Back in October of last year, Cardi B was facing a hefty lawsuit over some art that was allegedly stolen for the cover of her Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 mixtape. The album cover shows a man with prominent back tattoos performing oral sex on Cardi as she sips from a bottle of beer. A model sued the blossoming rapper last year after claiming that his back tattoos were photoshopped into the album cover. Kevin Brophy, the man filing the documents, is asking for $5 million dollars as he never consented to his image being used in such a sexual nature, affirming that he did not pose for the photo or sign off on anything.
Cardi B and her team are certain the man suing her, Kevin Brophy, is trying to extort her. “Whatever piece of Cardi B’s income he can gouge out, and whatever free ride on her famous coattails he can gain, through extortionate means of this unfounded, preposterous action,” the documents say. Her team also states that since Brophy is never named or identified in the album’s artwork, there isn’t any harm being done.
There seems to be a catch in the lawsuit though. Cardi B and her legal team are claiming that the man in the photo is a “young, dark-skinned male” while the plaintiff is a middle-aged Caucasian man. While the tats are strikingly similar upon comparison, Cardi is hoping that one element of the ink leads to her winning the case. TMZ notes that the man suing has a neck tattoo that reads “Born To Lose” on his neck, while Cardi’s model does not have any neck tattoos.
While the back tattoos tattoos do look strikingly similar, the design itself may have been digitally lifted and placed on the model who actually is in the photo. This makes a lot of sense considering Cardi’s legal team called the photo “a classic example of transformative work created in the exercise of the First Amendment rights of the photographer.”
It’s also possible a different person has the same ink themselves, especially since one huge difference, Cardi notes, is that the model on her artwork doesn’t have the same “Born to Lose” neck tattoo as Brophy. TMZ reported that Cardi also clarified the man on the cover is a “young, black man,” while the Brophy is white. At the time the album dropped, she posted other images from the same shoot showing a model that is definitely not Brophy.
Check out the photos here and judge for yourself.
