On David Letterman’s Netflix show, Cardi B explained what “WAP” actually stands for: “wet ass pussy.” Letterman asked, “What exactly are we talking about?” and she gave it to him straight.
The hook that got everyone worked up came from the beat. She sang the sampled chant, then said she thought, “What is the freakiest things I could say?” and ran with it.
That chant isn’t hers. It’s Al “T” McLaran’s voice, lifted from Frank Ski’s 1992 Baltimore club record “Whores in This House.”
“WAP,” with Megan Thee Stallion, came out August 7, 2020, and debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with 93 million U.S. streams, a first-week record at the time. It went on to spend four non-consecutive weeks at the top.
Cardi told Letterman the song is loud, but it’s not the naughtiest hip-hop she’s heard, naming Trina, Lil’ Kim, and Khia. She also said critics hit back at her voting posts with, “All you know is about wet ass pussy. You’re a bad example to your kids.”
Her answer: “I don’t really put a lot of political things in my music, but I used the fuck out of my platform.”
Cardi’s episode of the series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, premiered May 20, 2022, almost two years after the song dropped.