A tattoo model is suing Cardi B six years after the American rapper dropped her first mixtape with an attention-grabbing cover.
The Grammy-award winning rapper appeared in court on Tuesday (18 October) to battle a $5 million lawsuit against her.
The singer is being sued by Kevin Michael Brophy Jr. due to the tattoo artwork featured on the cover of her 2016 mixtape, 'Gangsta B**ch Music Vol.1', that he considers to be a 'core of his identity'.
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The cover image was shown to the Californian courtroom on a large screen for jurors to see.
It featured Cardi B in the back of a limousine, staring into the camera and taking a swig from a beer.
It also appeared to show her holding the back of a man's head as he looks to be performing oral sex on her.
In court, marketing manager Brophy said: "It felt like my Michelangelo was stolen off the wall and just literally ripped off and robbed and just put wherever these people wanted to put it.
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"It looks like I’m giving oral sex to somebody that’s not my wife, somebody that’s not my partner, and an image that I never signed off on, ever."
He also claimed that Cardi B and her team did not send a response to the cease-and-desist letter sent in 2017, calling it a 'complete slap in the face' and causing him 'hurt and shame'.
Brophy continued: "Being a father of two and a devoted husband and a man of faith as well, this goes against everything that I stand for, and I would never ever sign off on something like this,” Brophy testified, calling the artwork “completely raunchy [and] disgusting.
In court filings leading up to the expected four-day trial, the 'WAP' artist claimed the photoshopped portion of Brophy's tattoo on the cover was done without her knowledge.
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The filing also claimed the man between her legs is not Brophy because he has a full head of dark hair and lacks Brophy's neck tattoo.
Cardi B's lawyer Peter J. Anderson said: "That’s a Black man with hair, and this is a white man with a shaven head."
Anderson also said that Brophy and his wife have not been able to name anyone who claimed to have recognised him as the man on the cover.
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"They have not identified any person, any member of the public, any friend who said that." he said.
"That’s a self-inflicted wound. He caused that by identifying himself when no one else had identified him as being the person in the image."
Cardi B is expected to take the witness stand in the trial in the next coming days.
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Topics: Cardi B, Music, US News
