Cardi B has emerged victorious in a legal battle over the cover for her ‘Gangsta Bitch Vol. 1’ mixtape.
A federal jury in Santa Ana, CA found in favour of Cardi B Friday on all counts, putting an end. to the 5-year-long case.
She was sued by Kevin Brophy, who claimed that the “raunchy” artwork had “ruined” his private life.
The artwork shows a guy with a ton of back tattoos performing oral sex on her. Brophy claimed the art used his image and his back tattoos without permission.
“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, a marketing manager at RVCA, originally testified.
“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.”
After a 4-day trial, the jury ruled Cardi’s album cover did not cast Brophy in a false light or constitute a misappropriation of his likeness.
Cardi’s attorneys described the suit as a “money grab” and sustained that the image “is not his likeness” and that the tattoo that was superimposed was “very, very different” from Brophy’s.
Cardi took the witness stand as well this week, testifying, “There is not one evidence where people believe it’s actually him… hasn’t gotten fired from his job. He hasn’t gotten a divorce. How has he suffered? … Please tell me how he’s suffered,” according to outlet Law and Crime.
He had been seeking $5 million from Cardi, but with the verdict, he’s come up empty-handed.
