Why was B.o.B feuding with a famous astrophysicist on Twitter?
Just how many people has Azealia Banks beefed with over the course of her career?
Keep watching for those answers and more.
Azealia Banks seemed to have a promising future ahead of her when she burst onto the rap scene
in 2011 with her hit "212".
But after a series of high-profile feuds, she became better known for clashing with
other musicians on Twitter than for her music.
She's used her social media accounts to fight with everyone from Iggy Azalea to the entire
nation of Ireland.
In 2016, Zayn Malik was the target of controversial remarks that got her kicked off Twitter.
She was also dropped from a London music festival after using racist and homophobic language
towards him.
Then in 2018, Banks' Twitter account was deactivated again after she beefed with RuPaul's Drag
Race star Monét X Change on the platform.
That same year, another memorable feud began after she was reportedly invited to the home
of musician Grimes and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The plan was for Banks and Grimes to hit the studio together, but in a series of Instagram
Stories, Banks claimed,
"I waited around all weekend while Grimes coddled her boyfriend for being too stupid
to know not to go on twitter on acid."
The singers never ended up making a song together, and Banks posted screenshots of their subsequent
fight.
Grimes repeatedly called Banks a "narc," while Banks called her a "brittle-boned meth head."
In 2021, Grimes reignited the feud by releasing a song about how Banks attempted to destroy
her life.
Southern hip hop star Lil Boosie has raised eyebrows by voicing homophobic and transphobic
views online.
In 2020, when retired NBA star Dwyane Wade spoke publicly about supporting his then-12-year-old
transgender daughter, Boosie posted a rant on Instagram about how Wade had "gone too
far."
After being hit with backlash, Boosie insisted that he didn't have a problem with gay people,
while also complaining that parents were giving their children too much power.
Boosie's own parenting came under fire weeks later when he bizarrely claimed that he'd
hired a sex worker for his underage son and nephew.
On Instagram Live, he attempted to justify his decision by declaring,
"They can watch as much porn as they want.
It's better than them watching cartoons with two men kissing."
Boosie also made comments about Lil Nas X, who joked that they had a song coming out
together in 2021.
Boosie responded by telling the "Old Town Road" rapper to kill himself and calling him
a homophobic slur.
This sparked an outpouring of outrage on social media, with one person tweeting,
"Boosie is mad that a queer Black rapper is doing better than him in an industry that
has built its foundation in homophobia."
B.o.B had one of the most baffling career transformations in rap history when he went
from releasing mainstream hits like "Nothin' on You" to spreading wild conspiracy theories.
In January 2016, the "Airplanes" rapper took to Twitter to voice his beliefs about the
earth being flat, which sparked a feud with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
As B.o.B tweeted,
"No matter how high in elevation you are... the horizon is always eye level ... sorry
cadets...
I didn't wanna believe it either."
"The earth isn't f—ing flat."
B.o.B also claimed that people who didn't agree with him had been "indoctrinated into
a heliocentric belief system."
He also expressed his support for the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked, and
he didn't back down after enduring backlash.
Instead, he doubled down by asserting,
"A lot of people are turned off by the phrase 'flat earth' ... but there's no way u can
see all the evidence and not know... grow up."
The blowback was strong enough that B.o.B decided to temporarily retire from the music
industry.
But perhaps more concerning was his 2016 diss track "Flatline," in which he not only took
aim at Tyson, but also asked his audience to do their "research" on Holocaust denier
David Irving.
This, for many, represented the final nail in the coffin for B.o.B's career.
British rapper Wiley was banned from social media in 2020 and then again in 2021 after
sharing anti-Semitic tweets in which he likened Jewish people to the Ku Klux Klan.
His management severed ties with him soon afterward.
In a follow-up interview with Sky News, it was revealed that his rant had been prompted
by a disagreement between Wiley and his Jewish music manager.
The rapper apologized during the interview and denied that he was racist.
As he put it,
"My comments should not have been directed to all Jews or Jewish people."
"I want to apologize for generalizing, number one, and I want to apologize for comments
that were looked at as anti-Semitic."
Wiley however still emphasized his resentment towards the Jewish community in the music
industry.
He returned to Twitter a year later with a new account, where he posted a picture of
himself Photoshopped as being dressed in traditional Hasidic garb.
He also promoted two antisemitic videos, including one entitled "The Jewish faces that control
hiphop and mainstream black music."
After the Campaign Against Antisemitism contacted Twitter, he was banned from the platform again.
An Instagram account he'd used to direct fans to the offensive Twitter content was also
removed, further restricting his ability to promote his music.
On top of his many legal issues, Kodak Black got himself in trouble by hitting on Nipsey
Hussle's girlfriend Lauren London less than a week after Hussle was shot to death in April
2019.
As he announced on Instagram Live,
"I'll give her a whole year.
She might need a whole year to be crying and s--- for him."
Black also promised that he would "be the best man I can be for her," suggesting that
they would inevitably become a couple.
The rapper's remarks led to his music being boycotted by Los Angeles radio station Power
106.
As DJ Justin Credible tweeted,
"We stand with the family of Nipsey Hussle and are appalled by the disrespectful and
poor comments made by Kodak Black.
