This year, hip-hop culture celebrated its 50th anniversary. Each month has been filled with notable concerts, televised specials, and, most importantly, flower-giving to pioneers in the space. So, when an interview clip from HipHopDX (a fellow subsidiary of Warner Music Group) surfaced of Trina dubbing Beyoncé, the queen of rap, lovers of the genre were sent into a tailspin.
As a twenty-year veteran, fans wondered why she didn’t name herself, longtime friend Missy Elliott, or even former collaborators like Nicki Minaj during the chat. Users online began to speculate that there was a deeper reasoning behind her answer, specifically her not mentioning the latter. So, do Nicki Minaj and Trina have beef? According to Trina, the answer is no, but the Barbz beg to differ.
In a 2019 Instagram Live promoting their joint song “BAPS (Bad Ass Pretty Sagittarius),” Trina shut down the reports of friction between the two. “There is no beef between me and Nicki Minaj. There will be no disrespect for Nicki Minaj or nobody else that’s on my album,” said Trina.
However, during a Queen Radio episode following the song hit streaming platforms, Nicki Minaj revealed that members of Trina’s team did express frustration with her for not promoting the record to their standards and not working with them to film an official visual for the track given that she had for Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer.”
“I always show the same love to everybody anytime I do a song with somebody. I show love just because I appreciate being a part of their record. But, for [Trina’s] team or anybody’s team to feel like I owe you anything or to go out and disrespect me because I’m showing love to another female and you’re not gonna check them, that’s not cool,” said Nicki.
So, in the eyes of the Barbz, there could still be lingering animosity between the rappers, hence the inferred dig in the HipHopDX interview.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.