"It’s OK if Cardi B and Nicki Minaj don’t like each other"

By: Claire Lobenfeld

Less than a week after Cardi B released her deft debut Invasion of Privacy, Nicki Minaj stoked the rumors of beef between the two rappers by releasing two new tracks that could conceivable be aimed at Cardi. After Nicki’s tense, and seemingly confessional, interview on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show, Claire Lobenfeld trims the fat off this possible beef and examines what both artists bring to the table at this moment.

When Cardi B released Invasion of Privacy last week, there was a lot of chatter on Twitter, at least in my own timeline, about whether or not both Cardi and Nicki Minaj can shine without stealing each other’s light. I saw haughty tweets condemning the idea of competition between them and hopeful tweets nearing on fanfic about how powerful they could be together. And they are strong together: just listen to ‘MotorSport’, a 2017 Migos single that both Nicki and Cardi are featured on. Without
them, it’s a slog. But since that track didn’t result in the two of them in an affectionate alliance, it felt fairly clear to me that they’re probably just not each other’s cup of tea.

And that’s OK! It’s not anti-feminist to not want to be friends with or be a fan of another woman. (In fact, it’s actually more belittling to women to expect that they like each other simply because they share a gender.) Plus, this is hip-hop! It’s about competition! We would have just let LL Cool J keep “G.O.A.T.” as a goofy album title instead of adopting it as an esteemed measurement if striving to be the best wasn’t part of the game.

The Thursday after Cardi released her impressive debut album Invasion of Privacy, Apple Music declared it #NickiDay. Minaj debuted two singles on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show and hinted at a brand new album coming later this year, and told a story about how she had her feelings hurt by some press Cardi B did after ‘MotorSport’ was released.

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