Cardi B pleaded not guilty to charges related to a nightclub brawl last summer at a New York court hearing on Tuesday.
“Not guilty, your honor,” said the 26-year-old, dressed in a navy blue and pink jacket, in front of the crowd attending the audience in Queens.
His appearance in court comes days after his indictment by a grand jury in this case, the documents detailing 14 charges against Belcalis Almanzar, his real name.
The alleged facts date back to August 29. That night, the small group she was with at the Angels Strip Club, a Queens nightclub, allegedly threw furniture at two of the club’s waitresses, commissioned by Cardi B herself.
She suspected that one of the two women had sex with her husband, rapper Offset, who was performing that night in the nightclub with his group, Migos.
Mid-April, the artist from the Bronx, then prosecuted for offenses, had already refused to plead guilty, an agreement that proposed to him the prosecutor and that would have almost guaranteed him a reduced sentence.
Two of the new counts charge him with assault aimed at damaging the physical integrity of the alleged victim.
“We do not think” that the new charges “change anything,” Cardi B lawyer Jeff Kern told reporters in court. “We knew it was a possibility.”
Last January, Cardi B won the rap album of the year award at the Grammy Awards, the rewards of the American music industry.