Female rap artists Nicki Minaj and Latto engaged in a Twitter beef online on Thursday evening, in which the stars insulted each other and shared images of their private DMs on the social media platform.
The beef appears to have started after Nicki Minaj voiced her frustration that her new song ‘Super Freaky Girl,’ was not categorised as a rap song for the upcoming 2023 Grammy Awards.
The song samples an 80s pop song by Rick James, ‘Super Freak,’ and on Twitter Minaj argued that if she was denied entry into the rap category, then another song, ‘Big Energy,’ by Latto should also be see as a pop song.
“I have no prob being moved out the RAP category as long as we r ALL being treated FAIRLY,” the Queen rapper tweeted. “If [‘Super Freaky Girl’] has [2 billion views] moved out RAP then so does Big Energy! ANY1 who says diff is simply a Nicki hater or a troll. I’d actually LUV 2 c a more street record win- male OR female! IJS rightIsRight,” the rapper tweeted.
Latto’s hit single samples another song from the 1980s, in this case it is ‘Genius of Love,’ by Tom Tom Club.
Seeing this tweet, Latto hit back at Minaj privately, messaging her that while she had her support, there was no need to bring her song into the argument.
From there the beef took off online.
Minaj tweeted out the direct message and insulted Latto for not supporting her, despite the fact that she claimed to be a big Minaj fan, or Barbie, as they are known.
Latto then called out Minaj for subtweeting her several times, indirectly insulting her on Twitter, something which she claimed to have messaged Minaj about before.
Latto called her once-idol a “Bully,” adding that Minaj is “older than my mom.”
The 23-year-old rapper then uploaded a Tweet where she claimed that Minaj was subtweeting her, although Minaj’s followers seemed to disprove this, claiming that the Queens rapper was talking about someone else.
Minaj then echoed this and began to call out Latto for “ageism,” and insulted her because her album, in Minaj’s words, “flopped.”
The tirade continued from both sides, with Minaj eventually digging into her private messages to reveal Latto asking her to feature on some of her songs on three occasions.
Latto responded with some very personal insults and Minaj did the same.
Even when the argument had appeared to have died down, Latto posed audio footage of a phone call between the pair where things got heated.
On the call, Minaj calls Latto “delusional.”