Jimmy Fallon Knows He's Not Worthy to Be in Cardi B's Presence

It’s very seldom that late night funnyman Jimmy Fallon is rendered speechless or without a wisecrack, but during Wednesday night’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he seemed to be in perpetual awe of the ebullient, gregarious force of nature known as Cardi B.

Cardi, who’s currently promoting her upcoming single, “Bartier Cardi,” appeared on the show, in a green fur. From the get go, it was clear that Fallon was out of his league; after Cardi responded to Fallon’s congratulations on the success of her ubiquitous club banger “Bodak Yellow” with a shimmy, smile, and a sassy exclamation, Fallon looked visibly shook and needed to pause for a moment before asking the Bronx rapper about her unique moniker, which she answered with candor.

“My name come from…You know what? My sister name is Hennessy,” she said. “You know what I’m saying? My sister name is Hennessy, right? So, everybody used to call be Bacardi. So, I always call myself Bacardi, right?” the rapper, whose birth name is Belcalis Almanzar, said. “Then it was my Instagram name—like Bacardi, Bacardi B—but for some reason, my Instagram kept getting deleted; I think it was Bacardi that had something to do with it so I just shortened it to Cardi B.”

While the pair also discussed Cardi’s recent engagement to fellow rapper, Offset of Migos, her plans for celebrating the holidays this weekend, and her feelings about the Grammys, Fallon remained in complete wonderment of Cardi. Watch his interview with her above.

Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com.