Hello, and welcome back to the latest installment in the saga that is Nicki Minaj and Cardi B’s feud. It’s been nearly two months since the last major flare-up in the feud, but things have clearly not settled down at all. The epic fight at New York Fashion Week basically broke the internet, and now both women are back at it, throwing a wide variety of jabs at each other on Monday. It’s really tough to keep track of everything that’s happening, but I’m going to try to break down the most important points. Brace yourselves for a clusterf*ck of drama featuring leaked phone numbers, Diesel jeans, and…Little Mix? 2018 is bizarre, guys.
The Fashion Week Fight
As if they were on an episode of The People’s Court, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B really have a different version of these events. A quick refresher: during NYFW, they both attended the Harper’s Bazaar Icons party, where everything went to absolute sh*t. There was at least one Louboutin thrown, and Cardi B ended up with a lump on her forehead. Nicki’s entourage allegedly fought Cardi, but it’s always been pretty unclear exactly what went down. On Monday, Nicki got into the details on her radio show. She claimed her friend Rah Ali punched Cardi “9 or 10” times, which is pretty intense. She also said she paid $100,000 for the surveillance footage of the incident, and also has her own videos.
Cardi B recalls things a bit differently. She posted a series of 10 videos on Instagram, where addresses a ton of different things. She says Rah Ali never hit her, which completely contradicts what Nicki said. She also said she would never lie about this when there are “so much footages” of the incident. She also responded to Nicki’s mention of suing over the NYFW fight, saying that she doesn’t need to sue for the fight because she’s a “street b*tch” and “that’s called snitching.” I mean, she’s not wrong? Then again, I’m not exactly qualified to comment on matters of the street.
The Migos Drama
As you probably already know, Cardi B is married to Offset, who is the second most famous member of Migos. Earlier this year, Nicki and Cardi both featured on a Migos song called “Motorsport,” and there is clearly still unresolved drama surrounding the collab. In her Instagram videos, Cardi says that she got mad because Nicki changed her verse at the last minute, and the verse was negative toward Cardi. Valid. She says that she called Nicki twice to discuss the issues, but Nicki never picked up. This is one issue that Cardi seems justified being angry about, but then she shows Nicki’s phone number on her screen as proof. CARDI, WHY?? (Cardi’s sister also alleged that Nicki leaked Cardi’s number in the past, but Nicki denied it. Cardi thinks that Rah Ali might be the one leaking numbers on behalf of Nicki.)
In addition, Nicki claimed that Cardi stopped Offset and 21 Savage from doing a music video for their collab on “No Flag.” Cardi steadfastly denied that she ever tried to “stop Nicki’s bag.” She instead claims that Offset and 21 Savage didn’t do the music video because “the song wasn’t doing that good” and it would’ve been a waste of their time. Ouch.
The Collab Offers
Cardi claimed that instead of stopping Nicki’s bag, she actually helped her bag. (I just like referencing the bag, sue me.) She said that Nicki only got her deal with Diesel jeans because she declined it first, because she’s busy working with other brands. But then, in an unexpected twist, Bill Wackermann, the CEO of Wilhelmina Models (major), chimed in, saying that the Diesel campaign was always built around Nicki. Really, the most surprising thing about all of this is that I’m thinking about Diesel in 2018.
Speaking of Cardi passing up offers, she also said that Nicki only got the feature on the new Little Mix song because she turned it down. (In case you don’t know, Little Mix is a super popular girl group in the UK. Think Fifth Harmony but British.) Little Mix jumped in to the drama, posting a statement on Twitter Tuesday morning, saying that their label gave them the choice of Nicki or Cardi, and they chose Nicki. Every feud needs a good notes app statement, so thanks Little Mix.
— Little Mix (@LittleMix) October 30, 2018
A Peace Offering?
After a lot more back and forth, and Nicki accusing Cardi of not writing her own lyrics, it seems like both ladies just got tired. Honestly, same. Nicki went on Twitter to say that she’s ready to focus on positive things, and that she “won’t be discussing this nonsense anymore.” After a decade of following Nicki Minaj, I’m not sure I fully believe this, but I hope it’s true. Cardi posted Nicki’s tweet to her Instagram in agreement, so it seems like they’re in a stalemate for now.
There are obviously a lot of nuanced issues at play here, but I really hope Nicki Minaj and Cardi B can just keep it cool for a while. They’re both massively successful on their own, and they don’t need this drama to fuel their careers. It’s impossible to know who’s telling the truth with all this stuff, so they both come off looking bad. Not to sound like that lame girl from Mean Girls, but can’t we all just get along?
