Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion’s Rap Beef Explained: From Diss Tracks to ‘Big Foot’ Single
Rap’s It Girls are at each other’s throats.
The drama between Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion hit its boiling point on Jan. 29 when Minaj released a lone single called “Big Foot” — an apparent response or “diss track” in retaliation to Megan Thee Stallion’s new song “Hiss.”
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“Hiss” touched on various aspects of Megan’s tumultuous life as a public figure. Still, it was one line in particular that caught the attention of Minaj: “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law,” Megan raps fervently over a boosted beat. “I don’t really know what the problem is, but I guarantee y’all don’t want me to start.”
Megan’s Law is a federal law requiring law enforcement to make information available about registered sex offenders. The lyric was picked apart by listeners who linked it as an apparent dig from Megan to Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, who is a registered sex offender.
Petty was convicted of attempted rape in April 1995 for an assault on a 16-year-old girl. He served four years for the incident. Petty has also served time for manslaughter in the first degree for killing a man in 2002.
Minaj has defended her husband restlessly for years: After talk show host Wendy Williams addressed Petty’s crimes on her show in November 2019, Minaj took to her own Queen Radio show to say, “Every time you mention him you feel the need to bring these things up… I didn’t know that in our society, you have to be plagued by your past. I didn’t know that people can’t turn over a new leaf.”
So, it came as no surprise that Minaj quickly ran to her husband’s defense via Instagram Live shortly after “Hiss” became a trending topic on X. Though she remained off-screen for the majority of her Live, Minaj sounded heavily agitated while previewing a then-unreleased track that made several references to the Houston-bred artist getting shot in the foot by Tory Lanez in 2020. The highly-publicized trial ended last year with Lanez being sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Things weren’t always at odds between Minaj and Megan, who collaborated on the latter’s 2019 single “Hot Girl Summer.” But fans suspected that their relationship had since soured. When Minaj released her album “Pink Friday 2” in December, some speculated that she was sending a vague shot at Megan on “FTCU,” referencing a line that nodded towards Lanez. “Stay in your Tory Lanez, bitch, I’m not Iggy,” she rapped, referring to Iggy Azalea, who made headlines after she wrote a letter to the judge in support of Lanez during his trial in the fallout from the alleged Megan shooting.
As Minaj went on Live to address “Hiss,” Megan appeared on “The Breakfast Club” that morning to say it was written for the “motherfuckers [who use] Megan Thee Stallion name, they get 24 hours of attention,” she said, before adding, “I’m saying, a hit dog gon’ holler. That’s it. Whoever feel it, feel it.”
Minaj’s song, titled “Big Foot,” got its official release on Jan. 29 but Minaj had already previewed most of the song’s heavy-hitting lyrics on her Instagram Live and X over the weekend.
She was quoted criticizing Megan for winning Grammys but still needing to “learn how to rap on the beat and be comfortable in the music.” About the “Megan’s Law” line, Minaj said, “You bringing up 30-year-old tea from when this man was a 15-year-old child. You bringing up 30-year-old tea cause no man will ever fucking love you, and lying on your dead mother.” (Megan’s mother died in 2019.)
The lyrics in “Big Foot” make similar claims about Megan “lying on your dead momma,” and the shooting incident with Lanez.
“Bad bitch, she like 6 foot, I call her Big Foot, the bitch fell off, I said get up on your good foot,” Minaj raps. The song culminates into a whispered, minute-long spoken word segment in which Minaj declares she’s “very serious,” adding that she has more to say in “the second installment”: “Hoe, the things that you’ve lied about, even pertaining to your mom — you don’t want them out, OK?”
Minaj later joined podcast host Joe Budden on Spaces, the live audio feature on X (formerly known as Twitter). She claimed Megan was “milking” the Lanez shooting by attempting to win sympathy for herself as a victim. “It’s so obvious,” said Minaj. “She wanted a Rihanna moment so bad.”
When asked which “Rihanna moment” she was referring to, Minaj dodged the question by saying the answer was on Google. It’s safe to assume Minaj was referencing Chris Brown’s 2009 assault on Rihanna since Minaj went on to allude to Rihanna’s interview with ABC News in comparison to Megan’s interview with Gayle King on CBS Morning.
“Rihanna never would milk — you could tell she wanted to move on with her life,” said Minaj. “People bashed her for not dragging it out.”
Minaj also said Megan had lied to King during their interview since Megan denied having sexual relations with Lanez and later confirmed she did have an intimate but non-exclusive relationship with Lanez during the trial.
“Rihanna knows she was a superstar with or without controversy,” Minaj continued. “She’s loved, with or without controversy, sympathy.”
Elsewhere during the livestream, Minaj refuted claims that she had in any way incited her fans to disrespect or threaten Megan’s mother’s grave. These claims began swirling after TMZ published a news story looking into the security detail surrounding the grave after its location was allegedly leaked online.
“You just spoke on a fake story,” Minaj rebutted. “It’s a ploy! Lying on your dead momma to go Number One… That’s a prime example of the constant lies I’ve had to face as a human being, and as an artist, and as a wife. I’ve simply asked for them to stop now that I’m a mother and it hasn’t. And now people believe what you’ve just said and it’s disgusting.”
At the time of this article’s publication, Megan has not issued a direct response to “Big Foot” or any of the numerous social media posts or comments made about her on Minaj’s behalf. Instead, Megan has been promoting “Hiss,” which is said to be the second single for her unreleased third studio record, and recently announced a tour on “Good Morning America.”
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