Gossip vlogger Tasha K says she hasn’t moved to Africa, despite rumors that she decamped to the continent to avoid paying a $4 million defamation judgment to Cardi B.
“I promise you there is nothing to report on … I’m enjoying my trip abroad,” she told The Daily Beast via Twitter on Thursday, adding an emoji of clinking champagne glasses.
The YouTuber, whose real name is Latasha Kebe, has toyed around with the reports nonetheless.
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“Life in Africa is turning out to be exactly what I needed. A fresh start !” she wrote in an Instagram caption earlier this week alongside a photo of her wearing a hijab. The post has the location tagged as Morocco, and includes a promise from Tasha to release a vlog documenting her life in Africa. Then, on Wednesday, she engaged in a public spat with Cardi on Twitter, with the rapper telling her to “SEND MY CHECK.” Tasha turned up the heat in another Instagram post: “Since your fav keeps BEGGING for these little coins, ask her how she wants the 4 million? In Guinea Francs or Ugandan Shillings ?”
Hip-hop gossip sites and social media accounts subsequently began speculating that Tasha had left the country to evade the law, but it’s all looking like more bluster from the controversial Atlanta-based commentator.
Tasha K and Cardi B’s legal battle stems back to 2019, when Cardi sued Tasha for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress as part of a “malicious campaign” to slander her. Tasha’s efforts, Cardi alleged, included spreading rumors via YouTube and social media about cocaine use, sex work, and contracting HPV and herpes.
Tasha has over 1 million subscribers on YouTube and 39,000 followers on Twitter.
Back in January, Cardi told a federal jury in Georgia that the accusations in Tasha’s videos left her feeling “extremely suicidal” and “helpless,” according to Billboard. Law360 reported at the time that Tasha admitted to knowingly lying about Cardi to make money.
In January, U.S. District Judge William M. Ray ruled in Cardi B’s favor, ordering Tasha to pay the rapper $2.5 million in damages and $1.3 million in legal fees. In May, Ray further banned Tasha from alleging that Cardi “sold pussy” or that she’s a “cokehead” in any of her videos. He also banned Tasha from claiming that Cardi had “beer bottles up her vagina,” according to a permanent injunction that directed the vlogger to delete about 20 videos from her YouTube account.
But the legal fallout hasn’t stopped Tasha from continuing to go after the Grammy-winning rapper. She’s since filed an appeal to the verdict, after her first one was withdrawn due to procedural errors. In the appeal, her attorneys argued that the trial was “lopsided” and didn’t allow them to present evidence of Cardi’s “character.”
Cardi B’s attorney declined to comment pending the results of the appeal.
In a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, Tasha said she won’t pay the $4 million judgment until she exhausts all her options.
“And if they say Madam Kebe, you got to pay this, then guess what? I got to motherfucking pay it,” she said.
In the clip, Tasha repeatedly referred to Cardi as a “two-year superstar” and went on to make disparaging claims about the “WAP” singer’s plastic surgeries and relationship with her husband, Offset.
Though she won this particular legal battle, Cardi has admitted fault in a different criminal case in New York City. On Thursday, the Bronx native pleaded guilty to helping orchestrate an attack against two bartenders at a strip club in Queens, after she allegedly thought one of them had slept with her husband.
