Story highlights
- Internet feud erupts after Taylor Swift chastises Nicki Minaj for comments about race
- Tweets using #TeamNicki outnumber #TeamTaylor two to one
- Kim Kardashian appeared to join the conversation, before backing out
(CNN)If you remember Miley twerking or Kanye's mic-snatching, you'll know music awards can get chaotic.
Like on Tuesday, when singer Taylor Swift took a Twitter dig at hip-hop queen Nicki Minaj and the Internet erupted into a sprawling conversation about race and gender.
And then Kim Kardashian got involved. Stay with us.
'Black women are rarely rewarded'
It started when Minaj took to her keyboard to vent after one of her biggest hits wasn't nominated for video of the year for the MTV Video Music Awards.
Mind you, this isn't any old clip. "Anaconda," an uproarious, raunchy twist on pop culture portrayals of curvy black women, received 19.6 million clicks in its first 24 hours, a music video record at the time.
Photos: Biggest celebrity feuds
Photos: Biggest celebrity feuds
It's a case of he said/she said/he said. Eminem set it off after he claimed to have had a torrid dating relationship with singer Mariah Carey, who denied it. Her then husband, Nick Cannon, even offered to defend her honor by meeting the rapper in the ring.
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One of pop music's biggest beefs has apparently ended. In June, Katy Perry let the world know via her Instagram account that all is now well between her and Taylor Swift.
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Kanye West took to Twitter in September 2018 to apologize to fellow rapper Drake after West got caught up in a beef Drake was having with Pusha- T. He seemed to renew the feud in a barrage of tweets in December.
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Rappers Nicki Minaj and Cardi B took their feud to new heights when the two got into a fight leaving a New York Fashion Week party in September 2018. Partygoers posted video of the fight on social media. The pair traded insults in the public eye after and appeared to call a truce in October.
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Rappers Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Ja Rule have a long history of beefing which began in 1999. Their latest incident happened in October 2018 when 50 Cent said he bought 200 tickets to Ja Rule's concert to keep the seats empty. Ja Rule retaliated with some non-flattering, photoshopped images of 50 Cent he posted on social media.
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Singer Lana Del Rey, left, is the latest celeb to have a beef with rapper Azealia Banks. The pair got into it over Del Rey's comments about a Kanye West social media post, and it soon escalated to Del Rey threatening Banks and Banks criticizing Del Rey's appearance.
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Kanye West gets into it with lots of folks, the latest being Nick Cannon. West posted a series of videos on his official Instagram account taking Cannon and rapper Drake to task over speculation that Drake had been intimate with West's wife, Kim Kardashian West (she has denied it). Cannon, who formerly dated Kardashian West, responded with his own video on Instagram saying he won't be told what he's allowed to say.
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Kanye West gave Jimmy Kimmel the rap feud he's always wanted. After Kimmel poked fun at West's 2013 interview with the BBC -- in which the entertainer called himself the No. 1 rock star on the planet -- West went to Twitter to air his profane grievances (in all caps, of course). The two later made amends with a televised sit-down.
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Paris Hilton, left, and Lindsay Lohan's beef dates back to 2006 when Lohan was reportedly linked to Hilton's ex, Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos. There was shade over the years with Lohan remarking on Hilton's famous sex tape that same year and Hilton joking about Lohan "stealing the earrings" in 2011. In July 2018 Hilton started fans buzzing again about their frenemy status after she called Lohan a "pathological liar" on social media.
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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Vin Diesel are apparently no longer close. It all kicked off in 2016 when Johnson wrote in a now deleted Instagram posting about male co-stars he called "Candy a**es." Some fans theorized he was talking about Diesel. In 2018 Johnson confirmed to Rolling Stone magazine that he and Diesel did not film their scenes together in "The Fate of the Furious."
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Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker were apparently better friends on "Sex and the City" than in real life. There had long been speculation that the pair were on bad terms and in February Cattrall slammed Parker on social media for reaching out after the death of Cattrall's brother.
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When Lindsay Lohan, right, said in January 2018 that she was confused by Kim Kardashian West's new hairstyle, the TV reality star clapped back with "You know what's confusing..... Your sudden foreign accent."
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In November 2017, stylist Clinton Kelly tweeted a photo showing that his former "What Not to Wear" costar Stacy London had blocked him on Twitter. In January 2018 she posted on Instagram that after reflecting on forgiveness, she had unblocked a group of people.
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Hip hop stars Kid Cudi and Kanye West used to be cool, but not so much in 2016. Kid Cudi called West out in a series of tweets in September of that year and West offered a scathing response during one of his concerts. the pair have reportedly made up since then.
