Just a “regular degular shmegular girl from the Bronx” as she puts it, Cardi B's meteoric rags-to-riches rise from a hard-up stripper living by her wits to a rap megastar pulling in millions is straight out of a fairytale. Join us as we chart the hit-making MC's incredible property evolution, from modest beginnings in Washington Heights to the actual heights of luxury, with several upscale manses to her name.

Born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar in the gritty Manhattan neighbourhood of Washington Heights, Cardi B made her fabulous entrance into the world on 11 October 1992. The eldest child of taxi driver Carlos Almánzar and Belkis (née Duran), a cashier and cook, the future chart-topper spent her formative years in the district dubbed 'the Little Dominican Republic', which is where her parents hail from, though according to the rapper, her mother has roots in Trinidad.

As stated in New York public records, during the 1990s Cardi's parents were registered as living in the apartment of her paternal grandmother, Esperanza Almánzar, which is located in this prewar building in the heart of Washington Heights, a hop, skip and a jump away from Broadway, the area's main drag. 

In fact, the cosy crib would end up being something of a sanctuary for Cardi throughout her life. Calling the apartment her “happy place” in an interview with Vibe magazine, the hip hop sensation would never waste an opportunity to hang out there, laughing and joking with her many cousins and kid sister Hennessy Carolina, who was born in 1995 and is named after the famous beverage.

As Cardi has amusingly explained, her dad showed up at the delivery room direct from a party where he'd been drinking his fave brand of cognac and insisted naming his younger daughter after it, a suggestion the girls' mum welcomed with open arms. Since her sister had a booze-inspired name, people took to calling the young Belcalis Bacardi, which she later shortened to Cardi B. She is shown here with her sis in their grandma's kitchen, the hub of the home.

Charmingly, the kitchen has hardly changed over the years. To showcase her inimitable realness, Cardi eschewed her glittering manses and instead invited Vogue to the humble apartment for her 73 Questions interview, which took place in November 2019. The Queen of Rap told the fashion magazine she loves how the home is always packed with family.

Cardi also explained that chilling at the apartment distracts her from the “chaos of the world and work”. As a young kid, Cardi had severe asthma. Due to her condition, the future superstar's mum rarely let her out, banning her daughter from going to sleepovers and parties, which Cardi credits with keeping her out of trouble early on. But it also made her fiercely rebellious in her teens, a streak that was amplified when she moved to the notoriously tough Bronx.

Cardi's parents split when she was around 12 years old, and she and Hennessy relocated with their mother to the Bronx. According to public records, the trio appear to have had a stint living in this apartment building in the Bronx's eastern Allerton neighbourhood, but mostly resided, from 2004 onwards, in Highbridge to the west.

The girls and their mother lived in a compact triplex in this dinky apartment block, situated to the south of West 168^th Street and within walking distance of the 167^th Street subway station. Cardi was enrolled in a rough middle school in the neighbourhood and, as she told Vice magazine in 2018, swiftly ditched her cute That's So Raven image in sixth grade, toughening up after being bullied for her clothing choices and jumped on by a group of other students.

As Cardi told the magazine, “there's no hood hooder than my hood”. In order to survive, she had to give the bullies as good as she got, so her attitude hardened and she ditched the cutesy clothes for the sort of threads her peers were rocking: think Pepe jeans, Timbaland boots and Jordan sneakers.

That said, looking at the bedroom she shared with her sister, which Cardi showed off to her Instagram followers back in 2015, it's clear the teenager retained her fondness for sugary sweet childish stuff, as you can see from the multicoloured curtains, rainbow heart poster and Winnie-the-Pooh wallpaper border.

Cardi did ditch the streetwear on occasion, as shown in this snap taken at her eighth-grade school dance. Then aged 13, she's wearing a pretty polka dot dress. While her mum did permit her to attend school events, Cardi was nonetheless still forbidden from going to friends' parties and partaking in other extracurricular activities.

