Offset’s crass hook and other lyrics feel inspired by their tumultuous relationship.
Atlanta rapper Offset released a track on Valentine’s Day, but it doesn’t sound like he was interested in placating the lovers. On his “Ten” single, he seems to sniping at an ex, griping, “She bad but she bad for a nigga,” and bluntly letting them know on the hook, “You gon’ have to fuck 10 more niggas to get over me.”
Over Afrobeats-inspired percussion, Offset gets into full scumbag mode, letting someone know, “I don’t need you, I got money/I don’t miss you I got money/Love you, but not like money.” The lines feel more than coincidental given his high-profile on-again-off-again relationship with Cardi B, who filed for divorce last August.
Maybe Offet’s merely exercising his artistic license on “Ten,” but his choice to subvert the Valentine’s Day vibes with a track about unrepentant infidelity feels calculated. Their marriage seemed to fracture in part because of cheating accusations both ways. Last year, Cardi B talked to Rolling Stone’s Mankaprr Conteh about fostering the healthiest marriage possible while balancing her career demands. “We have our own bad stuff. We’re from two different worlds. Sometimes I cannot be… not that I cannot be a wife. It’s just like, my career takes my life. You know what I’m saying? My career comes first, then my kids come second. And then sometimes I don’t realize that I’m putting so many things before my relationship.” She then corrected the list to put her kids first. She also queried, “It’s not even about ‘How do you leave a partner?’ How do you stop talking to your best friend?”
Since then, the pair have gone back and forth on social media, with Cardi calling him a “narcissistic piece of shit” and Offset subliminally telling the world to ”pray for them kids,” referring to their children Kulture, Wave, and a baby girl born last September. Most recently Offset made the gossip blog rounds with a since-deleted X post where he put a trashcan emoji under photos Cardi posted of herself.
It feels like that animosity played into “Ten,” where he starts the second verse off rhyming, “It’s a big difference, I was just fuckin’ them hoes, you was nitpickin/Watchin’ me splurge on them bitches and it hit different.”