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Singers Monica and Brandy reunited in 2012 for a new song, "It All Belongs To Me." Their original duet, 1998's "The Boy Is Mine" won them a Grammy. In September 2016 it was reported that the pair were on the outs.
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In 2016, Taylor Swift took issue with Kim Kardashian saying that Swift knew that Kanye West would refer to her by a derogatory word in his song "Famous."
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Rapper Azealia Banks and Disney child star Skai Jackson got into a heated exchange on Twitter in May 2016 after Banks tweeted some derogatory remarks about singer Zayn Malik.
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Musician John Legend was not having it in March 2016 when Donald Trump Jr. said demonstrators at a Chicago campaign rally for his father could not explain what they were protesting. "I think they were protesting your racist father. This isn't complicated," Legend said on Twitter. A Trump supporter on Twitter said Legend has "no education," to which Legend replied, "the Donalds and I graduated from the same University, funny enough," referring to the University of Pennsylvania.
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Fans were upset when Miley Cyrus posted some unflattering photos of "Full House" star Jodie Sweetin from her partying days. Sweetin took the high road, saying, "I don't pay attention to negative stuff."
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Reality star Kim Kardashian didn't take too kindly to Bette Midler criticizing her for posting a nude selfie in March 2016. Midler tweeted, "If Kim wants us to see a part of her we've never seen, she's gonna have to swallow the camera," and Kardashian responded by accusing the actress of trying to be a "fake friend."
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Kanye West and Taylor Swift had a renewal of their feud after his mention of her in one of his songs. In the song "Famous," West crooned, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. / Why? I made that b***h famous." Swift fans reacted quickly.
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West went in on fellow rapper Wiz Khalifa in a series of tweets in January 2016, after Khalifa was critical of the title of West's new project. West later deleted several of the tweets.
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Actress Vivica A. Fox set it off when she appeared on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live" and implied to host Andy Cohen that her former love interest 50 Cent might be gay. She went on to say that he's not but that some of his actions gave her pause. The rapper responded with a few profane Instagram posts.
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It seems like Khloe Kardashian, left, didn't appreciate Amy Schumer joking about her weight loss during an "SNL" monologue. Kardashian tweeted, "No need 2 tear down others just 2 make urself feel bigger. It actually makes u quite small."
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TVLine reported that Julianna Margulies, left, and Archie Panjabi did not actually film their final scene together on the "Good Wife." According to the site, body doubles and special effects were used to create the scene. There have long been rumors of tension between the pair on the set of the hit CBS drama.
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Actor Sean Penn filed a defamation lawsuit against "Empire" creator Lee Daniels, alleging that in Daniels' interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Penn was falsely accused of hitting women by being likened to "Empire" star Terrence Howard.
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Rapper Meek Mill, right, started a Twitter spat in 2015, claiming that Drake doesn't write his own raps.
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Taylor Swift, left, and Nicki Minaj went at it on Twitter after the pop singer took offense at the rapper's comments about her exclusion from video of the year nominees at the MTV Video Music Awards. And as if it that wasn't enough, Katy Perry seemed to weigh in as well.
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Iggy Azalea, left, and Britney Spears were chummy at the Billboard Music Awards a few years back, but there were reports they were at odds over the lack of success of their single "Pretty Girls."
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Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's former girlfriends Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett, left, and Holly Madison argued over Madison's portrayal of their former life at the Playboy Mansion in her new book.
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Rappers Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter, left, and Bryan "Birdman" Williams were once the father and son of Cash Money Records. But in 2015 the pair became embroiled in a $51 million dollar court battle over Carter's contract and the delayed release of "Tha Carter V."
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Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj shared the judges' table during season 12 of "American Idol," and they bickered all season. "Let's just say I don't think they had any intentions for us to have a good experience doing that show," Carey reflected in a recent interview on Australian radio. "Pitting two females against each other wasn't cool."
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It seems that not everyone loves Jennifer Lawrence, left. In talking about some of her fellow actresses to V Magazine, Chloe Sevigny said, "Jennifer Lawrence, I find annoying. Too crass." Wow.
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The beef between Lady Gaga and Kelly Osbourne dates to an open letter Gaga wrote, accusing Kelly of being a bully. When Kelly O. saw that Gaga had offered her a birthday cake, she tweeted, "Not to be ungrateful but why would you send me a birthday cake via my MOTHER in a country half the (world) away? ... #EatMyS***."
