The ‘Bodak Yellow’ rapper opened up about the ways that public drama has made her unwilling to speak about her personal life and politics in her music

In a new cover story interview with Rolling Stone, the “Bodak Yellow” rapper spoke candidly about why she’s shied away from speaking honestly about her relationships, personal life and politics in her new music.

“I really want to talk about the life changes that I’ve been dealing with the past six, seven years,” she tells the outlet. “But then it’s just like, I feel like people don’t deserve to know because people use my pain against me.”

In recent months, many of the artist’s personal matters have gone public — in several December 2023 Instagram Live streams, she ranted about her relationship with fellow rapper and Migos member Offset, to whom she’s been married since September 2017, and even revealed that they had split, stating that she had “been single for a minute now.”

However, the pair have had an off-again-on-again relationship, and were even spotted attending — and holding hands at — a post-Met Gala party together earlier this month. The couple also share two children, daughter Kulture Kiari, 5½, and son Wave Set, 2½. Offset is also a father to two sons and a daughter from previous relationships.

Cardi B Rolling Stone

Cardi B on the cover of Rolling Stone.ADRIENNE RAQUEL

Following her video in December, Nicki Minaj — with whom Cardi has had extensive tension in the past — posted a meme photo of Michael Jackson with a gleeful look on his face, which according to Rolling Stone, was interpreted by many fans as mocking Cardi’s feeling about her husband. Soon after, Cardi faced backlash from Minaj’s fans when she seemingly lashed back out again in an X (formerly Twitter) post at the “Super Bass” rapper, seemingly targeting Minaj’s husband’s status as a sex offender.

Since the onset of the drama, Cardi says that she feels more and more compelled to keep things to herself.

“I’m a lonely sufferer,” the Grammy-winner tells Rolling Stone.

Instead of sharing too much of her life online or in her music, Cardi likes to take care of herself by spending time at home and not going out.

“When I was off social media and nobody knew what I was doing, I was at peace a lot. But what am I going to do? Never post or never work again because that’s peace? No,” she tells the magazine. “I don’t ever want my daughter or my son to ever give up on something because they can’t take the pressure of what people say about them.”

“I got to set that example,” she continues. “It’s like, ‘Y’all never going to break me.’ Because I got something to prove to myself. I also got to prove something to the haters. I’ve got to prove it to my own kids.”

Despite her history of being unafraid to speak out about both her personal life and politics (she’s even interviewed politicians including the likes of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and President Joe Biden), Cardi has previously spoken about her newfound fear of putting those thoughts into her music.

In an interview on the Complex series 360 with Speedy in March, she opened up about feeling “afraid” of negative feedback over the course of the past year.

“I just feel like I lost myself with everything, you know, like, a lot of music commenters and everything and a lot of people just be like, you know, ‘She’s afraid to drop an album, she’s afraid to drop music,’” Cardi said at the time. “Last year, I barely dropped music. It’s just like I was just afraid to do everything.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Last year, she only released one official single where she was the lead artist, “Bongos” alongside Megan Thee Stallion. According to Cardi, fear was the reason she was less active in 2023 — and she has even since told fans that she will no longer be dropping her sophomore album this year. (A rep for the rapper confirmed to Rolling Stone on Tuesday that there are still plans for the project to drop later this year.)

“I was afraid to go live, I was afraid to post a picture, I was afraid to go to the club, and then the next day seeing people, what they going to say about me, and everything,” she said in March.

“I love talking about politics and everything,” she continued “I don’t even want to talk about it anymore because I’m just so afraid of just getting dragged every single f—ing day. Like, I’m tired.”