With that, Power 106 will not support Black's music.
#LongLiveNip."
Fellow musicians The Game and T.I. also called Kodak Black out for being disrespectful so
soon after Hussle's death.
Black eventually gave a half-hearted apology, as he said on Instagram Live,
"If I disrespected you, Lauren London, in any shape or form, I am sorry.
Even though I didn't."
He also attempted to pay tribute to Hussle by noting,
"Rest in peace to dude.
If I disrespected Lauren London in any way, even though I know I didn't, my bad."
Then in December 2021, Black drew even more social media ire when he shared a photo of
his 6-year-old son smiling while a woman appeared to twerk in front of the little boy.
While it remains to be seen whether Travis Scott's career can survive the Astroworld
tragedy that killed 10 people, his apology on social media certainly didn't help.
The rapper was criticized for appearing insincere in the black-and-white clip, in which he claimed
to be "devastated."
As he promised,
"We're actually working right now to identify the families so we can help assist them through
this tough time."
Scott also insisted that he had no idea how dangerous the crowd had become throughout
his performance.
As he claimed,
"Any time I could make out, you know, anything that's going on, you know, I just stopped
my show and, you know, helped them get the help they need."
The rapper was also condemned for partnering with a therapy app that's been called a scam.
He offered one free month of counseling on BetterHelp to attendees, but the platform
has had its own controversies over privacy and data security.
And although he publicly declared that he would pay the funeral costs for the victims'
families, half of them actually rejected Scott's offer.
As Tony Buzbee, an attorney representing one of the victims, told Rolling Stone,
"It's bulls---.
If you gave a s--- about these families, you wouldn't have to put out a press release for
everyone to see."
After the apology video, Scott's upcoming collaboration with Nike was postponed, and
he was also dropped from Coachella's 2022 lineup.
Singer and rapper CeeLo Green deleted his Twitter account after receiving backlash for
victim-blaming comments related to an ongoing court case.
He'd been accused of giving a woman drugs before having sex with her, and although prosecutors
decided not to file charges based on lack of evidence, he lost a lot of fans back in
2014.
As Green tweeted while discussing the court case, he claimed that victims of rape remember
it happening.
He also contended,
"If someone is passed out they’re not even WITH you consciously!
So WITH Implies consent."
Green also made a dubious comparison between his own accusations and other crimes, as he
tweeted,
"When someone [breaks into] a home there is broken glass where is your plausible proof
that anyone was raped."
Green eventually apologized for his posts, as he tweeted that his comments had been "taken
so far out of context" and that he would "never condone the harm of any women."
But his career was never the same.
In fact, his sets at three different 2014 concerts were immediately canceled because
of his tweets.
South African hip hop duo Die Antwoord were dropped from several festivals after a video
surfaced online in which they physically fought DJ Andy Butler while calling him homophobic
slurs.
The incident took place in 2012 at the Australian festival Future Music, where Die Antwoord's
Ninja chased down Butler, who is openly gay.
Ninja's musical partner Yolandi could be heard calling Butler a homophobic slur and yelling
at him to run.
Later in the video, the pair decide to pretend that Butler had assaulted Yolandi, and she
pretends to cry, which Ninja describes as "Oscar Award-winning."
Ninja and Yolandi offered an explanation on Facebook, as they claimed that the video was
just "cleverly edited."
But this didn't win them back any fans.
Ninja denied that they'd antagonized Butler because of his sexuality, insisting that it
was, quote, "just a fight with someone who f---ed with us."
In addition to the controversial video, several women have also come forward to accuse Ninja
of sexual assault.
Die Antwoord's reputation has led to them being cut from a number of American musical
festivals, including Life Is Beautiful in Las Vegas and Louder Than Life in Kentucky.
And their behavior was still losing them gigs as recently as 2021, when they were dropped
from the festival in London after other performers complained about them being part of the lineup.
The internet was shocked and disgusted when Atlanta rapper T.I.
revealed on a podcast that he made the gynecologist perform "virginity tests" on his teenage daughter
Deyjah Harris.
According to the World Health Organization and the United Nations, tests like these are
a "medically unnecessary and harmful" violation of a young woman's human rights.
The rapper then went on the Facebook talk show Red Table Talk to attempt to explain
himself, but he didn't win back any fans when he insisted that he'd exaggerated the situation.
As he put it,
"Let me go set this record straight: Never said I was in any exam room.
That is an assumption; that is a falsity."
"I never said that it was being done present day."
"And I never said that her mother wasn't present."
Despite his explanation, Red Table Talk host Jada Pinkett Smith observed that this was
still controlling and harmful behavior.
Deyjah also admitted that her father's comments had made her very uncomfortable and changed
their relationship dynamic.
As she revealed on the family's VH1 show, T.I.
& Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle,
"I mean, honestly, I'm embarrassed, definitely for sure.
I'm trying to push it in the back of my mind so I'm really not thinking about it."
"I know it's not healthy."
"It's- at all.
That brings anxiety-"
"But I've been doing that since a child, like even with stuff with him."
Deyjah also recalled that the gynecology appointments had been happening since she was 14 or 15.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.
Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).