Cardi B Denies Dissing Longtime Rival Nicki Minaj in New Maternity Shoot: ‘Are You Dumb?’

Cardi B is setting the record straight about new maternity photos after fans speculated it was shade directed at her longtime rival Nicki Minaj.

Cardi, 31, shared photos of a New York City-themed shoot on Sunday, September 1, and quickly clapped back after social media users began questioning if the graffiti in the background was a dig at the “Super Bass” artist, 41.

“First of all we literally picked a random street because paparazzi was hounding us everywhere,” the “WAP” rapper wrote via X on Monday, September 2. “This was supposed to be my original first picture and we had to edit the photos in minutes because the shoot got leaked.”

The mom of two — who is expecting her third child with Offset amid their divorce — said her team didn’t “have time to go over every detail” as “people were busy trying to expose her pregnancy as ‘aha’ moment.”

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“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 the photos, Cardi sat on a motorcycle as she posed in a royal blue leather jacket and leather thigh-high boots for an extra edgy look. However, the art in the background is what had fans talking. Behind Cardi, the brick wall read, “Homesick pedophile” in graffiti.

Fans quickly began buzzing online, believing this was a direct reference to Jelani Minaj, Nicki’s younger brother, who was convicted of sexual crimes against minors including predatory sexual assault on a child younger than 13 years old and endangering the welfare of a child in 2017. In 2020, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Nicki’s husband, Kenneth Petty, also has a complicated past as well. In 2022, he was sentenced to probation and house arrest after failing to register as a sex offender following his 1995 conviction for the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl.

Fans criticized the “Bodak Yellow” artist, believing her team should have caught the problematic words — which she defended as an unintentional error.

“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.”

The criminal background of Nicki’s husband and younger brother were notably used in diss tracks against the New York City rapper earlier this year when Megan Thee Stallion referenced Megan’s Law in her song “Hiss.” After the song dropped, Nicki famously retaliated against the “Cry Baby” artist with her track “Big Foot.”

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Megan’s Law was named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl who was murdered by an unregistered sex offender in 1994, and is legislation that requires law enforcement authorities to make information regarding registered sex offenders available to the public.

“These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law / I don’t really know what the problem is, but I guarantee y’all don’t want me to start,” the Houston-based artist, 29, on the song which debuted in January.

Megan recently spoke about her feud with Nicki during an interview with Billboard on Wednesday, September 4, admitting to this day she still didn’t know “what the problem” between them was.

“If people feel like I’m somebody to aim at, then I must be pretty high up if you’re reaching up at me,” she explained. “I must be some kind of competition. That makes me feel good. That makes me feel like I could rap because if I wasn’t the s–t, y’all wouldn’t be worried about me.”