On the evening of July 15, Nicki Minaj and SZA briefly got into it on X (formerly Twitter). After a series of tweets aimed at Top Dawg Entertainment and its president, Terrence “Punch” Henderson in which Minaj accused Punch of several misdeeds, SZA issued what Minaj and the Barbz interpreted as a subliminal message in the rapper’s direction, leading to insults flying in SZA’s direction. SZA responded in kind, kicking off a new and entirely unexpected beef between two artists who’d never shown themselves to have issues with one another before it began. What caused it?
Nicki Minaj Reopens Her Beef With Roc Nation
Nicki Minaj reheated the beef with Jay-Z and Roc Nation in June, after seemingly threatening to expose the legendary rapper and his longtime business partner, Desiree Perez, in a series of tweets. She claims that Perez, who has been Roc Nation’s CEO since 2019, is behind the several instances of “swatting” that she’s experienced over the last year. She also alleged that Jay-Z owes her hundreds of millions of dollars. During her recent crusade against Roc Nation, Minaj began attaching “#JusticeForDemoree” to the end of many of her tweets. The hashtag refers to Desiree Perez’s daughter, Demoree Hadley. Hadley is suing her mother, alleging that Perez sent her to a psychiatric facility for two weeks without reason, and Minaj wants Hadley to be vindicated in a court of law. Minaj has been focused on Roc Nation for weeks, but she briefly took a break from her condemnation of Jay and Perez to shift her attention to TDE.
Nicki Minaj Takes Aim At Punch
On July 15, Punch posted the phrase “Broken Barbies” on X. The phrase referred to the song of the same name by budding rapper iAmLyric, who is part of the Punch-helmed collective aroomfullofmirrors. Nicki Minaj started firing off tweets about TDE and Punch after erroneously interpreting the post as a diss. In reality, it was promotion for an artist he manages.
She accused Punch of bullying, harassing, and lying to her on multiple occasions. "Lol. Yall remember that man from tde who kept bullying me on Twitter for no reason? We have the receipts. [...] Im going to give him a nickname. Ima call him 'Minus 30 million' from now on. #JusticeForDemoree," she wrote in a post. She continued the onslaught against Punch by posting a picture of him with the caption “me after I suck some good zik,” adding that she “guarantees” he wouldn’t fight a man. “We have every tweet of your incessant bullying, lying, & more. Your name was added to that s**t list s***ty drawers. Same thing that make you laugh make you…s**t.” Minaj also accused the TDE president of engaging in a smear campaign after she reportedly turned down a business proposal from him.
SZA Enters The Fray And The Beef Begins
About ten minutes after Nicki Minaj’s tweet storm ended, SZA sent out a post of her own. “Mercury retrograde .. don’t take the bait lol silly goose,” she wrote. Minaj and her fans believed that the post was in reference to Minaj going scorched earth on Punch, as the two have a close relationship and Punch was SZA’s primary manager for over a decade. “Go draw your freckles back on bookie... Liar liar pants on fire. Sounding like a fkng dead dog,” she said in response to SZA’s tweet. That prompted an out-of-character reaction from the typically non-confrontational singer. “I don’t give a f**k bout none of that weird sh*t you popping,” she stated.
When fans pointed out that the Barbz are a ruthless fanbase, she suggested that the hate she may get online is unimportant compared to the love she gets in real life. “GET SOME F***ING PERSPECTIVE n BARK AT THE WALL,” she concluded. After a different fan attempted to discredit her success because she’s on a joint tour with Kendrick Lamar, she pointed out that she’s one of four Black women in history to gross $100 million on a solo tour. “Lmao lemme go back to being calm shy and meek. Yall have blessed night,” she wrote after the brief back and forth.
Nicki Minaj Continues To Drag SZA On X
Minaj continued to drag SZA on X well after the first part of their quarrel. She talked about SZA having fake freckles and flexed her own success. “Did you look at the venues I played on my OWN headlined FESTIVAL tour out of the country last year? B***h have you ever headlined to 80K ppl?” she asked in a lengthy, highly critical tweet.
