Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj and American rapper Cardi B have been involved in a highly publicized feud since around 2017.
As Cardi B's song "Bodak Yellow" rose to popularity in 2017, rumors of a feud between her and Minaj began circulating. Both rappers' guest verses on songs released that year were alleged to be disses toward one another, which they both denied. They were both featured on the 2017 Migos song "MotorSport"; the two appearing separately in its music video and interviews about Minaj's verse on the song furthered discussions of a feud between them. In September 2018, Cardi B attempted to physically attack Minaj at a New York Fashion Week party, which left Cardi B with a welt on her head and attracted widespread media attention. Cardi B attributed it to Minaj "liking" a comment mocking Cardi B's parenting skills soon after giving birth to her daughter Kulture, which Minaj denied.
Following the release of Cardi B's second studio album Am I the Drama? (2025), the feud was re-ignited when Minaj tweeted insults toward Cardi B regarding her pregnancy and her album sales. This led to a 3-day long back-and-forth between them, during which both rappers made derisive remarks about one another's children, including Minaj calling Kulture ugly and Cardi B calling Minaj's son "slow" and "non-verbal"; the two made numerous accusations about each other's families, drug use, and mental health.
Since 2018, commentators and other public figures have denounced the feud as disappointing and unnecessary and criticized both rappers for their role in the feud, with some singling out Minaj for her role in it.
History 2017–2018: "MotorSport" and attempted New York Fashion Week fight Origins and alleged sneak disses Rumors of a feud between Nicki Minaj and Cardi B began to circulate online in March 2017, when the Twitter account Pop Crave shared a screenshot from an Instagram comment calling a freestyle by Cardi B "dumb ass bars". Minaj soon liked a tweet from a fan, who wrote that the screenshot had been faked. During Minaj's feud with fellow rapper Remy Ma and following the release of Ma's song "Shether", a diss track against Minaj, Cardi B performed the song "U.N.I.T.Y." with Ma during her June 2017 performance at Summer Jam. Minaj's verse on the 2017 London on da Track song "No Flag", which was released two months later and on which she rapped, "Lil' bitch, I heard these labels tryna make another me/Everything you getting, little hoe, is cause of me", fueled further rumors of a feud between Minaj and Cardi B. Minaj tweeted that she had written her verse two months prior to the song's release and denied that it was in response to Cardi B's performance with Ma.
Cardi B's feature on the G-Eazy song "No Limit", released later that year, featured the verse "Can you stop with all the subs?/Bitch, I ain't Jared," which was assumed to be directed at Minaj. She stated in an interview with the radio show The Breakfast Club that the verse was directed at women from her old neighborhood rather than toward Minaj, whom she had previously spoken with. Minaj's fans also accused Cardi B of copying Minaj's style and demeanor in the song's music video, released in December of that year. Minaj soon tweeted, "I'm glad y'all peeped," which both BuzzFeed News and Atlanta Black Star wrote seemed to be in agreement with the assessment.
Cardi B's song "Bodak Yellow" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2017, making Cardi B the first solo female rapper to peak at number one on the chart since Lauryn Hill in 1998. Minaj soon posted a congratulatory tweet addressed to Cardi B, calling it "a RECORD BREAKING achievement", which Cardi B responded to by thanking her and writing that it "means sooo much coming from you".
"MotorSport" contentions
Minaj and Cardi B collaborated on the hip hop group Migos' song "MotorSport", which was released in December 2017 with a music video as a single from the group's 2018 album Culture II. The two rappers' verses were believed by fans to be disses toward one another. Both denied these claims, with Cardi B stating in an interview with Complex that "people just want that drama" and that fans "wouldn't even be satisfied even if me and [Nicki] was making out". Minaj agreed with her in a tweet. A lyric from Minaj's original verse ("If Cardi the QB, I'm Nick Lombardi") was also changed to replace Cardi B's name with Quavo's. Minaj alleged on Twitter the following year that Atlantic Records, Cardi B's record label, had asked her to remove Cardi B's name from her verse per her request. Despite Minaj's insistence that the song had already been finished by the time Cardi B was added to it, Cardi B said in a Capital Xtra interview prior to the song's release that Minaj's verse was unfinished when she was first asked by Quavo to join the song. Quavo corroborated Cardi B's explanation. The two did not appear onscreen together in the music video, which was noted by fans, though Quavo later said in an interview with Ebro Darden that he attempted to get them to. Minaj claimed in 2018 that it was because her hairstylist, Tokyo Stylez, had a scheduling conflict the day of the video shoot.
In April 2018, Minaj said tearfully in an interview with Beats 1 that she had been "really, really hurt" by Cardi B's lack of public support and "genuine love" toward her, citing her 2017 Capital Xtra interview as an example, and that Cardi B should have been more enthusiastic to have collaborated with her. The interview further fueled rumors of their feud. In another Beats 1 interview soon after, Cardi B said that the feud had been fabricated by fans online due to their being entertained by "see[ing] people beef".
