On Thursday night, as the music world was preparing for Lil Baby’s new album to drop, Nicki Minaj was prepping for war. It always somehow comes back to this. Nicki Minaj was understandably upset yesterday when she learned that her massive single “Super Freaky Girl” will reportedly not be considered for hip-hop categories at the Grammys; it will be in the running for Best Pop Solo Performance instead. Then she brought Latto into it for some reason—and everything went left after that. 

Nicki decided to project her frustration about the possible Grammy nomination snub toward Latto by saying that if “Super Freaky Girl” doesn’t get acknowledged, neither should other pop-adjacent rap songs like her “Genius of Love”-sampled track, “Big Energy.” Nicki asserted that anyone who thinks otherwise is just a “Nicki hater or a troll.” 

It goes without saying that a confused Latto logged into Twitter last night; she mentioned she didn’t respond to Minaj publicly until she revealed that she had tried to have a private conversation with her. That’s when all hell broke loose, with both rappers sending shots on the timeline while many fans were still confused as to why Nicki was upset at Latto in the first place. It turns out, some cited subliminal tweets that Latto made a week prior to that could have been directed at Minaj.

With the timeline finally calm (for the moment) and many of the tweets now deleted, here is a brief timeline of the feud that erupted between Nicki Minaj and Latto.

Date: Oct. 6

On Oct. 6, Latto tweeted and deleted: “‘Big Energy’ is the highest selling solo song of the year & longest charting solo song by a female rapper ever btw.” Some believed that the tweet was a subliminal shot at Nicki, who holds several records of her own as being one of the best-selling women artists of all time. The theories were unsubstantiated, however, and Minaj did not directly respond to Latto’s tweet while it was still up a few weeks ago.

Date: Oct. 13

According to the Hollywood Reporter, a source cited that Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girls” was pulled from Grammy consideration for any rap categories, and instead was being considered for Best Pop Solo Performance. It’s worth noting that the official Grammy nominations do not get announced until Nov. 15. Still, that report was enough for Minaj to tweet her disapproval of the Academy’s decision. She also projected her frustration onto Latto, who she believes shouldn’t deserve any rap nominations for her track “Big Energy.”

“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,’” Minaj said during an Instagram Live session last night around the 3:30 mark. “Same producers on both songs, by the way,” she added. “So let’s keep shit fair.” Both tracks were produced by controversial music veteran Dr. Luke.

Time: 8:13 p.m. 

Once Latto caught wind of Nicki’s comments, she took to social media to voice her disappointment in being called out for doing absolutely nothing. “Damn I can’t win for losing… all these awards/noms I can’t even celebrate,” the rapper tweeted. It would later be revealed by Minaj that Latto had communicated with her offline in an attempt to understand where she was coming from. Minaj was not having that, though, and would go on to air out their conversation, which escalated the feud even further.

Time: 10:22 p.m.

After Latto attempted to try and deescalate the situation over private message, Minaj took to Twitter to call the Atlanta rapper, who is half white, an “entitled Karen” and says that she decided to “be silent; rather than speak up for the black woman she called her biggest inspiration.”

Time: 11:26 p.m.

Latto did not take Nicki’s insult lying down, and instead responded to her directly saying that she only texted her because she wanted to squash the dispute off the internet. While some believed Latto was the first to send subliminal messages a few weeks ago, she claims she’s been ignoring slick shots from Minaj that date all the way back to March.

Latto pulls out receipts of Nicki seemingly calling her a “dud” at the beginning of October as well, later calling her a “40-year-old bully” after Minaj made a joke about thinking she was in her mid 30s. “The most recent subtweet in question… but I’m finna start from the beginning #40yroldbully.” This rhetoric from Nicki falls in line with a history of issues she’s had with the younger generation of artists.

Time: 12:30 a.m., October 14

Nicki and Latto continued to trade shots live on the timeline, which included Nicki sharing private messages she received from the young rapper a year ago asking to work together and other reference tracks. Latto retorted by sharing clips of how she always admired Nicki and would say she was one of her biggest inspirations, despite Nicki trying to make it seem otherwise. While calling her “super freaky grandma,” Latto also fires back at Minaj by bringing up how her husband, Kenneth Petty, is a registered sex offender.

Nicki responds by questioning why Latto didn’t have this same energy for Kodak Black, another sex offender who sent shots at her a few weeks back, or why she used a sample from Dr. Luke in the first place.

Time: 4:16 a.m., October 14

As Nicki slowly began responding to Latto less and getting her army of Barbz involved by responding to their tweets about what was going on, Latto shared a video clip of a conversation between her and Minaj where they argued about the history of women in rap. In the footage, Latto can be heard telling Nicki that she never meant to make it sound like she was diminishing her role in paving a way for women in the industry, while Nicki combatively responds saying that Latto doesn’t know her history and should do more research.

Date: April 17, 2023

Months after the last time either Nicki Minaj or Latto sent any public shots at each other, Latto took some time out of her Coachella set to remind the crowd that she’s still not backing down from any smoke. The Atlanta rapper premiered a new song during her performance, and it sounds like she dedicated a few bars to Minaj in the track.

“Say she got a problem, imaginary smoke/Bitch, you said it’s up, then put on the floor,” Latto raps, before closing the song with “Let a bitch know, we tired of the subtweets this year.”

While Latto never addresses Minaj by name, she’s clearly referencing all of the subliminal shots that had been sent her way from the Barbz over the past year. Nicki has yet to respond.