Cardi B took the stand Wednesday to fight a $5 million lawsuit claiming the artwork from her first mixtape left a man “humiliated,” Billboard reports.
The artwork in question is from Cardi’s debut mixtape Gangsta B**** Music, Vol. 1 and features the rapper in the back of a vehicle, taking a sip of beer, staring into the camera with her legs spread wide as she hold’s a man’s head between them, appearing to perform oral sex on her.
The man in the artwork is a Black male model, however, the tattoo that appears on his back belonged to Kevin Michael Brophy Jr. and was photoshopped onto the model’s body after he discovered it during a Google search.
The mixtape was released in 2016 and Brophy sued in 2017 for millions, claiming he was “devastated, humiliated and embarrassed” by the cover and that his right to privacy was violated and painted him in a “false light,” the outlet adds.
While taking the stand, Cardi told Brophy’s attorney, A. Barry Cappello, “This is not about taking anything down. Y’all have been harassing me for $5 million.”
“It’s not Mr. Brophy’s back. It doesn’t look like Mr. Brophy at all,” she said. “There has been not one receipt he has provided in the court claiming, ‘Hey, that’s you on Cardi’s mixtape.'”
The “Up” singer also made note of Brophy’s claim that his image played a factor in her success over the years, stating that she works hard for her two kids and it’s “really insulting to me as a woman that a man is claiming responsibility.”
Testimony will continue Thursday with a verdict due on Friday or Monday.
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