Cardi B spoke to girls in a police mentorship program Friday (Feb. 24) as part of what she says has been an eye-opening and emotional week performing court-mandated community service for her role in a pair of brawls at New York City strip clubs in 2018.

The 30-year-old “Bodak Yellow” singer visited an NYPD “Girls Talk” event at the police training academy in Queens and shared what the department said was “her rags to riches story.” She danced with teens and posed for photos.

Cardi B’s plea deal requires her to perform 15 days of community service by March 1 to avoid a 15-day jail sentence.

“I feel like there’s so many people that make y’all probably feel like, ‘This is what’s cool, this is what’s going on, this is what it takes to be lit, this is what it takes to be fire,’” Cardi B told her young audience.

“Sometimes that’s a little bit of peer pressure like on a girl. Don’t fall into that. You know what I’m saying? Like, be great. Be you. You’re amazing. You’re dope yourself.”

The NYPD posted a video to Twitter showing highlights of the event.

That drew criticism from some people, including a retired police lieutenant, who questioned whether Cardi B was an appropriate role model for children given her sometimes provocative lyrics, criminal record and past admission that she drugged and robbed men while working as a stripper before she got famous.

Cardi B, a New York City native whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, has been chronicling her community service on Twitter all week. On Saturday, she wrote: “Community service has been the best thing that has happened to me.”

She likened the experience to a spiritual journey that sometimes left her in tears. “Those people that we leave behind they just need somebody to talk and a lil push and YOU might be able to change their life forever,” she wrote.

In another post, on her way to the police academy, the multiple-platinum selling artist and mother of two complained about waking up early to perform community service before going to the recording studio, but added: “I did the crime ‘I only have myself to blame’.”

Cardi B agreed in September to a conditional discharge just as her case was about to go to trial. She pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges stemming from the August 2018 fights. Ten other counts, including two felonies, were dismissed. Two co-defendants also pleaded guilty.

In a statement at the time, Cardi B said: “Part of growing up and maturing is being accountable for your actions. As a mother, it’s a practice that I am trying to instill in my children, but the example starts with me. I’ve made some bad decisions in my past that I am not afraid to face and own up to. These moments don’t define me and they are not reflective of who I am now.”

According to prosecutors, Cardi B and her entourage were targeting employees of Angels Strip Club in Flushing, Queens, over an apparent personal dispute. In one fight, chairs, bottles and hookah pipes were thrown as the group argued with a bartender. She and another employee had minor injuries.

In 2019, Cardi B rejected a plea deal that would have given her a conditional discharge. Prosecutors then presented the case to a grand jury and obtained an indictment that included the two felony charges.

NYPD Chief of Training Juanita Holmes created the “Girls Talk” program to build trust and foster mentorships between police officers and girls, with occasional special guests. Ballet dancer Misty Copeland spoke to the group at police headquarters in December 2021.

Cardi B’s chart-topping hits include “I Like It” and the Maroon 5 collaboration “Girls Like You.”

P!nk wants people to focus on her new album, Trustfall — rather than dig up a “silly feud” she had with Christina Aguilera more than 20 years ago.

The pop star released Trustfall on Feb. 17. Her latest effort debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, becoming her ninth top 10-charting album.

“With me, when you’re a certain age and a woman, they tell you that what you do doesn’t matter, really, anymore, so just do what you do,” she said in a recent interview about Trustfall with Billboard. “And I’ve kind of always felt like that — at 16, I felt like that. But I don’t write songs for other people. I’m very narcissistic when it comes to songwriting, in a very pure way. I write what needs to be written for me, and if somebody else can relate to it, then that’s awesome. We’re all having this human experience, and we’re not all that different.”

While making the rounds with press for the release, P!nk was asked to rank her music videos during a visit with Buzzfeed UK. She put “Lady Marmalade,” her 2001 single with Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim, at the bottom of the list, recalling that “there were some personalities. Kim and Mya were nice.” Some assumed she was “shading” Aguilera, decades after the shoot, to which she responded on Twitter: “I’m not ‘shading’ someone by telling it over and over and over what actually happened. I’m zero percent interested in your f—ing drama.”

On Sunday (Feb. 26), she opened up about how it feels to be talking about that right now, instead of all the hard work she put into Trustfall.

“I’m so saddened and disappointed by the narrative surrounding some of the press I’ve been doing around my album Trustfall,” she wrote on Instagram, where she shared a sweet selfie with her child. “While some of the responsibility lays with me and my inability to lie, and my uncanny ability to overshare- my real disappointment lies in the fact that the art can never be the focus when you’re a woman.”

P!nk wrote, “The fact that I created one of the most beautiful albums with the most beautiful people -sang my ass off, made myself wholly vulnerable – eleven albums in, selling out stadiums, raising good kids, steadily employing hundreds of good, hardworking people, the only thing they ask you about over and over is a silly feud from your twenties.”

“I take responsibility also- I’m out of practice dodging the bulls— that gets thrown at us hardworking women,” she said. “I’m notorious for saying too much. But I’ve never lied. And for every one or two women I’ve had issue with – there are hundreds that I’ve complimented and supported and loved on. But we don’t talk about that.”

“I wonder when the last time Bradley Cooper or Robert Deniro were asked in interview after interview about any argument they’d ever had. How about Christian Bale? We stick to the art with them, don’t we? I’d like to have the same opportunity. I also believe in authentic apology- and owning your mistakes. I should say less. Every time. Say less. Something I’m working on. This was a good reminder. My wish is to share the pains and the celebrations of this messy life through music and on stage. And I’ve accomplished that. Incredibly and consistently,” said P!nk.

“To Christina- you know where we stand,” she said, directing the end of her message to Aguilera. “Resolved. Onwards and upwards.”

See P!nk’s post below.