Looking like butter wouldn't melt, this pic was taken in 2006, to mark Cardi's middle-school graduation. She would have been around 14 at the time. Cardi then moved to the Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & The Arts, a vocational establishment on the Herbert H. Lehman High School campus, where her penchant for cracking jokes and generally being disruptive got her in trouble on numerous occasions.

Indeed, Cardi became increasingly rebellious at high school and, since she wasn't allowed out at night, would cut class to hang out with friends and get up to mischief. Around this time, the wayward youth got in with the wrong crowd and, according to Page Six, became a Bloods gang member, a decision she later bitterly regretted.

Despite this, Cardi was adored by her teachers and scored high in tests, particularly history. After graduating in 2010, she attended community college, working as a cashier at the Amish Market in TriBeCa on the side to make ends meet. But she soon dropped out of higher education after her mother kicked her out of home, and Cardi shacked up with an abusive boyfriend.

Earning just $200 (£159) a week, according to Medium, Cardi was forced to live in her boyfriend's bedbug-infested apartment along with his mother and two scary pitbulls. The dirt-poor 19-year-old was then fired from the deli after giving a co-worker a huge discount, but this turned out to be something of a blessing, when one of the store's managers suggested she try out for a job at the strip bar across the street, she told Fader magazine.

Cardi took the manager's advice and ended up getting work at the New York Dolls Club. Though uncomfortable at first with taking off her clothes, she soon took to the role and made $300 (£239) during her first shift. With the money flowing in, Cardi ditched the abusive boyfriend and rented a basic apartment on the Bronx's Woodycrest Avenue, explaining away her inflated income by telling her mother she was babysitting for rich people.

In 2013, Cardi started uploading videos on Vine and Instagram, regaling followers with stories about her stripping career delivered in a witty, no-filter repartee that rapidly helped her go viral. She hired a manager, who noticed her knack for spitting lyrics and nurtured her rapping talent, booking his protege studio time to hone her craft. This, together with her social media stardom, landed the up-and-coming celebrity a role on VH1 reality show Love & Hip Hop: New York in 2015.

Having given up stripping, Cardi became the breakout star of season six, which saw her have a fling with radio personality DJ Self (before getting together with Tommy Geez), and begin to develop her burgeoning rap career. Flush with cash, Cardi bid farewell to the Bronx and rented herself a relatively upscale condo in New Jersey's Edgewater neighbourhood, which set her back $3,000 (£2.4k) a month, a snip at the price compared to similar properties in Manhattan.

The back of the upmarket apartment block is shown here (the front is blurred out on Google Street View, for obvious reasons). Cardi released her first mixtape in March 2016 and returned to Love & Hip Hop: New York in November of that year for the seventh season, during which she hooked up with producer Swift Star after her relationship with jailbird Geez ended. The show also followed Cardi's nascent music career.

Cardi has been pretty guarded about her condo, but she has posted the odd picture of the interior on social media. Here she is in November 2016, posing in the kitchen in an outfit by Fashion Nova, luxed-up with a pair of Balenciaga sock heels. A decent-sized chef's kitchen, it features ample cupboard space and top-of-the-range appliances.

This other shot was taken around the same time in what appears to be Cardi's bedroom, which is decked out with some very stylish mirrored furniture. Note the quality hardwood flooring and Georgian-style windows. The hip hop star is looking especially fly here in a racing driver-style one-piece, teamed with white stilettos. After quitting Love & Hip Hop: New York to concentrate 100 per cent on her music, Cardi's MC career really took off. Within months, she'd released her second mixtape and bagged a multimillion-dollar record deal.

In the meantime, Cardi started dating Migos rapper Offset. Her first single, 'Bodak Yellow', was released in June 2017 and rocketed up the Billboard Hot 100, hitting the number one spot in October. The first female rapper to top the US chart for 19 years, Cardi was on top of the world. She'd secretly married her beau the previous month, and rumours started circulating later that year that Cardi was expecting a baby. The hitmaker eventually revealed the happy news in April 2018, during a performance on Saturday Night Live.

