Cardi B Defends Offset Over Homophobic Lyric

"Bodak Yellow" rapper Cardi B made a plea for more education on offensive terminology in defense of Migos rapper Offset, who came under fire last week for using the word "queer" in a rap verse.

The Bronx-born star took to Periscope Saturday night to defend Offset's claim that he was unaware "queer" was a slur for gay people when he rapped, "I cannot vibe with queers" on the YFN Lucci song "Boss Life."

"I'm not going to let somebody call him homophobic when I know that he's not, and I'm saying this because I see him…around gays, and he treats them with the same respect he treats everybody. He never acts uncomfortable and he just don't care," she said.

Cardi — whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar — said that when she called the rapper to ask him why he'd use the word, he told her he was going off of a dictionary definition that defined it as meaning something different.

Cardi, 25, and Offset, 26, were engaged in October, though their relationship status remains unclear following a reported cheating scandal. She does not refer to him by name in the video, but instead calls him "this guy" with whom she has "personal problems."

"A lot of people are not aware of what's wrong or right in the LGBT community and that's the thing. Why don't we do things to educate instead of bashing and trying to label somebody (something) that they're not?" she said. "A lot of people know what the F word means, but there's certain words that people are not aware of. Our parents never taught us this s--t, our schools never teach us that these are bad words."

The "Bartier Cardi" rapper added that she's faced similar backlash in the past for using the word "tranny," even though she similarly was unaware that it had a negative connotation.

"I keep getting called transphobic because two years ago I used the word tranny. I didn't know that was a word that you cannot use, especially because my trans friends use it," she said. "Why don't you educate me and say, 'Hey, you're not supposed to use that word, you know that's derogatory.'"

Offset — whose real name is Kiari Cephus — apologized in a statement last week, saying that the "queer" reference was not aimed at gay people, and that he was unaware of any such meaning.

"I didn't write the line about gay people. I have said before since these issues before that I got love for all people," he wrote. "When I wrote that I was thinking of words that could rhyme with the others and I saw this definition about her having a queer feeling she was being watched and it fit what I was thinking about a stalker creepy paparazzi situation. To me that 'queer' I don't mean someone who's gay. I mean lame people… Lingo that means strange or odd."

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