Photo: Cardi B’s official Instagram account
After a grueling two-week trial in Atlanta, a federal jury awarded rapper Cardi B with $1.25 million in damages following her filing of a libel lawsuit against YouTuber LaTasha Kebe, a.k.a. Tasha K. The court’s decision came out on January 24, 2022.
Just last January 13, the 29-year-old rapper, born Belcalis Almánzar, testified that Kebe’s false claims about her made her “extremely suicidal.” She also added that the situation made her feel helpless. A TMZ report revealed that the music artist also added, “I felt defeated and depressed, and I didn’t want to sleep with my husband.”
According to Cardi B, Kebe created malicious YouTube content alleging that the rapper was a prostitute, used cocaine, cheated on her husband, and contracted herpes and HPV.
Cardi B’s camp claimed that the acts of degrading and harassing the Grammy-winning music artist started in April 2018. The accused shared a video on her YouTube channel unWinewithTashaK and claimed that Cardi’s pregnancy with Kulture could result in a child born with special needs. Kulture is now three years old.
She further added that she suffered from various inconveniences brought about by Kebe’s false claims, including fatigue, migraines, anxiety, and weight loss. Kebe has 1 million strong followers on her YouTube channel, giving her a powerful platform to influence her audience.
After the verdict was released, Kebe tweeted that she and her legal team “fought really hard” and thanked them for their “long hours and sleepless nights.” She added that it was “only up from here” and would “see y’all in a few days.”
An attorney for Cardi B camp’s declined to give a comment on the artist’s legal victory. Apart from defamation, Kebe was also held liable for invasion of privacy through portrayal in a false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Kebe’s attorneys are expected to challenge the verdict to the judge in the coming weeks. If the judge decides to uphold the decision, Kebe’s legal team can make an appeal to a federal appeal court.
Cardi B’s lawyers in the trial were Lisa F. Moore and William A. Pequignot of the law firm Moore Pequignot LLC and Gary P. Adelman and Sarah M. Matz of Adelman Matz PC. Kebe, on the other hand, was represented by Sadeer Sabbak and Olga Izmaylova of Sabbak & Izmaylova PC.
Cardi B signed her first major record label deal with Atlantic Records in February 2017. Her debut single “Bodak Yellow” made a phenomenal mark in music history, making it number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. That single feat made her the second-ever female rapper to achieve a US Billboard number one hit with only a solo output. The other female music artist who achieved the same feat was Lauryn Hill in 1998. “Bodak Yellow” was eventually included in her debut studio album Invasion of Privacy, released in 2018.
The New York-born and raised artist has a Dominican father and a Trinidadian mother. She admits to having been part of a gang at the young age of 16. She attended the Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & Technology, a known specialty school on the Herbert H. Lehman campus.
2018 proved to be a very fulfilling year for Cardi B as she gathered awards left and right for her debut single and album, including MTV’s Video Music Award for Best Collaboration, Best New Artist, and Best Song of the Summer. She also won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip Hop Video in 2019. Her biggest break came in 2019 when she won her first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album for Invasion of Privacy.
Cardi B is married to American rapper Kiari Kendrell Cephus, more popularly known as Offset.
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