A California decide has upheld Cardi B’s win at a latest trial the place jurors discovered her not responsible for utilizing a portion of plaintiff Kevin Brophy’s again tattoo on the quilt of her 2016 mixtape Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1, Rolling Stone experiences.

Brophy, a mannequin, sued Cardi for $5 million in 2017, claiming the quilt of the mixtape — which depicts a person apparently performing oral intercourse on the rapper — misappropriated his likeness by utilizing a picture of his tattoo, and that he was struggling “misery and humiliation” due to it. Brophy requested the court docket to toss their October twenty first, 2022 verdict, which discovered Cardi not liable.

U.S. District Decide Cormac J. Carney dominated Wednesday that Brophy’s request to toss that ruling had come too late and lacked benefit, and subsequently ordered him to pay Cardi’s authorized charges. “The jury had an ample foundation for its verdict,” his assertion reads. “For instance, the jury may have fairly concluded that the again tattoo on the mannequin on the mixtape cowl at problem on this go well with was not sufficiently identifiable with Brophy to represent misappropriation of his likeness or depiction in a false mild. As a result of the mannequin’s face is just not seen, identification based mostly on facial look is inconceivable.”

Cardi had concurred that the picture of the tattoo had been superimposed on the picture; the person on the mixtape cowl can also be Black, whereas Brophy is white. Decide Carney’s assertion continued: “Most significantly, Brophy’s tattoo performed a minor position in what was a bigger visible commentary on sexual politics. Brophy’s tattoo was however one tattoo on the again of the mannequin, who was himself however one a part of a suggestive portrayal of a person along with his head between Cardi B’s legs whereas she was within the backseat of a automobile and drank an alcoholic beverage.”

The decide added: “The aim, Cardi B testified, was to indicate her in management, reversing conventional gender roles. It’s arduous to see how the quilt’s financial worth derived in any respect from Brophy’s tattoo. Regardless of any opposite proof that Brophy offered, the jury was inside purpose to seek out that using the tattoo was transformative.”

This isn’t the one authorized drama involving Cardi as of late: In September, she pleaded responsible to 2 misdemeanor assault fees stemming from an August 2018 incident at a Queens strip membership. As for her music, she not too long ago teamed up with GloRilla for the one “Tomorrow 2” and supplied a remix of Rosalía’s “DESPECHÁ.”