It’s insane to think that Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus — who were once on good terms with each other — haven’t seen eye-to-eye in six years. The two had a massive fall-out in the lead-up to the 2015 Video Music Awards, after Cyrus made comments in an interview, insisting that the “Super Bass” rapper wasn’t a nice person while addressing the latter’s then-feud with Taylor Swift.
While Cyrus had always shown love to Minaj and her music (and vice versa), the remarks made about the Trinidadian clearly weren’t appreciated, which was apparent when both ladies attended the VMAs where their beef reached new heights.
After winning Best Hip Hop Video at the awards ceremony, Minaj took a moment to address her issue with Cyrus before asking the former Hannah Montana star “what’s good?” While viewers at home believed that the entire thing was staged to create some controversy, apparently it wasn’t as Cyrus’ dad Billy Ray was allegedly furious by the incident.
Here’s what sources say went down after Minaj took a slight shot at Cyrus on stage.
Did Nicki Minaj Get Blackballed?
While it’s unclear whether or not this was the exact moment the music industry turned on Minaj, it would go without saying that the feud with Cyrus definitely contributed to the debacle.
According to YouTube gossip channel, Empressive, who boasts 1.2 million subscribers, the fiasco between Cyrus and Minaj was far from planned or staged — in fact, Minaj’s career was heavily affected by what she said towards the Disney alum because Billy Ray allegedly demanded an apology from Minaj and she declined.
The allegation was made by producer and hip hop director Choke No Joke, who went into detail about the feud between two women in Hollywood which we all assumed was part of the act since the VMAs are known for their shock value moments.
But this time, it was the complete opposite.
“The reason Nicki Minaj is being blackballed right now is because of Miley Cyrus,” Choke No Joke said, via Empressive. “Y’all remember her going on the MTV awards and threatening Miley? Well, Miley’s father is a very powerful man in the industry, and if you look up her family and you know her background, y’all know that she’s connected to some powerful people.”
He went on to claim that the “Achy Breaky Heart” hitmaker then got in touch with Minaj’s record label boss and longtime friend Birdman (also known as Baby), demanding that his artist apologizes to his daughter, but apparently, she refused.
“When Nicki Minaj did that to Miley at the awards show, her father called Baby [Birdman]; they call him up and they told him, ‘Listen, you better tell that n-word, b-word that she better publicly apologise to my daughter — and I’m sure that Birdman gave Nicki that message from what I’m told.”
“Nicki refused to apologise,” he added. “She said, ‘I’m not going to apologise.’ And that man [Billy Ray] is bigger than Birdman; he got more money than Birdman — he’s much more powerful.”
In case you forgot what had triggered Minaj to take aim at Cyrus at the show, to begin with, the former teen star had weighed in on her comments about Minaj not being happy with the nominations she got at the VMAs, including Best Video, and she insinuated that artists of color were being overlooked while the likes of Swift were nominated in almost every category.
Swift later responded with a snarky comment on Twitter, clearly unhappy with Minaj’s opinion, but the two settled their differences when they performed a mash-up of their hits together at the show.
With Cyrus, however, she had shared her comments about Swift and Minaj’s feud (before the two performed at the VMAs and squashed their differences) and told The New York Times, “What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind.”
Minaj clearly wasn’t impressed by the comment. Even her fans were baffled by the remark since the self-proclaimed Queen of Rap appeared to be in good spirits with Cyrus just a few months earlier when they introduced Madonna’s performance at the Grammys.
Two years after her feud with Cyrus erupted did Minaj find herself in what she called a “hate train,” where a string of artists was said to have gathered together in an attempt to “bring her down.”
This would later lead to a feud with Remy Ma and Cardi B, who infamously threw her stiletto heel at the New York native at the Harper’s Bazaar Icons Party in September 2018, claiming Minaj had spoken ill about her newborn daughter — an assertion which she has strongly denied.
