Cardi B Wins Contentious Cover Art Trial, Gets Homecoming Invitation Outside Court

Cardi B won a copyright infringement case where a Southern California man claimed the rapper misused his back tattoos for her 2016 Gangsta Bitch Music Vol 1 mixtape cover art. Kevin Michael Brophy filed the lawsuit a year after the mixtape was released, calling himself a "family man with minor children" and saying he'd been caused "distress and humiliation" by the art, which shows a male model (not Brophy) with back tattoos in a limousine with Cardi. Brophy had been seeking $5 million.

"It's not your client's back," Cardi B said about the image, which featured a Black model (Brophy is white). "It's not him," she continued. "To me, it doesn't look like his back at all. The tattoo was modified, which is protected by the First Amendment."

"He hasn't gotten fired from his job," Cardi added in a contentious back-and-forth with Brophy's lawyer on Wednesday. "He hasn't gotten a divorce. How has he suffered? He's still in a surf shop at his job. Please tell me how he's suffered." According to local news, the exchange became so heated that the judge briefly halted the trial.

After the jury ruled in her favor on Friday, Cardi said to reporters: "I wasn't sure if I was going to lose or not." Among the reporters and photographers outside the Santa Ana courthouse were 40 high school students chanting her name and asking her to sign their phone cases. One fan held up a sign asking if Cardi would take him to his homecoming dance, and she replied, "Yes, I'll see what I can do."