Cardi B says the Jamaican government offered to cover the rest of her fee to save her Kingston show, and she still said no.
That detail dropped in the middle of a fiery livestream where the rapper went after promoter Ryan Burke, who recently told Jamaican television he plans to sue her.
Burke, the founder and CEO of BZR WKND, told CVM Television that his company has hired lawyers to recover millions of dollars.
He claims Cardi received her full performance fee for the canceled October concert and that her team ignored refund requests.
Cardi’s version looks nothing like that. She says she got her deposit first, and a second payment meant to cover production was due September 17 but never came. “You was trying to make me pay for the production with my deposit money,” she said.
According to Cardi, the production money only showed up eight or nine days before the show, when cargo, flights and hotels cost double.
Her dancers and crew are usually booked months ahead, she explained, and with BZR WKND nothing was in place close to two weeks out.
She claims the other half, 750,000 dollars, only arrived after she said she was canceling, and she sent it straight back.
“Your deadline was on September, it’s already October,” she said, adding that her production cargo was still sitting in Miami and that Burke never sent her the 2.5 she was owed.
She also says the gig was pitched as a festival with a full lineup, then started to feel like she was paying for production on the whole thing as if it were her own concert.
She only let it slide because the person who brought her the booking is very close to her, and she has told that person never to connect her with a promoter like this again.
The part that stung most was organizers linking the cancellation to her grandfather. When BZR WKND moved the concert to December 20, they offered condolences to her family, and Cardi called it insane to frame his passing as her reason for pulling out when, in her words, the real reason was unprofessionalism.
She had hoped to make the trip a quiet getaway with her best friend Sweetness, whose birthday is October 1, ten days before Cardi’s own. She wasn’t planning to party, just to finally take a real vacation.
Her reps confirmed on October 8 that she would no longer headline Cardi B and Friends at the National Stadium in Kingston.
A day later she apologized to Jamaican fans, said “it wasn’t me,” and denied weak ticket sales, claiming more than 18,000 had sold, while Burke and reggae artist Gramps Morgan rescheduled for December 20 and offered refunds.
It’s still unclear if Burke has actually filed anything, but Cardi isn’t waiting to find out. “I’m going to countersue you,” she said, “and babes, I promise you, you’re going to lose, because I have every, every single evidence.”
She kept the people of Jamaica out of the fight, saying she loves the country and would happily return if someone else books her. In that case, she promised a somersault, a headstand, whatever it takes: “I will give it to you.”