That same month, Cardi's debut album Invasion of Privacy was released, which also went to number one in America, and she became the first female rapper to score two US number one singles when her collab with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, I Like It, hit the top spot in July 2018. Shortly after, Cardi gave birth to her daughter Kulture. Later that year, she fulfilled a long-time wish to buy a house for her mother. The fancy kitchen is shown here.

Having achieved her third US number one with the Maroon 5 collab 'Girls Like You', Cardi didn't think twice about dropping $1.5 million (£1.2m) in November 2018 on the manse. She'd originally hoped to snag a property for her ma the previous year, but only had $600,000 (£477k) to play with, which doesn't go all that far in New York City.

The house is reportedly located in New Jersey and according to Realtor.com has eight bedrooms. As her Instagram followers discovered when Cardi gave them a tour of the property, the manse rocks a tricked-out basement with a gym and glam red movie theatre room, an elegant staircase, and marble and hardwood flooring, along with the classy chef's kitchen.

In the meantime, Cardi was holed up in Atlanta, where Offset is from, and according to Rolling Stone was staying in his “endless white mansion flanked by tall trees... with enough six-figure cars parked outside to form a small-town parade.” The on-off couple broke up in December 2018, but were back together again by the following February, the month Cardi bagged her first Grammy, becoming the first female MC to win Best Rap Album.

Cardi was spending most of her time in New York, though the couple had decided to raise their daughter in Atlanta and were planning to build their dream house there. According to the Daily Mail, the pair dropped almost $250,000 (£199k) in April 2019 on five houses – basically half a street – as well as a plot of land in the Atlanta suburb of Jonesboro, shown here from above.

Here's a snapshot of the street in question. The houses and plot of land were purchased from an Atlanta-based company called JMH Ventures, which specialises in foreclosures and fixer-uppers. As you can see, the neighbourhood isn't what you'd call high-end by any stretch of the imagination.

The plot of land is situated next to this house on another street not far from where the five houses are located. Though the Daily Mail speculated that the couple could have been planning to build their dream home in the area, it's more likely the purchase was simply an investment, since property prices are rising fast in the working-class locale.

Cardi made her film debut in 2019 with a star turn in J-Lo's Hustlers movie. At the end of the year, the hip hop queen and her husband saved themselves the hassle of building a property and finally found their dream home after an epic two-year search, gifting the pad to one another as a Christmas present. The couple gave their fans a tour of the lavish manse on Christmas Eve, which was posted on Cardi's Instagram.

The duo, who had struggled to agree on a mansion to buy, turned to Brandi Hunter-Lewis of Compass to assist them with their search. Hunter-Lewis eventually came up with the goods, and then some, with the couple parting with $5.5 million (£4.4m) to acquire the sensational property. Located in Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighbourhood, the OTT manse sprawls over 22,000 square feet and sits on 5.8 acres.

Boasting five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and four half-bathrooms, the manse was described in the listing put together by agents Molly Beery and Cia Cummings of Dorsey Alston as being a “magnificent estate” with “no expense spared” and an “entertainers' dream home”. Among the highlights is the high-ceilinged living room, which is as palatial as they come.

Another of the manse's wow-factor USPs is the family room. Like the living room, it boasts grand columns and features a beautiful fireplace and French doors that lead out to a terrace overlooking the manicured gardens and resort-style infinity pool, the perfect place for al fresco dining or to enjoy a cocktail or two on a balmy evening.

Next to the family room is the property's enormous chef's kitchen. Jam-packed with high-end appliances, including a top-end range cooker and double oven, the sumptuous space is kitted out with top-quality mahogany cabinetry, a huge central island and breakfast bar, solid marble countertops and stone range hood, with a fancy chandelier the icing on the cake.

