Cardi B responds to Carole Baskin’s ‘WAP’ criticism

Cardi B is not having any of Carole Baskin’s recent comments surrounding her “WAP” video with Megan Thee Stallion. In fact, when the performer was asked in a new interview about Baskin’s statement that the use of CGI big cats in the video “glamorizes the idea of rich people having tigers as pets,” Cardi shook it off with a bit of a clapback.“I’m not gonna engage with Carole Baskin on that,” Cardi recently told i-D. “Like, that’s just ridiculous you know? Oh, Lord. Like, girl you killed your goddamn husband.” Cardi didn’t go any further than that, but she was referring to the accusations first brought up in the Tiger King documentary that Baskin was responsible for the death of her husband Jack “Don” Lewis. The millionaire disappeared in 1997 and was declared dead in 2002. Baskin has denied she was involved in his disappearance, but his case was reopened earlier this year after the documentary grew in popularity.[video_embed id='2011374']RELATED: Viola Davis and Christina Aguilera love the 'WAP' video, but Carole Baskin’s claws are out[/video_embed]Shortly after “WAP” dropped Baskin wrote a statement to Billboard saying that the glamorized use of big cats as props in the video is detrimental to the animals. “My guess is that most people won't even see the Photoshopped cats in the scenes because the rest of it is so lurid,” Baskin wrote, pointing out that in order to get the image of a wild cat you have to pose it in front of a green screen first."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),” Baskin added. “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. That's never good for the cat.”In the i-D interview Cardi also opened up about some of the other unexpected controversy surrounding the video’s release, namely from conservatives who have made the content a talking point over the past week. “I’ve been really surprised by the reaction, honestly,” she said. “I knew it was gonna have a big impact, I guess, because of me and Megan. But I didn’t know it was going to be so controversial. I never expected that, you know, conservatives and Republicans were going to be talking about the song.”Were there people not talking about the song after its debut? It did break the record for the most views in 24 hours by an all-female collaboration on YouTube and sparked an entire fan protest against the Kylie Jenner cameo, after all. “I didn’t think the song was as vulgar as they said it was, you know? Like, I’m so used to it. I’m such a freak that I didn’t think it would be a big deal. I didn’t think people would think it was so out of this world,” Cardi added.“It doesn’t make me angry,” she continued. “It makes me happy. They keep talking and the numbers keep going up. At the end of the day, whatever they’re saying, the numbers speak for themselves.”Make that 88,173,667 views and counting, to be exact.[video_embed id='2007997']BEFORE YOU GO: Father and daughter dance duo is going viral[/video_embed]