We personally don’t see how anybody could hate Nicki Minaj, but over the years, the rapping goddess has butted heads with more than a few of her fellow celebs. Some of the fights Nicki has had have been totally public, while some of them were a little more subtle. We have learned a lot about Nicki from the beef she’s had, for example, we now know that she isn’t afraid of calling someone out during an acceptance speech during a live awards show. She isn’t too intimidated to yell at industry legends, and will absolutely voice her opinion on Twitter if another star is out of line. It’s definitely clear that Nicki has a whole lot of confidence, and by now people should know it isn’t smart to underestimate her and get on her bad side. Here are 15 celebs who have fought with Nicki Minaj... and probably really wish they didn’t!
15 Demi Lovato
Nicki has never commented on how she feels about singer Demi Lovato, but Demi made her feelings for the rapper pretty darn obvious! It all happened after the Met Gala in 2016. Nicki posted a photo from the event without mentioning Demi, and the former Disney star was less than impressed. Demi reportedly expressed her anger via snapchat and then posted her own photo on Instagram which appeared to show Nicki sending her daggers on the red carpet. Kind of embarrassing for Nicki! That wasn’t all, though—Demi captioned the photo to narrate everything that was going on. “This pretty much summed up my first and probably last Met,” Lovato captioned the picture. “I’m obviously laughing at the fact that 1. I look incredibly awkward and 2. That the shade being thrown in this picture actually gives me life.” Fans weren’t happy about Demi’s treatment of Nicki, but she maintained that she had her reasons!
14 Billy Bush
Nicki might have let Demi’s comments go unpunished, but she had no such mercy when Access Hollywood host Billy Bush decided to reprimand her for her alleged diva-like behavior during a TV appearance on Today. He said that Nicki was “rude”, “unprofessional”, and “indignant” after she walked away from reported Laura Saltman before properly finishing her red carpet interview with her. He even went so far as to label Nicki a “female Kanye”. Those are some pretty strong words! Nicki tweeted her response back to him not long afterward. "The audacity of you to call me nasty with your one sided journalism. That's what u ppl do. Yes. I AM the female Kanye,...u the fake Ryan Seacrest? like my g, who the f*** r u?" Yikes! Things have been pretty quiet on the Billy vs Nicki front since, so hopefully, the host has learned his lesson and won’t call her names again!
13 Drake
It’s hard to believe that these two buds had a little bit of beef at one point, but it’s widely believed they did! It was only a teeny tiny hiccup in their otherwise solid friendship, but that still constitutes a fight in our eyes. The details of the argument were never released, but we’re pretty sure something went down between Drake and Nicki because on his 2013 song ‘Tuscan Leather’ he rapped these suggestive words: "Not even talkin' to Nicki, communication is breakin'/I dropped the ball on some personal s***, I need to embrace it." Thank goodness that whatever they were fighting over didn’t last long, and Drake confirmed that things were all good and sorted by the time the song was released. He discussed feeling negatively towards Nicki at the time he was writing the song and thought changing the lyrics because they patched things up would be like lying about the past.
12 Iggy Azalea
Nicki isn’t the first rap artist to have an issue with fellow rapper Iggy Azalea! The drama started between them back in 2010 when Iggy tweeted a dig at Nicki’s BET performance. "lmao at Nicki saying she did the bet awards live. errrrr. if you say so girl," she said. Mind you, this was a while before Iggy rose to prominence with her hit ‘Fancy’, so we’re not sure Nicki even noticed this tweet! A few years later in 2014, rumors were circulating that Iggy didn’t write her own lyrics to her songs, so many people assumed that Nicki’s comments during her acceptance speech at the BET Awards were indirectly aimed at Iggy. “What I want the world to know about Nicki Minaj,” she said, “is when you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it.” She promptly followed the comments with the words “no shade” and later denied they were about Iggy. Hmm.
