Cardi B’s Response to Rumors of Shading Nicki Minaj in Maternity Photoshoot

Cardi B is denying that she was throwing shade at Nicki Minaj in a maternity photo shoot.

The “WAP” rapper, who is expecting her third child with Offset, shared photos on social media on Sunday, Sept 1, showcasing her bare baby bump while sitting on a motorcycle in front of a shuttered storefront adorned with graffiti.

“I wanna meet my little boo boo soo bad already,” Cardi captioned the photos on Instagram.

Shortly after the post, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the word “pedophile” was written over the word “homesick” on the security gate behind Cardi. Some online spectators speculated whether the graffiti was intended to diss Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, a registered sex offender convicted of attempted rape in the first degree in 1995.

“Cardi B seems to be taunting Nicki Minaj’s family by taking photos in front of graffiti that reads ‘pedophile,’” wrote one person on X (formerly Twitter).

“Lol, wait why there’s Pedophile written on the wall??……is this a Nicki shade?” another fan added.

Cardi soon caught wind of the rumors and quickly shut them down on her official X account.

“First of all, we literally picked a random street because paparazzi was 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,” she wrote on X on Monday, Sept. 2.

The “I Like It” rapper added, “Didn’t even have time to go over every detail because people were busy trying to expose my pregnancy as an ‘aha’ moment. Second, I’m ALWAYS with the sh–s but I’m not using MY MATERNITY shoot to be funny. Are you dumb??”

In a separate X post, Cardi wrote, “Btch, 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–K ALONE!! If I’m saying I’m not on that time DON’T MAKE ME GET ON THAT TIME. Unrist yourself!!”

Cardi B and Nicki Minaj have had beef dating back to 2017. The following year, the two rap stars were involved in an altercation at Harper’s Bazaar’s ICONS New York fashion week party. Social media footage at the time showed Cardi yelling obscenities and throwing her shoe at Minaj while also leaving the event with no shoes and a knot on her forehead.

In early August, Cardi revealed that she’s expecting her third child with Offset. The happy news arrived the same day she filed for divorce from the Migos rapper for a second time. The former couple has two other children together: daughter Kulture, 6, and son, Wave, who is nearly 3 years old.

See Cardi’s maternity photos on Instagram here and her response on X below.