Blink and you’ll miss the short, but superb turns from Cardi B and Lizzo in the new crime drama Hustlers. Both of the chart-topping artists appear in just a few scenes in the first twenty minutes or so of the A-list ensemble that includes Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu, among others.
Spoilers ahead so if you haven’t seen Hustlers yet, you’ll want to stop reading here.
Cardi B and Lizzo play strippers that work at the same New York City club as Lopez and co., which means, yes, you get to see both of the hip-hop superstars shake their stuff on stage.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t get some behind-the-stripper-scenes gems either. Lizzo (who, coincidentally, plays a character named Liz) pulls out her trademark and plays a few notes backstage. In one of the movie’s funniest moments, she puts her flute between another dancer’s breasts.
In another crowd-pleasing moment, Liz runs backstage to announce that a celebrity has stopped by their club, and it’s none other than Usher himself. (As a welcome to the “Love in this Club” singer, Lizzo and the entire crew get on stage to dance for him.)
Cardi B gets a little bit more screen time and dialogue than Lizzo, in her role as the foul-mouthed, no-nonsense dancer Diamond from the Bronx. In what’s bound to be an iconic moment, Diamond teaches newcomer Destiny (Wu) how to give a lap dance that men will spend big bucks on again and again.
Diamond instructs Destiny to make the most of her time with the guys, but to always be the one in control. Or, as so she delicately puts it, “Drain the clock, not the c**k.”
Both Diamond and Liz hang out together during a backstage moment in which the women lament about their complicated dating and sex lives. Liz says that she’d rather go home and be in footie pajamas with her boyfriend ice cream than go out after a night at the club, while Destiny shows off her true love: a vibrator. (The only time this boyfriend gets mad, she jokes, is when it runs out of batteries.)
No, the “Bodak Yellow” and “Truth Hurts” singers, respectively, don’t get much time to play on-screen in Hustlers, but when they do, it’s pretty apparent they are having the time of their life.