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Cardi B is seen arriving at court on August 26, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (MEGA/GC Images/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — “Ten different looks and my looks all kill,” Cardi B raps on her song, “Money.”
By swapping wigs and serving candor, the Grammy-winning artist seems to have done just that during her testimony last week in a civil trial in Los Angeles County.
The case stems from a 2018 incident involving plaintiff Emani Ellis, a former building security guard who has sued Cardi B for alleged assault during an interaction between the women in the hallway of a medical office where Ellis was employed.
The artist, who was pregnant at the time and on her way to see her obstetrician, has denied the allegation. Ellis is seeking punitive and other damages that include medical expenses for a scratch on her face.
Cardi B’s courtroom testimony, which has been live-streamed by Court TV and recirculated across social media, has brought new attention to the 7-year-old case.
Fans of Cardi B are far from surprised, as she’s known to be slick with her words both on and off the microphone.
Here are three exchanges during the trial that have caught attention online.
“You want me to say it to her face?”
While being questioned about their interaction, Cardi B was asked to testify about the language she directed toward Ellis, in particular “the F-word.”
She didn’t hesitate to recall what she said.
“I said b***h get the f**k out my face. Why are you in my face?” Cardi B testified. “Why are you recording me? Ain’t you supposed to be security?”
She appeared confused when she was asked to repeat the words to Ellis.
“You want me to say it to her face?” Cardi B responded.
Her attorney raised an objection to that request, which was sustained by the judge.
The hip-hop star testified that though she and Ellis exchanged words in 2018, their interaction did not get physical.
“She couldn’t get a scratch from me because I didn’t touch her,” Cardi said on the stand in her second day of testimony.
“She didn’t touch me,” Cardi said. “She was going to touch me, but she didn’t get to touch me.”
“They’re wigs”
Cardi B was then-four months pregnant with her first child, daughter Kulture, whom she shares with fellow rapper, Offset.
When asked if she was disabled by the pregnancy, Cardi B had a quick response.
“At that moment, uh, when you’re pregnant, I’m very disabled,” she responded. “You want me to tell you things I can’t do?”
That answer elicited laughter from some of the people in the courtroom.
After asking Cardi B if she had “black hair, blonde hair or different color hair” on the date of the alleged incident, Ellis’s attorney asked about her “real hair.”
“Yesterday you had black hair, short hair. Today it’s blonde and long. Which one is your real hair? Or are they both real?” the lawyer asked during his cross-examination.
Cardi B laughed before she responded, “They’re wigs.”
“Okay. Sorry, I didn’t know that. It’s a good wig today, then,” the lawyer replied.
“Hello?!?”
Cardi B has at times appeared exasperated with the line of questioning.
When asked if she was “at a high level of anger” when she and Ellis were allegedly arguing and “chest to chest,” Cardi B testified that she was more at “a high level of concern.”
She explained why she was “very concerned” when asked by Ellis’s attorney.
“Because I’m pregnant and this girl is about to f**king beat my a**,” Cardi B testified. “Hello?”
The trial is expected to resume next week.
The-CNN-Wire
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Zazeannah Walker 
