The long-running rivalry between Cardi B and Nicki Minaj reignited this week after both artists exchanged sharp words on X (formerly Twitter).
The two rappers, who’ve been feuding on and off since 2017, had their drama first publicly air in 2018 following a physical altercation between their crews as they were held back from each other at Harper’s Bazaar Icons party at New York’s Plaza Hotel.
However, it had recently appeared that their subsequent and long-standing war of words may finally have ended after Cardi, 32, declared herself ‘over’ it just days ago on the Call Her Daddy podcast.
But the success of her new album Am I the Drama, which has gone platinum twice over in the US, with single Belcalis also topping the Billboard chart, appears to mean all bets are off as 42-year-old Nicki couldn’t resist lashing out, while Cardi didn’t stop herself responding in a particularly vicious way.
And we’re back with reheated beef like seven years never passed.
Nicki appeared to kick things off on Monday night by simply posting ‘$4.99’ on X, which fans (and Cardi) took to be a reference to – and dig at – the promotional price of Cardi’s new record on iTunes.
She then used lyrics from Cardi’s song Magnet for a series of diss tweets, so the target became clear.
‘Abcdefgeeeeeeee,’ Nicki began one post. ‘SUR GER REE TO LOOK LIKE MEEEEEE / tell the rat & tell J ZEEEEEE / Rico Fraud & PERJURY.’
‘Fallin off the charts wit a big bellyyyy / RUNNING TRAINS. Barefoot, still smellyyyyy / Still. You. Could. Not. outsell. meeeeee,’ she wrote in another, referring to her 2023 album Pink Friday 2 clocking higher sales figures than Cardi’s latest effort.
‘Damn she was streaming Magnet hard as hell huh??’ responded Cardi, with a row of laughing emoji.
Nicki had also earlier re-tweeted the boast: ‘Despite false reports, Nicki Minaj is the ONLY female rapper to have an album cross 200k units first week this decade.’
But Cardi was having none of that, insisting that she and Nicki were not peers, given the decade age difference and the fact that Nicki’s peak of popularity started in 2010 when she was still at high school.
‘Why you keep bringing up my album?? It’s not the gag that you think it is… You been in the game like 16 years.. you need to compare yourself to YOUR peers that started around YOUR time,’ she tweeted.
‘Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Drake… those are the numbers you need to be competing wit and you can’t cuz you doing lower than all of them… I was in high school when you came out, what are you comparing yourself to me for???’
Ice Spice also appeared to be watching from the sidelines with great interest, maybe stirring the pot, as she simply posted a giggling emoji with a hand covering its mouth.
‘Girly, delete this before you catch some strays too,’ urged one fan in response.
As it stands, the only tweets remaining on Nicki’s X page include her pushing her own music, the success of Pink Friday 2 and the fact that she made it into the trending bar on the social bar during the exchange.
Meanwhile, Cardi’s all remain in place, including her taunt of ‘Cocaine Barbie’ towards Nicki and sharing alongside a picture of her culinary efforts: ‘Naaaa cuz I was really baking ribs and making blondie brownies and here come this btch bothering me on a damn Monday.’
Both women also made outrageous comments about each other’s pregnancies, partners, health and alleged misdeeds of family members.
But Cardi appeared to stun Nicki into silence with her final tweet on the matter when she became especially personal in response to the pregnant Starships rapper, in a way that floored fans after referring to her fertility and past drug addiction.
‘If the argument ever leaves music + touches fertility or kids, you already lost,’ responded one fan, while @WeriBomb wrote: ‘Put a boxing ring in the middle of Times Square and decide who rules New York.’
