Cardi B has long been rumored to have ties to the notorious Blood gang, spurred in large part by her unyielding allegiance to the color red, her not-so-subtle shading of their rival Crips, and a choice lyric in her breakout single, "Bodak Yellow": "These is red bottoms, these is bloody shoes," she raps on the ubiquitous 2017 track.

In the past, she's skirted giving a straight answer on any affiliation, but in a new GQ profile, she finally confirmed she is, indeed, a member — and in surprising detail.

"When I was 16 years old, I used to hang out with a lot of Bloods. I used to pop off with my homies. And they'd say, 'Yo, you really get it poppin'. You should come home. You should turn Blood.' And I did. Yes, I did. And something that—it's not like, oh, you leave. You don't leave."

Much of the reason Cardi, ever the hustler, didn't speak about it before was due to money — "I always wanted a music deal. I always want to keep my endorsements" — but also because she didn't want young people to follow her lead.

"I know for a fact every gang member, he asking himself, 'Why did I turn this?' Sometimes it's almost like a fraternity, a sorority. Sometimes it's like that. And sometimes I see people that's in the same gang kill each other. So sometimes there is no loyalty," she explained. "I wouldn't want a young person, a young girl, to think it's okay to join it. You could talk to somebody that is considered Big Homie and they will tell you: 'Don't join a gang.' The person that I'm under, she would tell you, 'Don't join a gang.' It's not about violence. It's just like—it doesn't make your money."

So why does she continue to shout-out the gang?

"I always mention it, because it's something that I been doing for a long time," she concluded, noting that, though she's not necessarily active, she still checks in from time to time. "You don't leave your people behind."

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