, said they wanted her to win if the award didn’t go to him. “I’m sharing this with you, motherfucker! Rest in peace!” Cardi said. She also tagged a series of artists she’s worked with this year to thank them for the win, including YG, SZA, 21 Savage, Chance the Rapper, J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Migos and Kehlani.

Check out the full list of Grammy award winners here and find out where Invasion of Privacy landed on Paste’s list of the best hip-hop albums of 2018 here.