Nicki Minaj has shifted her anger from rapper Cardi B to shoe designer Steve Madden for saying that his brand had never offered Minaj a deal to be the face of one of the company's campaigns.
To recap: Minaj talked more crap about Cardi B on Queen Radio on Monday. By Monday night, Cardi B had posted 11 Instagram videos in response. In one of the Instagram videos, Cardi B said that Minaj's Diesel campaign was offered to her first.
Nicki Minaj responded to Cardi B's Instagram videos the same night to refute the claim about Diesel and make her own claim that Steve Madden had long wanted Minaj to be the face of one of the shoe brand's ad campaigns, but she'd passed.
Same thing with Steve Madden. Irv Gotti asked me to do that deal several times. I passed. You never hear me talking bout things like this. 🤣 she rlly thought she was doing smthn talking about turning down deals. BWAAAAAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAAA #DipVIDEO out now. BABY GIRL WRITE A RAP!
THEN: Madden responded Tuesday morning with a tweet calling Minaj a liar.
.@NICKIMINAJ you can't turn down an offer that was never made. #StopLying.
For most of Tuesday, it looked like Minaj would simply ignore Madden's tweet.
But THEN rapper 50 Cent jumped into the drama, with an Instagram post saying Madden was the liar.
A writer who interviewed Madden for Vibe Magazine in 2015 also tweeted the link to the story, which quotes Madden as saying, "I made a mistake and I wish that I could go back in time and work with Nicki instead of Iggy" — a reference to making rapper Iggy Azalea, rather than Minaj, the face of a 2015 Steve Madden campaign.
so... in 2015, i interviewed steve madden about a ja rule collabo for @VibeMagazine and a nicki deal was brought up. this happened: https://t.co/jh3sp5ciMq https://t.co/cGwYcz5wlh
50 Cent apparently caught wind of the Vibe article and posted the quote from Madden on his Instagram.
Minaj then returned to Twitter Tuesday night to give props to 50 Cent...
One of the few left https://t.co/g1Vi0CI2mv
...before going in on Madden for allegedly lying about wanting to work with her. Minaj also claimed that after appearing in the 2015 Steve Madden campaign, Azalea had tweeted that she hated working with the shoe brand.
🤔 @SteveMadden thought I was lying you dumb fuck. You, Irv & Gee Roberson came to my house in MALIBU BEGGING me to do the deal. I said no. You then did a deal w/Iggy & she hated the pics you used & went in on you online. Im sure Irv told you to post this lie. Respond to @50cent https://t.co/KQs7IzoVdi
Things with Minaj calmed down though, after Azalea backed her up in a now-deleted tweet.
.@IGGYAZALEA backs Nicki Minaj up against Steve Madden: “This is facts”
The "Barbie Dreams" rapper ended the night thanking her fellow rappers — Azalea and 50 — for having her back.
Thank you @IGGYAZALEA for confirming the truth about hoe nigga Steve Madden. ya see when ya do clownery? The clown comes back to bite 🤣
And this is a random @50cent appreciation post. #QGTM #Power
Late Tuesday night, Steve Madden responded to Minaj and copped to having approached her for a campaign before.
.@NICKIMINAJ is an incredibly talented artist but we couldn’t work together cuz the timing wasn’t right. @iamcardib came on the scene and I had a fantastic collaboration with her, and she is also an amazing talent. I love...
both @NICKIMINAJ and @iamcardib music. I hope they can reach some peace — together they could probably take over the world. There is a lot of negativity out there right now, and I shouldn’t have contributed to that. -Steve
However, Minaj felt it was too little too late to try to smooth things over after tweeting a clapback toward Minaj that misrepresented the facts.
Eat a dick nigga. You lied on me cuz it was the trendy thing 2do! Ain’t nobody buyin that clown shit. We couldn’t work together cuz I said the shoes were ugly. You see how when you do clownery it comes back to bite? WE NOT BUYING IT!!!!!! Respond to 50 instead of picking on women https://t.co/i6broZ6HB6
BuzzFeed News has reached out to a Steve Madden representative for comment.