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Onetime friends Denise Richards and Heather Locklear hit a major impasse after the former started dating the latter's ex, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora. In interviews, Richards denied that she and Locklear were still friends at the time she began seeing Sambora.
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Oprah Winfrey was reportedly annoyed by David Letterman's constant joking references to her name when he hosted the Academy Awards in 1995. The late-night talk-show host told "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart he had also once played a practical joke on Winfrey, convincing a waiter that she had agreed to pick up his tab. They have since made peace.
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Tom Cruise got on Brooke Shields' bad side by decrying her use of medication to treat postpartum depression. Shields responded with an op-ed in The New York Times, and Cruise later apologized for his remarks.
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Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie helped to coin the term "frenemies" after their very public bust-up in 2004. The former "Simple Life" co-stars went on to make up two years later.
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It appears that rapper Lil' Kim has not taken too kindly to what she views as Nicki Minaj's lack of respect and similar style with the colored wigs and sexually explicit lyrics. The pair have traded insults all over the media.
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Kanye West and Taylor Swift had one of the greatest celeb feuds of all time. The rapper famously grabbed the singer's mic at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. He later apologized, and she seemed to accept his apology via her song "Innocent."
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Model Amber Rose served it up to reality Khloe Kardashian on Twitter after Kardashian criticized her for talking about Kardashian's younger sister Kylie Jenner during an interview. Let's just say the word "hoe" was used.
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Abigail Breslin's big music debut did not go over well with fans of Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer. In a song called "You Suck," the actress sings about the wrongdoings of unnamed prior loves; judging from some of the lyrics, 5SOS fans inferred that Breslin was taking aim at 5SOS singer Michael Clifford. They retaliated with a series of mean tweets under the hashtag #AbigailYouTried.
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In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Bette Midler criticized Ariana Grande's pop act as being needlessly sexy, calling it "terrible," "ridiculous" and "silly." When Grande heard about it, she called Midler out for being hypocritical. It wasn't long before Midler bowed out of the fight, tweeting, "all I can say is, 'Spoken like a reformed old whore! She does have a beautiful voice, on a couch or off.' "
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Lorde is not the kind of girl to stand idly by while someone picks on her friends. When DJ/producer Diplo teased Taylor Swift about her backside, Lorde jumped in with a fiery comeback.
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When Chris Brown learned what "The Real" co-hosts Adrienne Bailon and Tamar Braxton had to say about his relationship with Karrueche Tran, the singer defended his (then) girlfriend in a social media tirade. Among other things, Brown criticized Bailon as being an "ole trout mouth" and labeled Braxton as "Muppet Face."
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Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright did not let Conan O'Brien get away with tweeting that he was going as "Slutty Madeleine Albright" for Halloween. She came right back at him with a hilarious response.
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Add Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, right, to the list of musicians unimpressed with U2's attempt to give away an album on iTunes. Carney told The Seattle Times that he believes the band, fronted by Bono, "devalued their music completely" by offering the new release "Songs of Innocence" as a free download to iTunes subscribers.
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Sharon Osbourne is also not a fan of U2's giveaway. The TV personality took the group and Bono to task in September 2014 for releasing a free album via iTunes. She called their music "mediocre" and the group "middle-age political groupies."
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Snoop Dogg and Iggy Azalea also battled in a very public way. After Snoop made fun of Iggy's appearance on social media, the "Fancy" rapper responded with confusion, saying that she didn't understand why Snoop would be "supportive to my face but another way on your Instagram."
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It seems Martha Stewart isn't the biggest fan of Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand, GOOP, but Paltrow isn't bothered. After Stewart commented in an interview that Paltrow "just needs to be quiet" and not try "to be Martha Stewart," Paltrow took it as a compliment. "I'm so psyched that she sees us as competition," the actress said in October.
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Danity Kane's reunion is over as quickly as it began. The girl group got back together in 2013 after a four-year hiatus, but by August its bond was broken again because of an alleged dispute between Aubrey O'Day, left, and Dawn Richard. O'Day has claimed Richard punched her in the back of the head without provocation, while Richard says O'Day and another member were cutting her out of the group.
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Last August, Donald Trump protested via Twitter about two American Ebola patients returning to the United States. Whoopi Goldberg responded on her show that while Trump is her friend, "that was a stupid comment. Do your homework, Donald. Just do your homework."
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A recent TMZ video appeared to show actor Orlando Bloom and pop singer Justin Bieber having an altercation at a bar in Ibiza, Spain, but neither star has commented on the report. That hasn't stopped the world from imagining that these two had a heated throwdown.
