When Nicki Minaj heard her hit single “Super Freaky Girl” will reportedly not be considered for hip-hop categories at the Grammys and compete for Best Pop Solo Performance instead, she brought Latto into it—and a long back-and-forth got deeply personal.
“Now, let’s say that ‘Super Freaky Girl’ is a pop song. Let’s just say that. What is [Latto’s] ‘Big Energy’? … If you move ‘Super Freaky Girl’ out of rap and put it in pop, do the same thing for ‘Big Energy,’” the 10-time nominee said in a series of Instagram Live remarks on the confusing potential move by the Recording Academy.
“Same producers on both songs, by the way,” she added. “So let’s keep shit fair.” Controversial superproducer Dr. Luke and Vaughn Oliver are credited on each single.
When a fan tweeted at Nicki to point out Latto “herself has even called it pop,” 39-year-old Minaj wrote, “Yikes.”
At this point Latto, 23, took to her account to wonder why she was brought into the conversation. “Damn I can’t win for losing…all these awards/noms I can’t even celebrate,” tweeted the recent winner of the BET Hip Hop Award for Song of the Year, a victory Kodak Black lashed out at her for.
A couple hours later Minaj decided to reveal a text from Latto where the latter agreed but “because of where we left off ion think u need to bring my name/song up.” Here Nicki started calling her “Scratch Off” and a “Karen,” writing alongside a screenshot of the text, “This Karen has probably mentioned my name in over 100 interviews. Says she waited in line for Pink Friday w|her Barbie chain on, bangs, pink hair…but today, scratch off decides to be silent; rather than speak up for the black woman she called her biggest inspiration.”
Latto clapped back by saying she texted because she “didn’t wanna do the internet [shit]” with someone the rising star “looked up to.”
“Just like the 1st time I DMed u asking about ur ongoing subtweets. I wanted to speak up cuz like I said I do agree but the way u going about it seems malicious,” she added. “I’ve ignored countless subtweets since March and instead addressed u in the dm. … Ur literally older than my mom tryna be a bully @NICKIMINAJ.”
The Atlanta MC shared one of the Nicki posts she considered a subtweet and promised more to come, starting “from the beginning.”
Nicki told Latto she was imagining things, asserting, “It goes to show she made up these ‘subtweets’ in her head simply b/c she sent me 2 songs I declined to do features on. They all do this.”
She also responded to the “older than my mom” jab. “Age shaming when you look like YOU the one pushing 40. … Oh so you in your 20’s. Oh ok then. At least it match your album sales. You sold 20K right?” Minaj prodded. She continued to get more personal, saying she’d expose Latto’s ghostwriters and calling her Blackness into question. “She used me & the Barbz in every interview until that album sold double wood. now she wiping that spray tan off & being a Karen. They black when it’s beneficial chi.”
The two proceeded to outline their sides of the story, with a slew of screenshots and shade. In Nicki’s “story in 5 parts,” she continued calling Latto a Karen “who blames others for her album flopping,” saying “every dm from scratch off is about a feature” and that the 777 artist “feels she has pull behind the scenes w|a few diff white men (won’t name right now).”
“U only get called old when you pass on their features 😩 i ain’t never diss my idols for not giving me a feature,” the Queen spitter wound up tweeting. “I bowed to lauryn hill feet when I met her. Feature or no feature. Should I call her old now? She a grandmother & still out rapping you.”
Latto said Nicki has been “literally fishing for a reason to backup being a bully” and is “so meticulous w her shade so she can twist it later and act like it wasn’t about you.”
“I literally named u as my dream collab multiple times in multiple interviews…like I told u otp I looked up to u…u still never answered my question about where the random shade started coming from,” she wrote. “With all this being said this wasn’t JUST about a Grammy category. U being funny bringing me up to defend ur case knowing our last convo didn’t end on good terms. U literally told me I’m not ‘flourishing’ and no one cares about my ‘little song.’”
Sharing yet another example of what she ID’d as a sub, Latto went for the jugular, calling Nicki Minaj a grandmother and bringing up her husband Kenneth Petty and brother Jelani Maraj’s checkered pasts, including convictions and/or allegations of sex crimes.
“Super freaky grandma is married AND related to fucking rapists,” the rapper tweeted. “You ain’t gone bully me BITCH! My idol turned rival now u hating!”
Nicki wasted no time shooting back, saying Latto “didn’t care about rape when she was begging for features,” and also “didn’t care” about allegations against Kodak Black or Dr. Luke.
“News Flash scratch off. I’ve never raped anyone. I’ve inspired millions. You’re one of them BOZO,” Minaj said.
She continued, “Y’all keep letting these bozos weaponize the WORD rape when they’re being dragged & not holding them accountable for not actually CARING about rape VICTIMS in REAL LIFE. They have the same 2 drags about me & one of them ain’t eem bout me. That’s how you know when you dat btch.”
Later into the night, Latto addressed the recording of a conversation. When sharing clips, she indirectly referred to Minaj as a “bully.”
