Cardi B understands Rolling Stone hip-hop ranking backlash, but rejects 'disrespect'

Cardi B has a bone to pick not just with her haters, but with Rolling Stone magazine.

On Tuesday, the "Bodak Yellow" rapper spoke out about the criticism she received for her ranking on Rolling Stone's "200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums" list, which came out last month.

"I understand people feel a certain type of way, but don't y'all disrespect me or my work or my album. ... Don't even try it," she said on "Angela Yee's Lip Service," noting on the podcast that she hadn't asked for the ranking. "You don't have to disrespect my s—."

In June, Rolling Stone published its hip-hop album ranking, with Cardi B's "Invasion of Privacy" earning the No. 16 spot. Her debut album bested other popular works from artists including Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar and hip-hop icons 2Pac and Nas. Music fans decried the rapper's Top 20 ranking on social media.

"This is nuts," one Twitter user wrote in June, comparing the rankings of "Invasion of Privacy" and Nas' "Illmatic," which came in at No. 24.

The rapper went on to tell Yee and her co-hosts that she felt the magazine's ranking was part of a ploy to "make [the list] go viral.

"People wouldn't give a f— about the list, but once they placed mine so high and the classics lower, I feel I've seen those type of recipes all the time," she said. "However, I become the punching bag."

Cardi B, like her critics, acknowledged that the works by Nas and the Notorious B.I.G., whose posthumously released "Life After Death" earned the No. 59 spot, deserved higher rankings, but said she knows "Invasion of Privacy" "definitely is a classic." The 2018 album debuted on the Billboard 200 charts and has since gone triple platinum.

Ultimately, she said she felt the Rolling Stone ranking "was like a setup."

"You got my a— dragged on a Tuesday," the rapper said, "for no f—ing reason."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.