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Kim Kardashian didn't mention actress Adrienne Bailon by name when she went on a Twitter rant last July, but it was pretty obvious whom she was speaking of. Bailon, who used to date Kim's brother Rob, spoke ill of the past relationship in a magazine interview. Kim then tweeted, "Funny how she says being with a Kardashian hurt her career yet the only reason she has this article is bc she is talking about a Kardashian ... So sad when people try to kick my brother when he is down #FamilyForever."
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Freddie Prinze Jr. worked with Kiefer Sutherland on the Fox series "24" in 2010 and said his experience with the actor was so horrible, he wanted to quit acting. Yet while Prinze called Sutherland "the most unprofessional dude in the world," Sutherland responded via his rep that he enjoyed working with his former co-star.
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Rihanna's bare-it-all style caught flak from the ladies of TLC. "Every time that I see you, you don't have to be naked," T-Boz said during an interview with an Australian media outlet. "We became the biggest-selling girl group of all time with our clothes on." Rihanna's response? A series of pointed subtweets and a new Twitter header that shows a topless TLC.
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So the rapper had a reason to be upset when she was snubbed -- and she made her reasoning clear.
"If I was a different 'kind' of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well," said Minaj.
"Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it."
She then tweeted: "If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year."
That's when Taylor Swift -- who describes herself as a feminist -- jumped in, apparently taking the tweets personally.
"I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot," she wrote.
Unlike "Anaconda," Swift's video for "Bad Blood" was nominated for the top award. Featuring whisper-thin supermodels wielding guns, the pseudo-action movie dethroned Minaj's video for most views in one day when it was released this year.
It was a surprisingly barbed volley from a singer known for her meticulously crafted public image -- even Nicki Minaj seemed taken aback. "Didn't say a word about u," she replied.
The rapper then retweeted a supporter who accused Taylor Swift of not being "critical of racist media."
Swift followed up with what seemed to be an attempt to smooth things over. "You're invited to any stage I'm ever on," she said.
A double standard?
Twitter wasn't buying it: As "Nicki" and "Taylor" became worldwide trends, thousands of users came to Nicki Minaj's defense.
Many said the stars' exchange showed a double standard: Swift was widely praised as brave for speaking up about problems in the music industry last month -- now Minaj was getting lashed for doing the same.
Nicki was making an important point, they argued: Not all women's experiences are the same, but black women don't often get taken as seriously.
Users expressed disapproval with the contrasting way some media portrayed the respective artists: Taylor Swift -- beautiful, pure; Nicki Minaj -- hysterical, angry.
Janet Mock, a writer and trans woman activist, suggested flipping the script, posting a picture of an angry Swift and a calm Minaj.
It wasn't long before at least one publication -- Entertainment Weekly -- apologized for their "insensitive juxtaposition of photos."
For many users, Swift and Minaj's interaction reflected an all-too-familiar dynamic: A black woman makes a point, and a white woman tells her to simmer down or hijacks the conversation in the name of feminism.
"A black woman speaks up on racial problems within the music industry. A white woman makes it completely about herself," said user XLNB.
Supporters of Taylor Swift began defending the singer with the hashtag #TeamTaylor. Some argued Beyonce's nomination meant Nicki's omission couldn't have been about race.
But at day's end there were more than double the amount of tweets using the hashtag #TeamNicki, according to Topsy, a Twitter analytics site.
Kim Kardashian, Bruno Mars join the fray
Then, the conversation took a slightly absurd turn as Kim Kardashian waded into the story -- unwittingly, she claims.
As the Nicki and Taylor saga continued to ride high in Twitter's trends, the reality show star tweeted a photo of herself with the caption, "Imma let you finish but..."
For those of you who missed the reference: Kanye West -- Kim Kardashian's husband -- uttered that phrase when he grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift at the MTV Music Video Awards in 2009.
So it sounded like Kim was telling Taylor to back off. Something she frantically denied once users started pointing out the connection.
"Wait wait I'm in Paris it's the middle of the night & I'm posting my Vogue Spain pics not having a clue what's going on in the music world," she wrote.
If that weren't enough drama for an evening, rapper Meek Mill, Nicki Minaj's boyfriend, decided before midnight that it would be a perfect time to launch an attack on superstar hip-hop artist Drake.
But in the end, it was mild-mannered Bruno Mars, a video of the year nominee, who may have won the night, with a joking provocation of fellow nominee Ed Sheeran.
"Yo I want in on this twitter Beef!! VMAs is the new WWF!! @edsheeran F*** You!" he said.
And that is how the Internet works.
