For the seemingly 20th time this year, influential women in the entertainment industry are vocalizing their dislike for each other. Throughout this year, the internet has blown up with disagreements between Ethel Cain and Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift and Charli XCX and now, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj.
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (Nicki Minaj) and Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar (Cardi B) have a long, drawn-out history of conflicts between the pair. Since 2017, the pair have thrown subtle disses and jabs at each other, with it culminating in a physical altercation in 2018, which led to social media discourse and various songs referencing the incident.
Their initial beef started at the release of Cardi B’s first album, “Invasion of Privacy.” So, naturally, when Cardi B started the rollout for her sophomore album, ironically titled “Am I The Drama?” so did the long-term beef between the female rappers.
On Aug. 15, Cardi B dropped the second single off her album titled “Imaginary Playerz.” This song included what many considered a sneak diss at Minaj with the line, “Striped like Thom Browne, these b----es should calm down.” People considered this a call-out to Minaj as she wore a striped Thom Browne dress to the Met Gala just this year.
On Sept. 19, it really hit the fan with the release of Cardi B’s “Am I The Drama?” Within the album, Cardi took several alleged subtle shots at Minaj, including on the opening track “DEAD,” where she references Minaj’s “Pink Friday 2” tour that allegedly caused her to go into debt.
On Sept. 28, Minaj responded by reposting several fan accounts that directly compared Cardi B’s first-week album sales and streams to Minaj’s “Pink Friday 2” release in 2023. Some of the posts directly acknowledged the release of Cardi B’s album by stating the stat or record that Minaj continued to hold, and following it with “despite new releases.”
Cardi B responded on the same day with a repost of her own on X. The post quoted a line from her album that stated, “Must got on notifications and alerts ‘cause everything I do, a hatin' b---- see it first.”
At first, it seemed like that would be where it ended, with Cardi B spending the next day without posting on X except to acknowledge her album hitting double platinum and a presale announcement of her tour. The peace was short-lived, however, when Minaj posted a photo of an eagle just before 8 p.m. that same day.
She would later repost theexplanationof the photo in which crows peck at the necks of eagles, which does not provoke a reaction from the eagle, even though other animals would have reacted. This references the visuals on Cardi B’s album, which regularly features crows.
Cardi B responded minutes after the picture of the eagle, saying, “You must’ve missed me, huh, crazy?? Now kiss my feet.” This led to plenty of verbal disputes between Minaj and Cardi B on X, with Minaj deleting most of her posts soon after.
Notably, Minaj fired off several posts promoting a new album, set for release in March, in which she, allegedly, stated in a now deleted post, “to never provoke a writer while they’re writing," seemingly acknowledging Cardi B will be referenced in the album.
Minaj also attacked Cardi B’s writing, calling her “Barney B," and Cardi B’s eldest daughter, Kulture, “Kulture Vulture," in comparison to the character known for their simple rhyming schemes. In another deleted post, Minaj allegedly directly quoted Cardi B’s song “Magnet,” saying, “A-B-C-D-E-F-G (Grr), these b—--es can't f— with me.”
Cardi B’s response got personal fast, calling Minaj “Cocaine Barbie” and referencing the same line from “Magnet” to call out Minaj's brother, Jelani Maraj, who was sentenced to prison for the rape of his 11-year-old stepdaughter. She followed it up with a photo of her brother’s mugshot with Minaj's signature pink wig edited on top of him.
Minaj sent out a slew of tweets, never letting the “Magnet” line go, opening multiple tweets with some variation of “A-B-C-D-E-F-G.” Minaj attacked Cardi B’s looks, saying she had surgery to look like her but still turned out ugly, and attacked her pregnancy body while finishing it off by saying she still couldn’t outsell her. Nearly all of these tweets were deleted within the next few days.
Cardi B’s responses, however, remain on her account, and each attacked every corner of Minaj’s life. Cardi B acknowledged the posts about her pregnancy, saying that Minaj had to go to fertility doctors to get pregnant due to her drug habits, “NOT ALLEGEDLY,” she said.
After Minaj’s cruel comments about Cardi B’s eldest daughter, Kulture, Cardi B became ruthless in her replies. Cardi B pointed out that it was now Minaj’s son’s birthday and she was spending it posting on X. She claimed that Minaj’s son, Papa, was “f—ed up” with drugs taken during the pregnancy and that “he can’t spell his own name.” The tweet that broke the internet and started a trend on TikTok was when she wrote, “you just mad cuz your son's favorite color is five.” Cardi B officially ended the Twitter drama, saying, “I'LL SEE YOU WHEN I SEE YOU.”
With subtle threats from Cardi B that they will have to hash this out in person, and direct threats from Minaj that Cardi B will be called out in her upcoming album, many are anticipating the results of this feud.
For now, Cardi B seems the winner of the Twitter battle, with online opinion heavily on her side and her infamous line trending on TikTok; however, it’s safe to say this battle is far from over.
