When it comes to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” it’s immediately obvious what the song is about. When it comes to Cardi’s new single “Up,” though, the lyrics are a bit less transparent and more open to interpretation. Well, Cardi guested on The Tonight Show yesterday and she told Fallon that “Up” is also about the body, albeit in a markedly different way than “WAP” is.
Fallon asked about Offset’s role in the lyric and Cardi answered, “He says that a lot. I don’t know if it’s a down south thing. After the song came out, I thought it was a Georgia thing, but then people were like, ‘We say that in New Orleans,’ ‘We say that in Florida.’ I’m like, ‘OK, man, listen. I guess, whatever.’ […] So, have you ever taken a poop, right, and it don’t come out? It’s just up and it’s stuck. Yeah.”
A stunned Fallon then offered his own take, suggesting the phrase could be about reaching a certain level of success and then maintaining it. Cardi followed up, “It’s a metaphorical quote,” suggesting that achievement and constipation are just two of many possible interpretations of the song and that poop probably wasn’t actually on Cardi’s mind when she wrote the tune.
Elsewhere during the show, Cardi and Fallon faced off in the “Mimic Challenge,” so check out clips from the show above and below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.