How Did Nicki Minaj And Latto’s Twitter Beef Start?

For the past two weeks, Rap Twitter — especially the part dealing mainly with female rappers — has been in utter shambles, and while she’s rarely been at the center of things, Nicki Minaj has always had a connection to the chaos. That changed on Thursday (October 13), when she finally got pulled into her own contentious debate with Latto after voicing a complaint about the Grammy Awards’ categorization of her single “Super Freaky Girl,” comparing it to Latto’s “Big Energy.”

See, Nicki — who is very, very concerned with things like awards and streaming stats, yet apparently never bothered to learn how such things work — is upset that “Super Freaky Girl” has been classified as a Pop record, while the “Fantasy”-sampling “Big Energy” was not. Had she bothered to use Google at, like, any point, she’d know that it has little to do with the production style and everything to do with the lyrics — Nicki raps for less than 51% of “Super Freaky Girl,” disqualifying it from Rap category contention. However, because she’s an icon and the song is very popular right now, the Grammys committee still wanted to honor it.

Meanwhile, Latto, after apparently sending Nicki a direct message to clear the air, decided that enough was enough after Nicki apparently previously shaded her during an episode of Queen Radio. Calling out the rap pioneer directly, she challenged, “Ur literally older than my mom tryna be a bully.” This sparked a larger back and forth that included Nicki calling Latto a Karen for standing up to her. And while Nicki’s Barbz would likely remain loyal if she personally set them on fire and punched their moms, others are celebrating Latto for calling out Minaj after a long-rumored history of shady behavior behind the scenes. Nicki’s been accused multiple times in the past of sabotaging other artists’ careers while playing the victim when things don’t go her way, although it’s probably fair to say that she has faced numerous challenges that many of her predecessors will never have to because of her efforts. (By the way, Nicki has deleted most of her responses to Latto, but not the ones to Barbz provoking the beef).

That would be enough for many pioneers, but Nicki refuses to accept less than utter adulation at all times — and, well, that’s her prerogative as someone who’s earned her “legend” over the past decade or so. But at some point, you’ve got to put the phone down. Meanwhile, there are others who remain skeptical that either really has a chance in the first place — after all, the Grammys have a long history of making some truly atrocious calls, especially in the rap categories. We’ll see how it all plays out on February 5, 2023. Meanwhile, let’s all hope the rap girlies get the hell off Twitter and take it to the booth for once. If they’re gonna do all this, let’s at least get some music out of it!