The master suite is located on the principal floor and, like the other rooms in the house, is seriously luxe. Its breathtaking features include a fireside living room separated from the bedroom by a columned partition wall, a terrace accessed through arched French windows, a stylish vaulted ceiling and all-important twin walk-in closets.

The opulence extends to the majestic master bathroom. The spa-like amenity is clad in expensive marble and features a massive walk-in shower with multiple shower heads, including a rainfall shower, massage heads and a handheld shower. There's also a freestanding, antique-style clawfoot bathtub in the space.

The manse is blessed with a 1,800-bottle wine cellar, which is no doubt packed to the rafters with vintage champagne, aged spirits and Cardi's vodka-infused whipped cream, plus a whole host of other extravagant amenities, including a ginormous garage for Cardi and her husband's enviable supercar collection. Fresh from purchasing her dream Atlanta home, Cardi became the first female rapper to land an American Vogue cover, fronting the January 2020 issue.

The Queen of Hip Hop revealed to her Instagram followers in November 2021 that she'd moved into her second dream crib in 'New York', but it turns out the property is actually located in Tenafly, New Jersey, which is around 45 minutes by car from Midtown Manhattan. Cardi is said to have spent more than a million dollars upgrading it.

The original listing states that the gated property nestles on 1.8 acres and offers 13,000 square feet of living space. There are eight bedrooms, with presumably an additional bedroom in a guesthouse on the property as the listing gives a total of nine, as well as 12 bathrooms. The manse's in-ground gunite saltwater pool is shown here, presumably before completion. There's also a tennis court on the grounds, together with the aforementioned guesthouse/cabana with a full kitchen, bathroom and possibly that other bedroom, an outdoor kitchen and four-car garage.

Here's Cardi showing off her imperial staircase, which is really quite something. Amenities-wise, the manse has it all. Along with a movie theatre and gym, there's a temperature-controlled wine room, wet bar, powder room and recreation room, and the property is fitted with an elevator and state of the art smart home security system to boot. 

The mansion also features a gourmet kitchen, banquet-sized dining room, a vast great room, library and office with an incredible six fireplaces, a family room with an additional fireplace, and a master suite with twin walk-in closets and bathrooms. What more could a hip hop star ask for?

Around three weeks after Cardi snagged the New Jersey property, her husband surprised her with a stunning investment vacation home in the Dominican Republic. He presented it to his lucky wife on her 29^th birthday, which she celebrated on 11 October. Cardi had actually been looking to snap up properties in the Caribbean country.

As the rapper explained on Instagram, she'd been telling Offset she really wanted to sink some cash into short-term home rental properties in the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean countries. Offset teamed up with Cardi's dad and Compass realtor Brandi Hunter-Lewis (who'd helped the couple track down their Atlanta manse) to find the 8,000-square-foot hilltop villa in Las Terrenas, which was listed for $1.49 million (£1.2m), though it's unclear whether that's the price he paid.

Arranged over four floors, the idyllic property, which was originally called Calle Plaza but is now named Villa Loft, is available to rent via Airbnb, where it's listed for around $890 (£708) a night. The price does include a chef's services, though, and other premium extras like a golf cart to transport guests to the nearby beach. Surrounded by lush tropical gardens and offering breathtaking sea views, the guarded and gated vacay home has got it going on.

Constructed using natural materials such as wood and stone, the architect-designed villa, which has garnered rave reviews on Airbnb, has seven bedrooms and the same number of bathrooms and a wonderful airy open-plan vibe with floor-to-ceiling windows throughout that flood the interior with light. Here's a snap of the stylish living room.

The second, a blissful infinity pool, is situated on the roof and has built-in lounge chairs that float in the water. The rooftop area also features a gym and covered barbecue area with a sink and grill. Cardi will probably snap up more properties in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. She can certainly afford to with a net worth estimated at up to $84.5 million (£67.1m), which is quite an achievement to say the least given her super-humble beginnings.

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