Bronx emcee Cardi B is undoubtedly the hot new girl on the block in female rap. Following Nicki Minaj’s ten-year reign on the throne as the self-proclaimed “Queen Of Rap”, when Cardi B broke onto the scene in 2017 with her debut single ‘Bodak Yellow’, it saw the start of a new era. Since 2007, for the best part of a decade, Nicki Minaj remained unchallenged and reigned supreme over female rap. Although some acts, such as Azealia Banks and Iggy Azalea, emerged during the Young Money artist’s reign, both artists failed to garner the same amount of attention as Minaj and, as such, most definitely operated in her shadow.
Many people had opinions about Cardi and her music when she exploded. However, when Wiz Khalifa had a brief spat with her, it wasn’t about the content she was producing but about the rapper’s potentially malicious intentions in drawing comparisons between the Bronx native (real name Belcalis Almanzar) and the Minaj (born Onika Maraj). In 2021, following the announcement of the Grammy nominees for the category of ‘Best Rap Album’, Nicki Minaj tweeted that she would “never forget” her 2011 debut body of work, Pink Friday Grammy snub. Maraj’s first project spawned seven Billboard chart hits. It became the best-selling female hip-hop album since The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.
However, with Cardi B consistently getting nominated despite the fact her sales have always been lower than Minaj, Wiz Khalifa was quick to come to the defence of the ‘Super Bass’ rapper. Taking to social media, the Pittsburgh rapper (real name Cameron Thomaz) sympathised with Minaj concerning how it can be saddening as an artist not to see your accomplishments reflected in Grammy nominations. One Wiz fan tweeted, “Cardi winning a Grammy when Nicki Minaj didn’t is the biggest proof that they don’t know a sh*t ’bout music,”
Upon seeing this, the artist replied, “Most self-made artists have this problem.” From the tweet, many assumed that the rapper was trying to insinuate Cardi B was not self-made, and so did Almanzar herself. The ‘WAP’ musician was quick to fight back and did so by posting a screenshot of an Instagram DM Khalifa sent her in 2016. The message was delivered before the Bronx emcee became a household name and read, “Don’t stray away from the things that are important to you and make you you. Keep your light shining, and don’t let others take it.”
Further expressing her outrage, Almanzar tweeted, “This was n***as in my DMs in 2016! They really support you when you grinding at the bottom then it’s a different story when you make it!” Cardi shared more thoughts on the situation in a follow-up tweet. “I don’t understand why n***as entertain tweets that pit successful women against each other? Ya not tired of that? Specially when ya was rooting hard when a b*tch was at the bottom,” she said.
You can see further analysis of this brief spat in the video below.
