The long-simmering feud exploded on social media and Apple Music. Who came out on top?
Nicki Minaj and Cardi B have been openly going at it for quite some time, and with the smoke clearing from all the timeline fireworks last night, now is the perfect time to take a look our scorecard to determine which of the two is ahead on points.
Of course, it helps to look at some background first to determine just why these two women are fighting to begin with. Early on in Cardi’s meteoric rise, it appeared that any friction between the two was entirely imaginary, generated solely by overeager media personalities and fans who felt they had to get a juicy quote or choose sides. However, it appears things really became an issue for them personally when they finally connected for the first time to work on Migos’ “ Motorsport.” After it was revealed that Nicki had changed her verse — apparently, at the behest of Cardi due to a sticky line referencing legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi — and the two were filmed separately for the video, any festering uncertainly was unlocked, mutating into full-on paranoia.
From there, Nicki Minaj used various platforms to air her grievances with her media treatment, from radio interviews to subliminal shots in songs, but refusing to avail herself to the one that Cardi B seemed to genuinely prefer: The phone. After several months of sniping, Cardi was fed up with hearing Nicki paint herself as the victim even as she tried to play bully and snapped, physically attacking Nicki at the Harper’s Bazaar New York Fashion Week party. She left with only one shoe and a bump on her head, as she’d tossed the other at Nicki during the altercation and been jostled by a bodyguard, receiving the head injury. Video from the event showed Cardi being confronted by fellow Love & Hip-Hop alumnus Rasheeda Ali, who was hanging out with Nicki at the time.
Then, in a dramatic turn of events, yesterday, Cardi’s sister Hennessy Carolina revealed that Cardi’s phone number had been leaked after the fight, resulting in trollish spam from presumed Minaj fans, who wrote semi-threatening messages about Cardi’s daughter Kulture. On yesterday’s episode of Queen Radio on Apple Music, Nicki denied sicking her fans on Cardi’s phone, but offered up $100,000 to anyone with video evidence that Rah Ali was the one who beat up Cardi B, running counter to Cardi’s version of events. She also continued to attribute Cardi’s success to “payola,” claiming that Cardi’s label paid off radio stations to play her songs as much as they did (she didn’t explain how that would work for the several billion accumulated streams Cardi’s racked up on Spotify and 7 million subscribers on Youtube). All of this served to send Cardi back to the habit that made her famous in the first place: Airing out her beef on her Instagram.