Minaj also attacked SZA’s singing abilities, her appearance (calling her “musty” and “fat, chubby, and skinny” at the same time), and saying she was “insecure” for releasing LANA as a deluxe edition of SOS over a year after the album’s initial release instead of putting it out as its own album. She also referred to her as “MZA,” saying she’s been “miserable” for nearly two decades. Minaj then accused SZA of cozying up to the same people she used to diss, namely Rihanna and Ciara. Additionally, she showed off her commercial accomplishments a few more times, reposting several items about her being one of the two best-selling Black female artists in history.
Read More: SZA "SOS Deluxe: LANA" Review
Minaj Goes Live To Further Attack SZA
After the X tirade, Nicki Minaj went live on Stationhead to keep bashing SZA, calling her a “yodeling fool” and floating the idea that the singer slept her way to the top. “Take your yodeling a** on somewhere else, b***h. Tried to break that man’s back, I think. Allegedly.” She also implied that several women in the industry are being used as “pawns,” and also implied that several of her contemporaries are having some portion of their stream count boosted by bots. ”Streams have been vanishing left and right. Where have they gone?” she asked sarcastically. “But talent wins,” she continued. “And talent is God-given.” Combined with her posts on X, Minaj’s implication appears to be that she is one of the few artists out there that has legitimate streams and listeners, while many others (like SZA) do not.
Punch Explains The Minaj-SZA Beef?
After the actual spat concluded, Punch reappeared on X. “So what did I miss?” he asked. On the July 16 edition of The Breakfast Club, Loren LoRosa revealed that she texted Punch following the SZA-Minaj spat in an attempt to get some information as to why things blew up. "He said, 'Back in 2020, Nicki Minaj reached out for a SZA feature on a song.' He responded and told Nicki Minaj that SZA was in album mode heavy and that he would get it over to her and that was it. They never spoke again. Feature didn't happen, but he says he's lost after that as well," LoRosa relayed. Based on LoRosa’s conversation with him, it doesn’t seem that Punch knew of any brewing conflict between Nicki Minaj and SZA. If anything, SZA had been complimentary to Minaj in the past, shouting her out in 2018 for “championing” herself. Clearly, those days are over now. If the pair doing a song together was difficult before, it is likely an impossibility now, to say the least.
Nicki Minaj Continues The Anti-SZA Attacks On X
Following the segment on The Breakfast Club, Nicki Minaj continued to go after SZA on X. She reiterated the accusations of illegitimate streams. “Imagine paying for botted streams and bragging as they’re being taken away,” she wrote. She also flexed her commercial success again, suggesting that she’ll update her record certifications to accurately reflect how many units she’s sold. Following that, Minaj called her “MZA” again, saying SZA “took the bait” by replying to Instagram accounts who reposted the singer’s old tweets mocking her peers, Minaj included.
She then quoted a video that reportedly depicted Kendrick Lamar fans leaving the stadium during SZA’s sections of the co-headlining tour they’re on. "Is this that h* tour or her bro tour," she asked, a reference to the infamous line from Drake's "Back To Back." Moreover, she referred to SZA as a “fake girl’s girl,” saying that she’s the type who “talks s**t” but will do things on camera to "pretend they’re not the hater they really are."
SZA Responds To Nicki Minaj Again, Confirms Punch's Story
SZA opted to re-engage with Nicki Minaj after the latest series of tweets about her. She responded to the “fake girl’s girl” tweet, coming with receipts. She posted a screenshot of the conversation between Minaj and Punch that Loren LoRosa detailed on The Breakfast Club. “Nicki . You absolutely know my music and what I contribute cause you’ve asked for features twice to no response,” SZA wrote in the caption accompanying the screenshot. She also mentioned that Minaj has actually rapped lyrics written by SZA. She has a writing credit (under her real name, Solána Rowe) on Minaj's song “Feeling Myself,” which also features Beyonce. “Lol ur having a moment ..im not sure why but be blessed,” she concluded. Following that reply, Nicki Minaj sent one more tweet bashing SZA’s appearance (specifically her hair and drawn-on freckles), but has seemingly refocused on Roc Nation and Desiree Perez. It will be interesting to see if anything more comes of this beef, or if the two will go back to leaving each other alone, as they had for many years before.
