Cardi B brought both style, strong language, some laughter and a variety of facial expressions to a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday (August 27) as her civil trial over an alleged 2018 assault continued with emotional testimony and a judge’s plea to “bring the temperature down.”
The Grammy-winning rapper arrived for Day 3 of the proceedings in Alhambra, California, wearing long jet-black hair—her third hairstyle in as many days.
But it wasn’t just her look that turned heads.
While testifying, Cardi described the tense moment she realized security guard Emani Ellis was allegedly filming her without consent.
“The camera was facing me. When I was walking and she was behind me, and then she said, ‘Oh my God, y’all, Cardi B. Cardi B, y’all.’ I looked back, and the camera was, like, right there. Like, practically on her chest type stuff. I’m like, yo, why you recording me?”
The rapper, who was secretly pregnant at the time, said she felt vulnerable and cornered.
“I said, b####, get the f### out of my face. Why are you in my face? Why are you recording me? Ain’t you supposed to be security?”
Cardi said Ellis escalated the situation by yelling, “You’re gonna get the f### out of my building. I can do whatever the f### I want,” and dismissing her celebrity status with, “I don’t give a f### who you are.”
As the questioning grew tense between Cardi and Ellis’s attorney, the judge was compelled to intervene.
“Why don’t we just take the temperature down a little bit. If you have actual questions to ask her, please do so. It’s not the time to argue with her,” the judge said.
Cardi also described how her pregnancy made her feel physically restricted during the incident.
“When you’re pregnant, you’re very disabled. You want me to tell you things I can’t do?” she said, prompting laughter throughout the courtroom.
Ellis’ lawsuit, filed in 2020, accuses Cardi B of scratching her face with long nails, spitting on her and causing emotional distress.
Cardi denied the claims, stating that the confrontation never escalated into physical violence. “We’re literally screaming at each other,” she testified. “I didn’t touch her. It was like a verbal fight, but it didn’t get physical at all.”
The rapper emphasized that her nails at the time were not sharp and there was no way she could have left scars on Ellis’ face.
“The shape that I had that week, it wasn’t like a shape that is, like, harming. It was like a square coffin shape. So, it didn’t have, like, no points or, like, sharp edges and stuff like that,” Cardi B testified.