Who is Kevin Michael Brophy? Cardi B Mixtape album cover art tattoo controversy explained as rapper wins lawsuit

Cardi B won the lawsuit against Kevin Michael Brophy over her 2016 album cover tattoo art (Image via Getty Images and Get Da Scoop/Twitter)

Cardi B recently won her copyright infringement lawsuit against tattoo model Kevin Michael Brophy involving the cover art for her 2016 Gangsta B*tch Music Vol. 1 mixtape album.

According to TMZ, the latter sued Cardi in 2017 over a tattoo on a model who was featured on the cover of the rapper’s 2016 mixtape album. On the cover, the WAP hitmaker can be seen sitting inside a limo with a man’s head in front of her legs.

Although the man’s face is hidden from the camera, the album cover featured a tiger and serpent tattoo on his back. Brophy claimed that the tattoo on the model resembled that of his own and said the cover was a “misappropriation of his likeness.”

While lawyers for both parties agreed that the photoshopped body art on the album cover was easily available on the internet, Brophy’s attorneys claimed that the image made many believe that the man featured on the cover was Brophy.

The tattoo model previously told the court that the cover art went “against everything” he stood for:

“It looks like I’m giving or*l s*x to somebody that’s not my wife, somebody that’s not my partner, and an image that I never signed off on, ever. Being a father of two and a devoted husband and a man of faith as well, this goes against everything that I stand for, and I would never ever sign off on something like this.”

Brophy’s lawyers claimed that Cardi B’s cover art caused him “anxiety and reputational harm” and the man sought $5 million in damages.

Everything to know about Kevin Michael Brophy

Kevin Michael Brophy is a tattoo model who works as the marketing manager for surf and skate apparel company RVCA in Newport Beach, California.

In an interview with the Courthouse News Service, Brophy said that he works as an employee of a “socially conscious surf and lifestyle” brand.

Brophy garnered media attention after he sued Cardi B over her Gangsta B*tch Music Vol. 1 mixtape album cover tattoo art in 2017.

Not much is known about his Brophy’s personal and he is not available on any public social media platforms.

What did Cardi B say about the album cover art tattoo lawsuit?

Cardi B’s lawyers denied Kevin Michael Brophy’s claims about the former’s album cover tattoo art (Image via Getty Images)
Cardi B emerged victorious in her legal battle against Kevin Michael Brophy over the cover art tattoo art of her 2016 mixtape album. The rapper’s lawyer Peter J. Anderson denied Brophy’s claims and said that mistaking the man with the model featured on Cardi’s album cover was “unlikely”:

“That’s a Black man with hair, and this is a white man with a shaven head.”

The Rolling Stone reported that Anderson also mentioned that did not identify “any person, any member of the public, or any friend who” mistook Brophy for the man featured on Cardi’s album cover:

“That’s a self-inflicted wound. He caused that by identifying himself when no one else had identified him as being the person in the image.”

The defense team also clarified that the tattoos featured on the model appearing on Cardi’s album were found through Google but became a “newly created piece of art” after undergoing numerous altercations.

A federal jury ruled in Cardi B’s favor on Friday and said that the cover art did not hamper Brophy’s likeness. The rapper’s attorney also dubbed the involved parties as “gracious winners” while speaking to Rolling Stone and said that Michael Brophy and Cardi B shook hands after the verdict.