Cardi B Earns $350,000 From Man Who Sued Her Over Mixtape Cover

Cardi B is being rewarded after a judge ruled in her favor following a lawsuit from a man who claimed she used his image for a mixtape cover without permission.

According to a report law reporter Meghann Cuniff published on Tuesday, June 13, the "Up" rapper won $350,000 after a judge ordered plaintiff Michael “Mike” Brophy to cough up the bread and withdraw his motion for a new trial. The decision came down after Brophy lost his case against Bardi, her company Washpoppin’ Co. and her former manager Klenord “Shaft” Raphael’s company KSR Group LLC over the cover of her debut mixtape Gangsta B*tch Music Vol. 1.

“Brophy’s tattoo was but one tattoo on the back of the model, who was himself but one part of a suggestive portrayal of a man with his head between Cardi B’s legs while she was in the backseat of a vehicle and drank an alcoholic beverage,” the judge wrote. “The purpose, Cardi B testified, was to show her in control, reversing traditional gender roles.”

In his initial $5 million lawsuit filed in 2017, Brophy alleged Bardi purposely used a photo of his back tattoo for the cover of her project without obtaining permission. He claimed he was "devastated, humiliated and embarrassed” after he saw his tattoo on a model that performed oral sex on the rapper while she sipped on a bottle of Corona. However, it was revealed that the model on the album cover consented to using his image while a freelance graphic designer googled the term "back tattoos" found Brophy's design and digitally imposed it on the model's back. Last October, a jury in California voted in favor of Bardi.

Brophy will have to repay the artist $350,000 for her legal fees and retract his motion new trial without any path for a future appeal.