Patientce Foster On Managing Cardi B, Her ESSENCE Fest Debut, And The Business Of Cultural Strategy

Cardi B will take center stage at this year’s ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans for her debut performance at The Party With a Purpose—marking a major cultural moment for one of music’s most influential voices.

Behind this moment is Patientce Foster, Cardi B’s talent manager and creative director, who has quietly spent the past decade shaping some of our most defining moments in music, fashion, and pop culture.

ESSENCE sat down with Foster, who is also the founder of Fifth & Freedom, a talent management and brand development company focused on building legacy-driven careers, to share her cheat codes for continued cultural impact, offer a sneak peek into what to expect from Cardi B’s highly anticipated performance, and deliver a blueprint for emerging creatives building careers at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and cultural excellence.

ESSENCE: You’ve worked alongside Cardi B since the early stages of her career. Looking back, what were some of the key decisions that helped transform her from a breakout artist into a global brand?

Patientce Foster: I think it was a hybrid of strategic decisions and intuition because neither she nor I knew exactly what we were doing. She was navigating being a public figure, a reality TV personality, and an artist, while I thinking I was simply a publicist and learning the space as it evolved. I didn’t realize how quickly everything would grow.

Strategically, we leaned into and trusted our vision. Once she decided she was going to make music, we did everything to the absolute best of our ability. We wanted to show up as prepared and polished as possible.

The intuition came from ignoring the people who tried to talk us out of what we saw for her and what she saw for herself. People would say, “Maybe you should try music another time,” or suggest that who she was on reality television was too urban to appeal to a broader audience. There were attempts to persuade us not to pursue the direction we believed in, but we ignored it.

Cardi B is set to take the stage at ESSENCE Festival this year. What excites you most about this moment, and what can fans expect from her appearance?

Foster: As Black and Brown women, ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans has always been a cultural mecca for us. This feels like our first opportunity to engage with ESSENCE’s unique audience, and that’s what makes it so exciting—especially coming right off the Little Miss Drama Tour. The timing feels perfect.

As Cardi’s creative director, it was important to bring the energy of the Little Miss Drama Tour because it was such a defining moment and powerful show, while also tailoring it specifically for ESSENCE. We didn’t want to copy and paste the tour. We intentionally built something bespoke because every moment deserves its own treatment.

In an industry where teams often change, you maintain a long-standing relationship and partnership with Cardi B. What’s the secret to that?

The secret is really three things: trust, honesty, and loyalty.

Trust is what sustains both a healthy working relationship and a friendship. That trust comes from honesty. Cardi is someone who lives very out loud—on good days, bad days, highs and lows—and she brings her fans and the world into that. Having someone on your team who can give honest opinions, whether about a decision, a statement, or a direction, is essential.

She’s never going to just say yes to me, and I’m never going to just say yes to her. That honesty is what sustains the relationship, both professionally and personally, because there’s no avoidance of truth.

Then there’s loyalty—not just surface-level loyalty, but something deeper. In this industry, not everyone operates above board, and principles can shift when money is involved. Being with someone who is strong-willed in what she believes in forces you to decide what you stand by and what you don’t.

I’ve turned down opportunities and spaces because I’m not willing to make exceptions where we’ve already stood on business. That’s what loyalty looks like in our world.

Recently, you helped bring Cardi B’s DoorDash campaign to life, which reportedly drove significant subscriber growth to that platform. What makes a celebrity partnership culturally relevant rather than just promotional?

What makes partnerships work is ensuring there’s a real connection to the artist. It can’t just be a brand handing an artist a product to promote that they don’t actually use. Most people will take the opportunity because it’s paid, but the strongest partnerships come from finding the right moment in the pipeline where it makes sense for both the artist and the brand.

When that alignment is right, the campaign becomes a representation of both. You’re protecting both sides—you want it to succeed in the moment, but also build long-term value so future partnerships are possible. At the end of the day, it has to show clear value.

What advice do you give to those creative still trying to make their mark?

To the creatives who feel like they haven’t had their time yet, if you remain consistent in the right direction, it will happen. Do your due diligence, figure out who actually has purview over what you’re trying to do, and connect with them. Otherwise, you’re knocking on the wrong door and wasting time.

Eventually, that consistency brings you closer to where you want to go. And sometimes it also shows you that what you thought you wanted shifts as you move. So don’t let your vision blind you to possibility, even if it doesn’t look exactly like what you imagined.

I used to say I was going to be a publicist, but if I had ignored everything evolving around me, I would’ve missed what my life became. Show up every day, and understand that everything you do is part of your resume for what comes next.

When you think about your legacy, what do you hope people will say about the impact you’ve had on the way artists, brands, and culture intersect?

Foster: I would hope people say I was a pioneer. I didn’t come in to fit the mold. I came in and disrupted the industry because I saw how all these moments actually connect, not separately, but as one larger system: image, creative, public perception, conversation, brand, and product. It’s all one world.

My legacy would also be that I created cultural moments that stand the test of time, and that I did it my way, on my own timeline, in a way that’s respected. I didn’t step on people to get here—my reputation precedes me, and my name can be spoken with respect in the same breath.

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In an industry where culture moves at the speed of a scroll and relevance can disappear overnight, Patientce Foster has built her career around something far more lasting: the belief that nothing exists in isolation—neither moments, nor careers, nor culture itself. Years of navigating both the creative and strategic sides of the industry have shaped that perspective, refined through a partnership built on trust, honesty, and execution.

And it’s a standard that’s reshaping how the next generation of creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries approach longevity in culture.

Kara Stevens is founder of The Frugal Feminista. She is author of heal your relationship with money and Unmasking the Strong Black Woman. Connect with her on LinkedIn.