Nicki Minaj and Cardi B
are two of the biggest rappers in the world,
and both of them are coming for the Queen of Rap crown.
They were cool back in the day,
but then they got into a wild beef
that led to them throwing hands during New York Fashion week.
This is the crazy story of how it all went down.
It’s not clear what exactly kicked everything off.
But some fans think Nicki and Cardi’s beef started back in June 2017
when Remy Ma brought Cardi onstage at Hot 97’s Summer Jam festival
while Queen Latifah performed the track U.N.I.T.Y.
Remy and Nicki were already beefing and after U.N.I.T.Y.,
Remy played her Nicki diss track SHETHER.
A month later,
Nicki was dancing to Bodak Yellow in the club
and fans thought everything was cool.
But in August she hopped on London on da Track’s song No Flags
with 21 Savage and Offset,
where she allegedly took shots at Cardi with
“Lil b**** I heard these labels tryna make another me
Everything you getting, lil h**, is ‘cause of me
I heard I’m stopping bags, word to Shaggy it wasn’t me
These b****** is my sons, but they daddy ain’t bust in me.”
Fans thought the bars were aimed at Cardi,
but Nicki hopped on Twitter and said
“It sure ain’t.
Wrote this one a cpoxl months ago too
#NoFlag.”
Around the same time,
Cardi was performing a set and told her fans
“You know this b**** she never f***** liked me,
and all of a sudden she want to be friends with me.
I still don’t like you b****.”
A lot of people thought she was talking about Nicki.
But at the 2017 MTV VMAs,
Cardi said
“I don’t want problems with anybody.
I just want to make music and make money.
I don’t have time to look at other women and what they’re doing.”
After Cardi became the second female rapper to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100,
Nicki gave her props and tweeted
“Congratulations to a fellow NEW YAWKA on a RECORD BREAKING achievement.
Bardi, this is the only thing that matters!!!
Enjoy it.”
Cardi thanked her and responded with
“This means sooo much coming from you!!”
It looked like everything was good with them.
But after they both hopped on the Migos track MotorSport,
rumors started flying again that they had issues.
Fans thought they were sneak dissing each other on the song,
but Cardi told Complex “I feel like people wouldn’t even be satisfied
if me and her was making out on a freaking photo.
I feel like people just want that drama because it’s entertaining.”
Nicki tried to squash the rumors too.
She tweeted
“These are men in our culture who simply refuse to let it go.
They don’t do this to male. M.C.’s.”
But when the video for Motorsport dropped,
it just added more fuel to the fire.
Fans noticed that Cardi and Nicki didn’t shoot any parts of the video together,
then Cardi broke the news that Nicki’s verse was changed.
On the original version, Nicki said
“I’m with a couple bad b****** that’ll rip the party
If Cardi the QB, I’m Nick Lombardi.”
But on the official track
Nicki swapped Cardi’s name out for Quavo.
The day after Cardi talked about the line,
Nicki allegedly sneak dissed cardi tweeting
“The corniest thing you can be is ungrateful.
Give thanks.”.
After this,
the situation died down for a few months
and in April 2018
Cardi told Ebro on Beats 1 radio
that the beef was all cap.
But a week later,
Nicki went on Zane Lowe’s show on Beats 1 and said
The only thing with Cardi that really really really,
hurt my feelings
was the first interview she did after ‘Motorsport’ came out.
It just really hurt me because she looked so,
aggravated and angry and,
the only thing she kept saying was,
‘Oh I didn’t hear that verse, I didn't hear that verse, She changed her verse.' like,
I was like what?
According to Nicki,
her hairdresser couldn’t make it to the video shoot
so she couldn’t film on the same day as Cardi.
After the interview,
she hopped on Twitter to air out the situation.
She said “How can you say someone changed their verse
& forget to say Quavo TOLD me to remove my singing part (which I loved)
& Atlantic told me to remove your name from my verse per your request?
So how were those changes gonna happen if I didn’t “change” my verse?”
It looked like the beef was heating back up,
but then Nicki and Cardi linked up at the Met Gala to squash it.
Cardi went on the Howard Stern show later and said
it was all just a misunderstanding and that she’s cool with Nicki.
For a couple of months it looked like the beef was dead,
but then Nicki dropped the track Ganja Burns and said
“Unlike a lot of these h*** whether wack or lit
At least I can say I wrote every rap I spit.”
Rumors were flying that Cardi didn’t write her own lines,
so fans thought Nicki was throwing shade.
Then Nicki talked to Ebro on Beats 1.
He asked her about the Cardi beef, and Nicki told him
“Now, I didn’t know Cardi and I had an issue but
I guess we do since you're saying it and you know, other people are saying it
Yeah, yeah.
To me,
she may have taken an issue with things that I’ve said,
but I’m not going to bite my tongue...
I mean this is rap-
You gotta be- you gotta have thick skin.
People talk shit about me all the time...
I don't go around and tell people 'oh stop posting me'
because I see one bad thing about myself.
You can’t expect to be liked and loved and praised all the f*****’ time.
Give me a break.”
