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.
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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.
"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.
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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.
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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Callum Jones