Cardi B responds to $10M lawsuit filed by ex-manager

Rapper Cardi B attends a pre-Grammy party at the Grill, in New York City, Jan. 25, 2018. (Invision via Associated Press)

Cardi B has responded to her former manager’s $10 million lawsuit.

On Thursday, Klenord Raphael, aka Shaft, filed a lawsuit claiming that he discovered the “Bodak Yellow” star, only to be “frozen out” of her career just as it was exploding.

An attorney representing the red-hot rapper responded Friday, telling Page Six in a statement that “Shaft’s claim raises a huge question.”

Paul LiCalsi, a partner at Robins Kaplan LLP said, “After a full investigation of the facts, we will be responding to these allegations in detail in court. But even on its face, Shaft’s claim raises a huge question. For a hefty commission, a manager promises to carefully counsel and guide an artist in her or his career. In exchange, the law imposes a high fiduciary duty on the manager to always act in the artist’s best interest, not engage in conflicts of interest, not overreach, and not self-deal.”

LiCalsi suggests that Shaft signed on as Cardi B’s manager for a 20 percent commission, then signed her up through a different company in a “deal that takes 50 percent of her music royalties from Atlantic Records, 50 percent of her music copyrights, and 25 percent of her other earnings.”

He asked, “How does that comport with his fiduciary duty as her manager?”

Shaft is suing Cardi B for breach of contract for ditching him and signing with a different manager, as well as defamation for claiming that he “robbed her.”

This story originally appeared in the New York Post.