After the interview dropped,
Cardi tweeted
“Imagine subbing me but you blocked me from all social media.”
Fans saw that Cardi really was blocked,
and now the beef was on for real.
People were expecting her to drop a diss track,
but Cardi went straight to throwing hands
when she caught Nicki during New York Fashion Week.
According to TMZ,
Cardi walked up to Nicki’s table to “address the lies Nicki was spreading.”.
It ain’t clear exactly what went down,
but in some videos it looks like Cardi was trying to throw her shoe at Nicki.
Another clip shows people holding Cardi back while she’s yelling
“Play with me b****.
Keep f****** playing with me,
play with my f****** kid b****. I’ll f*** your ass up.”.
Cardi allegedly caught an elbow to the face
while security got between her and Nicki’s friend Rah Ali,
then they escorted her out before it got any more serious.
After she got tossed out of the party,
Cardi hopped on IG and wrote
“I’ve let a lot of shit slide! I let you sneak diss me,
I let you lie on me,
I let you attempt to stop my bags,
f*** up the way I eat!...
But when you mention my child,
you choose to like comments about me as a mother,
make comments about my abilities to take care of my daughter
is when all bets are f***** off!!”
A couple of days after the fight,
Nicki went on her Queen Radio show and broke down the situation.
According to her,
the rumors about her going after Cardi’s parenting skills were all cap.
She said “I would never talk about anyone’s child or anyone’s parenting...
I am not a clown. That’s clown s***.”
Everything cooled off for a few weeks,
but in October Cardi’s sister Hennessy Carolina
accused Nicki of leaking Cardi’s phone number.
On another episode of Queen Radio,
Nicki claimed she was mad at Rah Ali
for beating up Cardi so badly at New York Fashion Week.
Then she spoke on the phone leak and said “Leaking numbers?
What type of bird s*** you talking about?”.
Cardi clapped back on a bunch of IG videos after the show.
She admitted that she wanted Nicki to change her verse on Motorsport,
but she also brought up the phone number leak.
According to Cardi,
the leak happened an hour after their fight.
She said “How come everybody that y’all have issues with,
that y’all have the numbers in y’all camp,
they numbers got leaked?”
Cardi also said
Nicki supports her fans “sick ass f****** behavior.”.
She went on IG Live and said
she had to drop a track early because Nicki’s fans kept leaking it.
During the live she said
“So as you can see, my song Money got leaked.
So it’s like, f*** it; if it’s leaked, might as well put it out....
We tried to retract it, but you know the Barbz -
they always posting me,
they always post everything I do.
They claim they hate me but they really love me
because they be on my page before my fans.”.
Fans thought it was gonna be on-sight the next time Cardi and Nicki ran into each other.
But then Nicki hopped on Twitter and said
“Ok you guys, let’s focus on positive things only from here on out.
We’re all so blessed.
I know this stuff is entertaining & funny to a lot of people
but I won’t be discussing this nonsense anymore...”
Cardi responded on IG and wrote
“@Nickiminaj alright then!
Let’s keep it positive and keep it pushing!”.
The truce ain’t last long though.
In November 2018,
6ix9ine had a music video with Nicki and Kanye
where he allegedly hired two women who were suing Cardi for assault,
so this was obviously a shot at her.
The two women suing Cardi are sisters named Jade and Baddie Gi.
They’re bartenders at a strip club where the Migos performed,
and Cardi allegedly ordered her crew to rough them up
because she thought Jade hooked up with Offset.
According to Jade,
five people in Cardi’s crew “viciously attacked her, grabbing her hair,
punching her, and hitting her with an ashtray.”.
And later in the same month,
she says Cardi’s team came back and threw bottles and chairs at her and Baddie.
Two weeks after the news broke that Jade and Baddie was working with Nicki,
Nicki allegedly sent shots at Cardi on 6ix9ine’s track MAMA.
She said
“I was out in Spain rockin’ a Medusa head
I ain’t never have to give a rap producer head.”
There were rumors going around that Cardi hooked up with DJ Self
while they were working on Love & Hip Hop,
but Cardi said it was cap.
Then a few days later,
Nicki hired Jade and Baddie for her music video!
She even tagged them in an IG photo to let everyone know what was up.
It looked like the beef was turning up again,
but Cardi never responded.
Back in March,
Nicki dissed her again when she crossed out her name in an article.
HotNewHipHop wrote a piece called
Why Nicki Minaj is One of the Greatest of All Time.
Part of it said “Despite the welcomed contributions of women like Cardi B,
Megan Thee Stallion, City Girls, and Doja Cat over the past few years,
female rap still feels incomplete without Nicki Minaj’s presence and output.”
Nicki posted the paragraph on Twitter,
but she crossed out all the other names.
A lot of fans thought it was a petty move,
but Cardi ain’t even respond to it.
For now it looks like she’s just focusing on her own career
instead of getting into more drama.
The beef been quiet for a minute,
but anything could set it off again.
Even if they’re not sending shots right now,
Nicki and Cardi obviously still have problems.
And if they come out and say they’ve squashed it again,
that probably just means something’s about to go down.