Met Gala photographs Three photographs of Minaj and Cardi B conversing at the 2018 Met Gala briefly squashed rumors of a feud between the two.Articles describing their 2018 Met Gala photo as squashing feud rumors:
Cardi B stated in an interview on The Howard Stern Show soon after that the photo showed them speaking about a "misunderstanding" and that they had never had a feud. In August 2018, Minaj said on her Beats 1 radio show Queen Radio that she "didn't know Cardi and I had an issue" and that she "may have taken an issue with things that I've said", though she did not specify what they were. Also that month, Minaj got into a separate feud with reality television personality DJ Self, who was also Cardi B's former costar on Love & Hip Hop: New York, after he posted on Instagram that Cardi B had "the best female album out", referring to her debut studio album Invasion of Privacy, which he later deleted. Minaj responded, alleging that he had previously been dissing Cardi B to try and earn Minaj's favor and that he had been spreading rumors about Cardi B to Minaj.
New York Fashion Week altercation and aftermath On September 7, 2018, during Christina Aguilera's performance at Harper's Bazaars invite-only "Icons" party at the Plaza Hotel for New York Fashion Week, Cardi B lunged at Minaj as she was leaving. In a video of the altercation, Cardi B yelled, "Bitch, come here!" and "I will fuck you up!" at Minaj, then threw a shoe toward Minaj and at reality television personality Rah Ali, Minaj's friend and one of Cardi B's co-stars on Love & Hip Hop: New York. She was escorted out of the building barefoot, with her Dolce & Gabbana dress torn and a large knot over her eye, the result of one of Minaj's security guards elbowing her in the face. A photo of her walking out of the party with the knot on her head soon went viral online and the incident was widely reported on. Cardi B soon posted on Instagram, alleging that the attempted fight was prompted by Minaj liking comments about her abilities as a mother and speaking about her daughter, Kulture, whom she had given birth to two months prior. She also claimed in the post that Minaj had tried to "stop [her] bags" by lying about her and threatening not to work with artists who worked with her. Two days later, Minaj denied talking about Kulture, stating on Queen Radio, "I would never talk about anyone's child or parenting." She also described the fight as "mortifying" and "humiliating" and called Cardi B a "disgusting pig" whose career had been bolstered by "sympathy and payola". Days later, Cardi B reposted a photo of a young girl recreating her look at the party, joking that the girl "forgot the knot" on her head.
Minaj and Cardi B soon endorsed rival candidates in the 2018 New York democratic gubernatorial primary election, with Minaj endorsing Andrew Cuomo on Twitter and Cardi B endorsing Cynthia Nixon on Instagram a day later. Judy Kurtz of The Hill wrote that their opposite endorsements showed that "the battle between [them] appears to be intensifying", while Eric Durkin of The Guardian called them "duelling last-minute endorsements from the feuding rappers". For The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Christopher Jenkins described Cardi B's verse on her and Pardison Fontaine's collaborative single "Backin' It Up", which was released shortly after the altercation and on which she raps "I know how to make a bitch mad, don't I?" and "Chill with the beef and try some chicken instead", as Cardi B signifyin' at Minaj by indirectly referencing their feud. In October 2018, Minaj began selling merchandise bearing the phrase "Nicki Stopped My Bag", which she had previously made into a Twitter meme that mocked Cardi B's Instagram post following the fight. In an interview with W, Cardi B said that Minaj had been "taking a lot of shots" at her "for a while now", but that they had spoken twice before the altercation and had "come to an understanding". However, she said, Minaj "kept going", including, according to her, liking and then unliking a tweet that made fun of her as a mother and sparked the attempted fight. She responded to critics of where she chose to try and fight Minaj by saying, "I'm not going to catch another artist in the grocery store or down the block."
In an October 29 episode of Queen Radio, Minaj alleged that Rah Ali had punched Cardi B at the New York Fashion Week party; denied allegations from Cardi B's sister, influencer Hennessy Carolina, that she had leaked Cardi B's phone number to her fan pages; offered $100 thousand to anyone who could offer her surveillance footage of the attempted fight; and accused Cardi B of attempting to stop rapper 21 Savage from appearing on "No Flag". Cardi B posted a series of ten videos responding to Minaj on Instagram, in which she called her a liar; denied Minaj's claims that Rah Ali had attacked her and that she had prevented 21 Savage from appearing in the music video for "No Flag" and on the remix to Farruko and Bad Bunny's 2017 song "Krippy Kush", both of which featured Minaj; accused Minaj of leaking her phone number soon after their altercation; threatened to sue Minaj for defamation for alleging that Cardi B had used payola; and said that she was "tired of talking" about their feud. Rvssian, who produced "Krippy Kush", direct messaged Cardi B that Travis Scott had replaced 21 Savage in the song's music video due to a scheduling conflict involving his child, which she reposted to her Instagram account, and later tweeted that he was "not going to agree with something that wasn't done involving [his] song". Minaj responded that she had "never leaked a number in my life" and that it was an attempt to "make [her] look like a bad person".