Carole Baskin has taken aim at Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion for their “WAP” music video. The two rappers dropped the video for their collaboration on Thursday.
As well as cameos from the likes of Kylie Jenner and Normani, the video features clips of the two musicians posing with tigers and other feline creatures.
Baskin, an animal activist renown for feuding with Joe Exotic due to his treatment of tigers in Tiger King, now fears that the use of the animals in “WAP” may glamourize the notion of having them as pets.
While Baskin told Billboard she was pleased that the scenes appeared photoshopped and that the rappers didn’t seem to actually spend time in the same room as the animals, she noted that the felines would likely still have been involved in some form of filming.
“You have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image and that doesn’t happen in the wild,” she told the outlet. “It can’t happen in sanctuaries like ours where cats have plenty of room to avoid a green screen (or would shred it if offered access and could die from ingesting it).”
“That tells me they probably dealt with one of the big cat pimps, who makes a living from beating, shocking and starving cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio,” she continued. “That’s never good for the cat.”
Baskin called the “WAP” video “lurid” and said the worst part was that it “glamorizes the idea of rich people having tigers as pets.”
“That makes every ignorant follower want to imitate by doing the same,” she said. “After tigers are too old for pay to play sessions by people like Joe Exotic, Bhagavan Antle, Marc McCarthy, Mario Tabraue and others, they become a liability instead of an asset.”
“While I think most are destroyed behind closed gates at that point, some end up being given away to people who want to have a tiger to show off,” Baskin added. “That never works out and the cats either die or end up dumped in sanctuaries or, worse yet, breeding mills. Either way, it’s always abusive to the cat.”
360aproko has reached out to reps for Cardi and Stallion.
Meanwhile, Cardi took to social media on Sunday to commend Normani’s moves in the video.
“It’s the way she ate that for me @normani …..” she captioned a behind-the-scenes video of the former Fifth Harmony singer’s cameo. “I can’t wait till Normani put her project out. She been working for a long time and I CANT wait till she show ya ?She gonna wake ya up ???.”
Cardi also posted clips thanking Mulatto and Rubi Rose for their efforts.
