Cardi B Vows to Countersue Jamaica Promoter Ryan Burke: “You Never Sent Me 2.5”
Cardi B went on Instagram Live on Monday night and aimed every word at one man: Ryan Burke, the founder and CEO of BZR WKND, who went on Jamaican television saying his company has hired lawyers and plans to sue her over the canceled October 18 Cardi B & Friends show at the National Stadium in Kingston. Burke claims Cardi received her full performance fee — $2.5 million, sent directly to her — and that her team never answered when organizers asked for the money back. Cardi says that is not what happened, and she is daring him to file so she can countersue.
Her version of the money. In the live — clips of which were reposted by The Jasmine Brand — Cardi said the deposit that actually landed in her account was $900,000, not $2.5 million. “You sent me a deposit for a million dollars for the show,” she said. “You sent me my deposit money. Everything was cool. You didn’t send it to me all at once but you sent me my deposit and actually you sent me nine hundred thousand.” She says a second payment, the money meant to cover production, was due September 17 and never arrived. She says she waited past the deadline while the two sides’ lawyers traded letters, and her representatives confirmed on October 8 — ten days before the show — that she was withdrawing. Only after she said she was canceling, she claims, did the other money move: $750,000 that showed up eight or nine days before the concert, when she says cargo, flights and hotels all cost double and her production cargo was still sitting in Miami. She says she sent it right back. “You never sent me 2.5.”
The production fight. Cardi also says the event was sold to her as a festival with a full lineup, and that it slowly started to feel like she was expected to carry production for the entire show out of her own deposit. “You was trying to make me pay for the production with my deposit money,” she said. Her dancers and production team are booked months in advance, she explained — with BZR WKND, she says, it was close to two weeks before the concert and nothing was in place.
The part that angered her most. When BZR WKND postponed the main concert to December 20, organizers publicly offered condolences to Cardi and her family on the loss of a loved one, and Cardi says the promoter has pointed to her grandfather’s death as the reason she pulled out. She says her grandfather was passing at the time, but called it disrespectful to blame the cancellation on that — in her words, the promoter’s unprofessionalism was the real reason. She also claimed the Jamaican government was willing to pay the rest of what she says she was owed to save the show, and that she turned that down too. “It’s just too much,” she said.
She wants the court date. Cardi vowed to countersue — Kaboom Magazine’s account of the live says she threatened a defamation countersuit — and named the lawyer she says will handle it. “I got the best lawyer in the game, Dina LaPolt. When it comes to shows, I’m very professional,” she said. “I’m going to countersue you. And babes, I promise you, you’re going to lose. Because I have every, every single evidence.” Whether either side has actually filed a lawsuit is not yet clear. Burke co-organized the event with reggae artist Gramps Morgan; organizers moved the concert to December 20 and began processing refunds.
For the fans, a different message. Cardi apologized to her Jamaican fans in a video a day after the withdrawal was confirmed, denied that low ticket sales had anything to do with the cancellation, and claimed more than 18,000 tickets had been sold. And she made a point of separating the people of Jamaica from the promoter, saying she is ready to come if somebody else books her there: “I will do a somersault. I will do a headstand. I will give it to you.”
So who do you believe — Cardi’s receipts, or the promoter’s $2.5 million claim?
Sources: Baller Alert (Nov. 9) and Cardi B’s Instagram Live as reported by World Music Views and Kaboom Magazine (Nov. 10); Ryan Burke’s claims from his CVM Television interview as reported by Baller Alert and Kaboom Magazine. Every payment figure above is one side’s claim — no lawsuit filing has been confirmed by either camp.