Images: @iamcardib / Instagram (2); @LittleMix / Twitter
Between all the breakups (RIP Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom) and Oscar winners accused of sexual assault (hi, Casey Affleck), celeb gossip has been pretty fucking depressing lately. Then the beef between Nicki “Self-Proclaimed Queen of Rap” Minaj and Remy “Who TF Is That?” Ma reared its scandalous head again, and we finally have something worth talking about. Buckle up, because the Minaj-Ma feud goes back an actual, literal decade.
Let’s start with who tf Remy Ma is, because she hasn’t been relevant in mainstream culture since the days of Blackberries and worrying about Britney Spears. Reminisce Mackie, aka Remy Ma, is a rapper and member of the Bronx-based rap crew Terror Squad. I know that all is meaningless to you, so I’ll put it this way. Remember when Fat Joe came out with that song “Lean Back” and it was played at everyone’s bar mitzvah? She was the girl who did the second verse. There ya go.
Anywho, Remy and Nicki’s stars were on the rise around the same time in the early 2000s. Remy had been nominated for a Grammy and won BET’s award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist in 2005—but her career hit a roadblock when she got sent to fucking prison in 2007 for shooting some chick in the stomach. Basically, don’t piss off Remy Ma.
Nicki is either brave or kinda dumb, though, because she proceeded to do exactly that. In 2007, before Remy got shipped off, Nicki released the freestyle “Dirty Money.” She never confirmed whether or not it was a diss track directed at Remy, but it includes the line “tell that bitch with the crown to run it like Chris Brown” over a Terror Squad beat. We don’t know anything about rap, but even we can figure out who Nicki was talking about.
Remy apparently confronted Nicki at a release party, which isn’t exactly starting down a path to friendship. There were also a bunch of rumors that the two were dating, which probably made things even more awk. But before things escalated further, Remy spent the next six years living out Orange Is the New Black and watching her competition get super famous and probably carving a tally of the days until she could finally fire back into her jail cell wall.
The shade fest started soon after, with Remy Ma releasing a song with Fat Joe and my future husband, Ty Dolla $ign, called “Money Showers” in which she rapped, “Bitch claiming she the queen, what? Not hardly / Who the fuck gave you your crown, bitch? Steve Harvey?”
So here’s where shit pops off: On February 23, 2017, Nicki Minaj showed up on Gucci Mane’s latest track, “Make Love,” with a verse directed at some unnamed lady rapper who definitely, absolutely isn’t Remy Ma. JK! Nicki obviously meant Remy. Two days later, Remy Ma released “shETHER,” an entire fucking song dedicated to taking down Nicki.
“You wanna see a dead body” (little kid from BoyzNdaHood voice) @nickiminaj #Barz #AndBARZonly https://t.co/KKPFlmTERL pic.twitter.com/3tA9sukLah
— Remy Ma (@RealRemyMa) February 25, 2017
Allow me to break it down for you. Before you even listen to the song, the cover is a dismembered, bloody Barbie. A Barbie, if you’ll remember, has been Nicki’s entire persona since, like, ever. But in case that was too subtle, the track opens with an audio clip of Nicki yelling “Free Remy.” Remy then goes on to make fun of Nicki’s ridiculous fashion choices and repeat the phrase “fuck Nicki Minaj” a bunch to really drive the point home. She even goes in on Nicki’s ass, which is sacred territory for most of America. Basically, Remy is afraid of no betch.
Nicki’s response was to Instagram an article about the low sales of Remy’s last album. Clearly, she recognized this as the weak move it was, because she quickly took the post down. Nicki then Instagrammed a video of Beyoncé singing about how great of a rapper Nicki is—which like, as amazing as Beyoncé is, is still a LAME AS FUCK COMEBACK.
So far it’s been 7 full days since “shETHER” dropped, and STILL no diss track or any real acknowledgment from Nicki.
Anyone who was alive during the infamous Drake/Meek Mill beef of 2015 (so like, all of us) knows that when it comes to rap beefs, time is of the essence. The longer you wait to release your clap back, the lower your chances of winning this beef are. You would think that the person who dated Meek Mill during this very beef would know this better than anyone, so it’s not clear what exactly Nicki’s plan is. At this point it seems like she’s going to play the quiet game and just take this giant L, and honestly, we’re disappointed.
Nicki’s big comeback so far has been favoriting approximately a bajillion negative tweets about Remy from other Twitter users. Celebrities: they’re just as petty as us!