11 Cher
Singer Cher never had direct words with Nicki herself (that we know of), but she was called out by Nicki’s boyfriend at the time, Safaree Samuels. In 2011, a concerned fan tweeted Cher to let her know that Nicki’s song ‘Did It On ‘Em’ was secretly dissing her with the lyrics, “If you could turn back time, Cher/You used to be here, now you’re gone, Nair.” We don’t see how any of that is offensive despite using the singer’s name, but Cher got a little bit defensive and responded with this passive-aggressive tweet: "I've seen lots of people come & go! Nobiggie!” Safaree promptly told her not to mess with Nicki and her crew, saying, “do you know what a rap metaphor [sic] is???" Unlike other stars though, Cher was quick to take back her comments and admitted that she’d gotten offended and defensive too quickly. See, that’s how it’s done!
10 Farrah Abraham
Things got ugly between Nicki and reality TV star Farrah Abraham in 2016 after Nicki watched an episode of Teen Mom OG and didn’t like what she saw. “Farrah is a c*** to her mother,” she tweeted. Wowza. She also said that when Sophia, Farrah’s daughter, slapped her, she was really telling her “go do some [videos] & leave gramma alone.” Farrah wasn’t having any of these comments and quickly tweeted the rapper to defend herself. "Cause you're a parent right? Your videos look like [adult film]. Horrible good luck being negative #Godbless busy making TV." The fight continued from there, and Farrah eventually took it to the next level when she brought up the assault charges laid against Nicki’s brother in 2015. Nicki advised Farrah to be happy for her mom’s help (okay, she said it in a much less polite way than that!), and eventually, Sophia named Nicki a “total loser” on video. Messy!
9 Peter Rosenberg
Back in 2012, Nicki was supposed to perform at Hot 97’s Summer Jam, but things changed when host Peter Rosenberg made some comments about her during his opening speech. "I see the real hip-hop heads sprinkled in here, I see 'em. I know there's some chicks here waiting to sing 'Starships' later, I'm not talking to y'all right now,” he told the crowd. “I'm here to talk about real hip-hop s***. People here to see A$AP Rocky today. People here to see ScHoolboy Q on this stage. That's that s*** I represent." Lil Wayne then pulled all Young Money artists out of the show and that was that. Nicki had an interview with Peter a year later and said the following: "I never found you funny. I never found you entertaining. I never found you smart. I just found you annoying. To me, you don't have enough of a resumé to make those comments."
8 Lil Mama
Here we have another one-sided feud that Nicki never really addressed. Lil Mama made some comments about Nicki back in 2013, apparently unimpressed with the way the superstar related to other women. "It's a lot of underground women who are trying to break through, but on a mainstream level, the one person that I really hear on the radio is Nicki Minaj. A lot of times, I hear her say, 'I do this for women,' and 'I'm doing this for all of us,' while she's accepting a BET Award, but other than that I don't see her embracing any other women,” she told BET. “I feel it's time for female MCs to really start sticking together and start putting out some music." She also allegedly took shots at Nicki in her song ‘Too Fly’, by mentioning moving from Trinidad to the U.S.A., which is a move Nicki made with her family as a child.
7 Tyga
Things were cool between Tyga and Nicki in the beginning, but quickly turned sour when Tyga leaked one of Nicki’s songs, ‘Truffle Butter’. "The song was on my album, and we don't know how but it magically ended up in Tyga's hands, and I told him 'That's my song’,” said Nicki in a 2015 interview. "I told him me and Drake were going to be on it, and low and behold, it leaked with him on it after I told him not to put it out. I thought that was a little bit disrespectful because I had always shown him love." Tyga is said to have apologized for his actions, but not long after this saga, Nicki appeared to fire things up again by wearing a jersey reading PERVERT 17 in her ‘Feelin’ Myself’ video. It’s been speculated that this was a jab at the eight-year age difference between Tyga and his girlfriend Kylie Jenner.
