Cardi B. and Nicki Minaj: The history of their over-the-top feud

Meghan DeMaria
Cardi B.
Cardi B. (Photo: Getty Images)

Nicki Minaj rapped that “silly rap beefs just give me more checks” in her verse on Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish.” But it sounds like her feud with Cardi B. just took a new turn — and it might be more than a “silly rap beef” at this point. Cardi B. reportedly tried to attack Nicki Minaj on Friday night at a New York Fashion Week party.

A source told People that at the Harper’s Bazaar ICONS party, the rappers got into a physical fight. According to the source, Cardi B. was escorted out of the party and was seen with a bump on her head. People also noted that while Cardi was removed from the party, there were no arrests in connection with the incident.

Cardi also shared an Instagram message, that fans think are about Minaj. In a Notes app message posted on the site, Cardi didn’t mention the “Chun-Li” rapper by name. But she wrote that “someone” had told other artists that if they worked with Cardi, the unnamed person wouldn’t work with them anymore. The note also hints that the person’s speaking about Cardi’s daughter, Kulture Kiari, was the last straw.

“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,” Cardi wrote. (For her part, Minaj didn’t address the reported fight on Instagram, though she did share a few photos and a video of her Fashion Week looks.)

So, what exactly led the two rappers to apparently reach the point of a physical altercation? The news of the fight might come as a surprise to some, especially since Minaj seemed to support Cardi on her early successes. But it looks like the pair’s relationship has taken quite a turn since then.

As People pointed out, Minaj alluded to their disagreement during an interview on Beats 1 Radio back in April. Minaj told host Zane Lowe that she was “hurt” by an interview Cardi did about “MotorSport,” a Migos song that features Minaj. Cardi is married to Migos trio member Offset, and she’s also featured on the track.

“The only thing with Cardi that really, really, really hurt me was the first interview [Cardi B] did after the first interview she did after ‘MotorSport’ came out, it just really hurt me,” Minaj said during the Beats 1 interview, according to XXL magazine. “Cause 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.’”

Minaj apparently also got into a disagreement with Migos member Quavo over the track, though they’ve since made up.

Still, Cardi told Howard Stern in May that there wasn’t a feud between her and Minaj. “I never was feuding with anybody; there was a misunderstanding,” Cardi told Stern on his Sirius XM radio show. “I didn’t wanna ever talk about it in public because I felt like we gonna see each other again and we will talk about it, and it’s always like little issues. The thing is, it’s always little issues, but you know, fans are always gonna make it a big thing.”

In fact, Cardi and Minaj were seen talking at the Met Gala, and there was no fight at the time. The two rappers were apparently discussing the “issues” Cardi mentioned, though she didn’t say exactly what the disagreement was about.

“I spoke to her about it,” Cardi told Stern of their conversation. “I spoke to her at the Met Gala about it, and it’s just like, see? It’s just something that had to be talked about because it was an issue.”

Based on Cardi’s conversation with Stern in May, it sounded like the two rappers might have put their differences behind them. But some fans didn’t believe the so-called feud was over, even before this week’s reported fight. When Minaj’s album Queen came out last month, some of her verses seemed to reference the “Bodak Yellow” rapper. There’s one line in “Hard White,” where Minaj says, “Uh, I ain’t never played a hoe position/I ain’t ever have to strip to get the pole position/Hoes is dissin’? OK, these hoes is wishin’,” which could be seen as a reference to Cardi’s former job, Refinery29 noted.

Whatever’s going on between the two rappers, it sounds like Cardi took action when her daughter reportedly became involved. It’s understandable that she’d go into full mama-bear mode when someone was talking to her daughter — rap beef or not, parents will do anything to protect their children. Cardi and Minaj have denied their “beef” in the past. But as Cardi wrote in her Instagram message, when it comes to her daughter, “all bets are f***in off.”

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