Cardi B Wins $5 Million Lawsuit Over ‘Offensive’ Mixtape Cover Art

A Southern California jury sided with Cardi B on Friday, in the federal trial over cover art used on her 2016 mixtape “Gangsta B-tch Music, Vol. 1.”

Jurors in Santa Ana, California — outside Los Angeles — decided the rapper was not guilty of copyright infringement when she used a version of an Orange County marketing employee’s tattoo on her debut release.

Kevin Brophy Jr. filed a lawsuit in 2017, alleging the rapper’s team photoshopped a copy of his distinctive back tattoo onto someone else’s body and used it without his permission, in an “offensive, humiliating and provocatively sexual way.” He was seeking $5 million for alleged copyright violations.

Brophy’s body art has been featured in tattoo magazines.

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The cover art shows the back of a tattooed man whose head is between the Grammy-winning rapper’s legs.

Lawyers for Cardi B, real name Belcalis Almánzar, argued that the tattoo was used “in an anonymous manner.”

The rapper’s legal team added that the model who posed for the cover was “Black, with hair,” while Brophy is a “middle-aged Caucasian with a shaved head.”

During the trial, Cardi B said only a “small portion” of the tattoo was used.

After the verdict was read, she shook hands with Brophy, the Associated Press reported.

The rapper posted a statement on Twitter today, saying: “…I can’t believe I won that lawsuit. It was a good fight, and when I say good fight, I mean my lawyers and the plaintiffs lawyers were really good… but I had the biggest weapon of them all ….GOD!!! I’m feeling so blessed.”