6 Gucci Mane
This was a feud that could have totally been avoided if Gucci Mane hadn’t put his foot in his mouth! In September of 2013, the rapper let his followers on Twitter know about all the women he’d supposedly slept with and named Nicki on his little black list. Understandably, Nicki didn’t take this well. “May God strike me dead if I ever [did it] wit that man. Lmfaoooooooooo. … ya #ugliness is set up #BubbaGump #crackhead," she tweeted. She’s certainly not one to mince her words! It could have stopped there, but Gucci persisted with his story and maintained that he’d paid her $60 for the experience. A few weeks later, Gucci apologized for the comments he’d made about Nicki, and explained he was going through a difficult time after battling an addiction with Sizzurp. He also said that he was tweeting from jail and he was majorly embarrassed for his comments.
5 Taylor Swift
It nearly all hit the fan between Taylor Swift and Nicki when the 2015 MTV VMA nominations were released. Nicki was left out of the nominations for Video of the Year, and we guess she didn’t think that was fair, so took to Twitter to say how she really felt about the videos being included. "If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year." Assuming her video was the target of Nicki’s comment, Tay-Tay hit back saying, “I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot." Nicki then denied that the Tweet was aimed at Taylor. “Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn't say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u should speak on this." The two performed together at the VMAs though. Phew!
4 Azealia Banks
Relations have been strained between Nicki and fellow rapper Azealia Banks for a while now. It has been said that it all began when Azealia refused to open up for Nicki on her tour. Nicki then tweeted “#ManTheseB******Delirious", which many people believe was in response to Azealia’s actions. The two went at each other on Twitter for a while, and Azealia had a bit to say about Nicki’s comments regarding only slim women being celebrated in music videos. Azealia called out Nicki on her surgical enhancements and stated that since not everyone can afford them, it is not fair to judge women who can’t. Then in May of 2015, Azealia spoke out about her feelings towards Nicki’s success at the BET Awards. “The female rap award at the bet awards goes to Nicki every year, it's not even a real award anymore lol it's a bit of a running joke.” Awks!
3 Miley Cyrus
Nicki’s beef with Miley Cyrus came to the world’s attention in 2015 after Miley weighed in on the way Nicki allegedly called out Taylor. "There's a way to talk to people,” said Miley. “What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj, is not too kind. It's not very polite. I think there's a way you speak to people with openness and love." Nicki waited until she was on stage accepting her award to address the comments. After her speech, she turned to the singer and said, “And now...back to this b**** that had a lot to say about me in the press. Miley, what's good?" Miley was clearly put on the spot but then confirmed that her words had been manipulated. Many people suspected that this was a bit of a stunt for ratings, but all involved have maintained that it was a total surprise. It did raise ratings, though!
2 Mariah Carey
Nicki and Mariah Carey actually worked together back in 2010, and the tension didn’t really begin until the two were set to work together on the judging panel of American Idol’s Season 12. Nicki told E! that Mariah had admitted to not wanting to work with another female, and video footage was soon released of the two judges going at it in between contestants, with Mariah likening Nicki to a child and Nicki calling Mariah “her f****** highness”. Barbara Walters then interviewed Mariah about the feud and fueled the idea that Nicki had threatened Mariah with a gun. Nicki was not okay with these allegations and accused her of spreading rumors. Nicki and Mariah just about bickered throughout the entire series, and unsurprisingly, none of them returned the next year. Mariah stated later that working on the show was “like going to work every day in hell with Satan.” Oh dear!
1 Lil' Kim
The original and perhaps mother of all Nicki Minaj opponents has to be Lil' Kim. Though Nicki stated that she saw Lil' Kim as an inspiration and wanted to show her love, Lil' Kim saw Nicki as a style thief, when it came to both her music and her look. Nicki’s ‘Roman’s Revenge’ is said to be a diss track for Lil' Kim, but Lil' Kim’s ‘Black Friday’ is a lot less subtle, playing Nicki’s song ‘Right Thru Me’ and calling it suicide music in the middle of the track. She also raps about Nicki being a “Lil' Kim wannabe” and a “swagger jacker”. It doesn’t stop there, though! Lil' Kim has also impersonated Nicki and mocked the way she talks in more than one interview, hinting that she felt like Nicki’s performances were overrated. This is sadly another bit of beef that we don’t think Nicki is ever getting away from, but we’re pretty sure she can handle it!
