Cardi B And Nicki's Beef: Everything That's Happened So Far

13 April 2018, 17:08

By Marianne Eloise

Is there really a feud or can't people quite hack two female rappers being successful at once?

Since the release of Cardi B’s huge single “Bodak Yellow”, fans and critics have been desperate to manufacture a beef between her and rapper Nicki Minaj; because, naturally, as they are both successful female rappers, they must be a) the same, and b) in a feud.

Rumours of the “feud” has been reignited this week because both artists have released new music; with Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy last week and two new tracks from Nicki, “Barbie Tingz” and “Chun-Li” dropping yesterday. In promo, the women have been asked about one another, with rumours circulating that Nicki only dropped new music to put Cardi in her place.

If you’re confused about where the bad blood came from and what exactly it entails, you’re not alone – nobody seems to know exactly what’s going on, but perhaps that’s just because there is not really anything actually happening. Here’s a brief breakdown:

So what’s the latest?

On Thursday the 12th of April, Nicki Minaj appeared on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1, where she confirmed that she once had some bad feelings about Cardi but not any more.

She said that prior to a recent Cardi interview, the 25-year-old rapper had never shown her “genuine love”. She said that “the only thing with Cardi that really, really, really hurt my feelings was the first interview she did after ‘MotorSport’ came out”.

Nicki gave her blessing for Cardi to feature on the Migos track, but after it was released, Cardi said in an interview that Nicki “altered” her verse, but Nicki is adamant this isn’t true – and says that “all of them allowed me to look like I lied.” She said that all of the surrounding interviews “really, really hurt” her because she “really, fully supported” Cardi until that point. Minaj also cried during the interview when talking about Cardi, but congratulated the rapper and said that she doesn’t hold any grudges.

Now Nicki has taken to Twitter, clarifying that her verse was altered at the request of Atlantic, Cardi B's record label.

When did the Cardi and Nicki "beef" begin?

Again, it’s pretty clear that there has never been any legitimate beef besides one little disagreement, which hardly makes the hall of fame for rap feuds. But desperate to create one, fans believed that there was shade to one another on their “MotorSport” verses, as well as shade to Cardi on Nicki’s verse of Katy Perry's “Swish Swish”.

Fans also believed that the line "I ain’t never had to strip to get pole position" on a leaked Nicki track was about Cardi, but it was actually from a scrapped 2017 track and had nothing to do with Cardi. There are several other instances where people have believed that Nicki was shading Cardi in her lyrics – when she appeared on London On Da Track’s song “No Flag”, Nicki was told to address her enemies; on it, she raps, “Lil’ bitch I heard these labels tryna make another me/ Everything you getting little hoe is cause of me”. However, she’s denied these lyrics were about Cardi. Besides, it’s unlikely that Nicki would be quite that subtle if she did have legitimate beef with Cardi B - remember Remy Ma?

What have they said about the feud previously?

Speaking to Complex back in October, Cardi said, “I feel like people just want that drama because it's entertaining”. Nicki addressed all the "beef" rumours in a Twitter rant, saying “the conspiracy theories are just so tired” and “there are men in our culture who refuse to let it go. They don’t do this to male MCs”.

Nicki did rap “silly rap beefs just get me more checks” on “Swish Swish”, but again, this isn’t necessarily shade to Cardi. Cardi also ranted on Instagram live, saying “that shit be breaking my heart because the people, your idols, become rivals.”

Most importantly - when have they shown each other love?

People are fast to nitpick at every tiny lyric that could point to legit beef between the pair, but they’re not so fast to point out all the times they’ve shown one another some love.

In July last year, Nicki was seen dancing along to Cardi’s hit “Bodak Yellow” in a Miami nightclub. When Cardi became the first female rapper since Lauryn Hill to top the charts without features, Minaj congratulated her in a tweet, and Cardi responded thanking her. In a recent interview addressing the feud, Cardi said, “I’ve already said she’s an amazing artist, I pay my respects to her. I’ve done videos before of me jamming to her songs...y’all want me to say something bad.”

Both women have complimented one another’s work both publicly and privately time and time again, and despite the one disagreement they’ve confessed to, have massive respect for one another and are both successful in their own right. It looks, for the most part, like their feud is pretty much fabricated by people who can’t quite hack two female rappers being successful at once.