Cardi B Clarifies Why She Posed In Front Of ‘Pedophile’ Graffiti, Shares She Wasn’t Trying To Shade Nicki Minaj

American rapper and singer Cardi B is expecting her third child. She announced her pregnancy just hours after filing a divorce from her ex-partner and rapper Offset. Cardi B has been married to the Don’t You Lie singer for nearly seven years. She is already a mother to two kids: a daughter, Kulture Kiari, 6, and a son, Wave Set, 2. Recently, the 31-year-old shared some pictures from her unique maternity shoot on Instagram. Soon after posting the pictures, Cardi B received flak from the online community who claimed that she was taking a dig at fellow rapper and her rival Nicki Minaj. The mom-to-be has fiercely refuted such allegations.

A few days ago, Cardi B shared a carousel of pictures on social media. The first two snaps captured the WAP singer flaunting her baby bump. She was sitting on a black motorbike, posing against a backdrop of a graffiti-laden shuttered storefront. In the clicks, the rapper sported an uber-cool look comprising a latex bralette and long boots paired with a blue jacket with a long trail. The third frame featured a photograph of her USG scan. “I wanna meet my little boo boo soo bad already,” read her caption.

Soon after the post surfaced on the internet, eagle-eyed social media users took note of the graffiti in the background. Some of them wanted to know whether Cardi B was taking a jibe at her contemporary, Nicki Minaj. Referring to the word “pedophile” written on the storefront, a few asked if Cardi B was trying to throw shade at Nicki’s brother Jelani Minaj who was convicted of sexual crimes. Meanwhile, a Billboard report states that Nicki’s husband, Kenneth Petty was a registered sex offender and was convicted for an attempt to rape in 1995.

Rubbishing the claims, Cardi B clarified that she was not trying to shame anyone. The location was random and was chosen hurriedly to avoid the paparazzi. In an X (formerly Twitter) post, the rapper said, “First of all, we literally picked a random street because paparazzi were hounding us everywhere. This was supposed to be my original first picture, and we had to edit the photos in minutes because the shoot got leaked. Didn’t even have time to go over every detail because people were busy trying to expose my pregnancy as ‘aha’ moment. Second I’m ALWAYS with the shits, but I’m not using MY MATERNITY shoot to be funny. Are you dumb??”

In another X post, Cardi B slammed a naysayer, saying, “A team?? B**ch 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… 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*** ALONE !! If I’m saying I’m not on that time, DON’T MAKE ME GET ON THAT TIME. Unrest yourself!!”

The feud between Cardi B and Nicki Minaj started in 2017. Reportedly, they also got into a bad fight at Harper’s Bazaar’s ICONS party during the New York Fashion Week.