Cardi B is addressing speculation surrounding her recent maternity photos, which some fans believed contained a subtle diss aimed at her longtime rival Nicki Minaj.
The 31-year-old rapper shared a New York City-themed photoshoot on September 1, but quickly responded to online rumours about the graffiti in the background.
“First of all we literally picked a random street because paparazzi were hounding us everywhere,” Cardi explained.
“This was supposed to be my original first picture and we had to edit the photos in minutes because the shoot got leaked.”
She added that her team didn’t “have time to go over every detail” as “people were busy trying to expose her pregnancy as ‘aha’ moment.”
“Second I’m ALWAYS with the s–ts but I’m not using MY MATERNITY shoot to be funny. Are you dumb??” she concluded.
In her recent maternity photoshoot, Cardi B struck a pose on a motorcycle, donning a royal blue leather jacket and thigh-high boots for a bold, edgy look.
However, it was the graffiti in the background that sparked intense online discussion. The brick wall behind Cardi featured the words “Homesick pedophile” scrawled in graffiti, leading fans to speculate about a possible connection to Nicki Minaj’s brother, Jelani Maraj.
Maraj was convicted in 2017 of predatory sexual assault on a child under 13 and endangering the welfare of a child, and was later sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 2020.
Fans quickly made the connection, believing the graffiti was a subtle dig at Nicki Minaj.
The Bodak Yellow rapper faced criticism for not noticing offensive graffiti in her maternity photoshoot. She defended it as an honest mistake, saying her team didn’t catch it due to time constraints.
“A team?? [Bitch] my makeup artist touched up the picture because we didn’t have time for all that, it says the date and time nobody was paying attention to the graffiti,” she wrote via X on September 2.
“Second if I wanted to be petty I would’ve posted a lot of memes last week.. I KEEP TELLIN YALL TO LEAVE ME THE F–K ALONE !! If I’m saying I’m not on that time DONT MAKE ME GET ON THAT TIME.”