Cardi B Appears In Court as $5M Tattoo Cover Art Trial Begins
As one case has reached a verdict, Cardi B (born Becalis Almanzar) finds herself back in court this week for another trial.
This time, Almanzar’s team is defending her against plaintiff Kevin Brophy Jr. who claims an image of his back tattoo was used for the 2016 cover of Cardi’s Gangsta Bi**h Music Vol. 1 (see below). Brophy says the mixtape art has caused him embarrassment and “goes against what he stands for.”
The cover art shows Cardi sitting in the back of a limousine drinking a Corona, while an unidentified man kneels in front of her appearing to perform cunnilingus.
According to Rolling Stone, both parties’ attorneys opened their statements agreeing that the image used on the cover art is indeed some of Brophy’s back tattoos.
The legal teams also explained how the usage of the image came about. The graphic artist who designed the mixtape cover for Cardi replaced the model on the cover’s tattoos with part of Brophy’s.
The designer used a tiger and serpent he found online, which actually was Brophy’s ink.
“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,” Brophy expressed in court. “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 added, “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.”
