Artist News Business News Legal Management & Funding Top Stories

Cardi B’s ex-manager responds to lawsuit over “grossly unfair” contracts

By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 10 July 2018

Cardi B’s former manager has hit out a lawsuit filed by the rapper last week which seeks to have both management and recording contracts declared void.

Last week’s litigation was actually a countersuit, after ex-manager Klenord Raphael, aka Shaft, sued the rapper, real name Belcalis Almanzar, back in April. He is trying to enforce the same contracts and in particular the royalty payments those deals say the manager is due.

In her countersuit, Almanzar accused Raphael of “deceitful and disloyal conduct”. She alleged that he was in breach of his management contact with the rapper, while the separate recording agreement shouldn’t stand because Raphael had the same lawyer represent his client and his company for much of the deal negotiations.

In the lawsuit, Almanzar also accused Raphael of cutting the rapper off from other friends and advisers in order to pressure her into “grossly unfair” contracts.

A rep for the manager disputes all of those claims. Said rep told the New York Post that the countersuit was simply part of a “campaign by Cardi B and her team to defame and injure Shaft, the one person who saw promise in her, invested time and resources in her and succeeded in making her rich and famous”.

He stands by his original claim that he basically created the Cardi B phenomenon and simply wants to enforce his contractual rights to share in the resulting cash. The rep went on: “The facts are simple – Cardi B’s music, image and rise to superstardom were all developed and executed by Shaft and his team of writers and producers. The outright lies and distortions in her claims make you shake your head”.