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Olivia Rodrigo credits Cardi B for inspiring her to be more personal with her songwriting

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Erica Hernandez

Olivia Rodrigo says there’s one person who helped her realize there’s no shame in being brutally honest in her music, and that’s Cardi B.

Speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on Tuesday, the “Drivers License” singer says Cardi’s confidence inspired her to dig deep and transform a “really painful moment” in her life into her hit single.

“I’m so in love with her, I want to marry her,” Rodrigo gushed. “I feel lucky to be a teenager at the time when Cardi is making music.”

Added the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actress, “Just even as a songwriter, some of the stuff that she says is just so honest and almost like shockingly honest. When I listened to her song, I’m like, ‘Oh wow, she really just said that on a recorded album.'”

The song of which she’s referring to is “Get Up 10,” the opening track off the rapper’s Grammy-winning Invasion of Privacy album.

“One of the lyrics is like, ‘Real b****, only thing fake is boobs.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, that’s the energy,'” recalled Rodrigo, who confessed “I’m obsessed with her.”

The 18-year-old singer added, “Those are my favorite artists who say stuff that other people are scared to say.”

“That’s definitely something that I sort of grapple with in my songwriting. I’m making a lot of music right now to put it out, and I listen to it back and I’m terrified sometimes. I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I literally am writing about stuff that I don’t tell some of my closest friends, and I’m going to put out for the whole world to scrutinize and talk about,'” continued Rodrigo. “She gives me courage to sort of say whatever I want to say and be honest in telling my story.”

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