Cardi B’s Lawyers Fire Back Against ‘Back Tattoo’ Lawsuit

• Save

• Save

Exhibit A: Cardi B’s cover artwork for “Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1”

Cardi B and her legal team have fired back against the years-long “tattoo lawsuit” levied by surf-industry employee Kevin Brophy Jr.

The 27-year-old rapper and her counsel recently took aim at the nearly three-year-old allegations, and Digital Music News obtained exclusive copies of the corresponding filings. To briefly recap the marathon courtroom confrontation (which has seen Cardi B provide a deposition), plaintiff Kevin Brophy Jr. alleged in October of 2017 that the back tattoo of the individual (the6atsix) featured on the cover of Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 resembles his own back tattoo.

And because the6atsix assumed a compromising position on the cover of Cardi B’s debut mixtape, and Brophy Jr. must frequently remove his shirt at work, it’s alleged that his (Brophy Jr.’s) reputation may have been damaged. Additionally, the plaintiff maintains that the back-tattoo similarities entitle him to a portion of the 2016 work’s royalties – and possibly a piece of all the royalties from throughout Cardi’s career.

The first of the aforementioned documents submitted by Cardi B and other defendants (including her cosmetics line, Washpoppin, and KSR Group, the label that released Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) is a “certification and notice of interested parties.” Specifying that the defendants, the plaintiff, and others “may have a pecuniary interest in the outcome of this case,” the application seeks “to enable the Court to evaluate possible disqualification or recusal.”

And the second of these just-filed documents, for its part, is a point-by-point refutation of claims that the plaintiff introduced in opposing the defendants’ request for summary adjudication. Beginning with allegations centering on KSR Group’s allegedly republishing Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 (and the cover art at the core of the suit), counsel for Cardi B and KSR emphasizes that the latter “sold all of its right, title and interest in that work” to WMG’s Atlantic Records back in September of 2016.

Next, the 11-page-long filing characterizes the plaintiff’s description of digital jukebox company TouchTunes as “inadmissible hearsay” that is “irrelevant to this motion.” And after targeting other components of the TouchTunes description, the document offers similar criticisms of different allegations yet from the plaintiff.

“In tattoo culture,” reads one of the Kevin Brophy Jr. claims that the defendants identified as hearsay, “Plaintiff’s striking and unique back tattoo is the equivalent of a ‘Michelangelo.’”

At the time of this writing, Kevin Brophy Jr. and his attorneys hadn’t formally followed up on the claims made by Cardi B and the matter’s other defendants. The case is scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday, October 13th, less than two weeks shy of the three-year anniversary since its initial filing.