Police eye battery charge against rapper Cardi B over microphone throwing incident
US singer Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar Cephus aka Cardi B leaves after a show by Gaurav Gupta during the Women’s Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Fashion Week in Paris, on July 6, 2023. A video showed rapper Cardi B hurling a microphone at a member of her audience, US police said Monday, July 31, 2023, adding they had begun a battery investigation. BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
LOS ANGELES—Days after a video showed rapper Cardi B hurling a microphone at a member of her audience, US police said Monday they had begun a battery investigation.
In footage that has ricocheted around social media, the “WAP” star can be seen retaliating after a concertgoer threw a drink at her during a Las Vegas show.
Clips posted to social media show the “Money” singer recoiling after someone close to the stage splashed the contents of a cup at her.
She pauses briefly, before flinging the microphone back in the same direction, as the person who apparently threw the liquid apologizes and security staff intervene.
However, some videos online appear to show the mic making contact with a different member of the audience.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Monday that a woman had contacted them to report a battery.
“According to the victim, she was attending an event on July 29, 2023, at a property located in the 3500 block of Las Vegas Boulevard,” the police said in a statement to US media.
“During a concert, she was struck by an item that was thrown from the stage.”
The police statement did not mention Cardi B by name, but the date and location accord with her show.
In June a man threw a phone at Bebe Rexha during a concert in New York, landing the singer in hospital.
The same month an audience member threw a bag purportedly containing the ashes of their mother at the stage while singer Pink was performing in London.
And last year Harry Styles good-naturedly paused a New York concert after someone threw a chicken nugget in his direction.
In December, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose pledged to stop throwing his microphone into the audience at the end of a show after a fan was reportedly hurt in Australia. /ra
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