Cardi B gave Johns Hopkins students a concert and a study tip in the same night. The Cardi B Johns Hopkins show went down Sunday, Nov. 1, at Hoptoberfest, where she stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Daniel Caesar. The moment everyone’s sharing came mid-set.
“Y’all better pass y’all motherf—in’ semester,” she told the crowd, per The Baltimore Banner. “And don’t ask ChatGPT for the answer.”
How Cardi B ended up at Hoptoberfest
At first, the show belonged to Daniel Caesar, whom organizers announced as the headliner on Oct. 19. Tickets sold out on Oct. 21, with hundreds of students left on the waitlist, according to the student paper, The Johns Hopkins News-Letter.
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Then on Oct. 31, organizers emailed students that Daniel Caesar could no longer perform due to “unforeseen circumstances.” The concert moved from Saturday to Sunday at 8 p.m., and the new headliner was “none other than…CARDI B!!!”
Of course, the switch caught students off guard. “When they switched it to Cardi B, I was a little surprised and honestly thought it was fake,” Bhavya Guru told the News-Letter. Lana Hakma kept it simple: “I like Cardi B a lot better and I know her songs.”
Inside the Cardi B Johns Hopkins show
The concert was for Hopkins students only, and everyone had to show a school ID at the door. It took place at the Ralph S. O’Connor Center for Recreation & Well-Being.
The Banner reports Cardi wore a green wig, black leggings and a pink striped T-shirt. Plus, she played a much more intimate room than the arenas she usually sells out and spent most of the night rapping.
Hoptoberfest is the annual fall festival from the Hopkins Student Organization for Programming, known as the HOP, with support from the Hopkins Parents Fund. In addition to the headliner concert, there are carnival games, a pumpkin patch and a haunted house. AllHipHop notes the concert was free for students, and past performers include Khalid, Rick Ross and Desiigner.
Afterward, Cardi flew out of Baltimore on a private plane, but she still made time for a big bag of Old Bay crabs. “We gonna have a long night,” she said in a video. “Or not we, just me.”
Why the Cardi B Johns Hopkins ChatGPT line hit
AI is all over college campuses right now, and Hopkins is no exception. As the Banner points out, the university is investing millions in a new institute studying artificial intelligence and data science. So Cardi telling a room full of Hopkins students to do their own work landed.
Still, it’s not her first AI joke. In February, Cardi B joked about wanting to “free my older family members from Facebook AI.”
A big get for a college fall fest
Cardi holds the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s among women rappers. In addition, she was the first solo woman to win Best Rap Album at the Grammys, for Invasion of Privacy in 2019.
Meanwhile, her latest album, Am I the Drama?, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last year and is certified triple platinum. Not bad for a Sunday night fill-in.
