Happy Birthday Nicki Minaj: a look at the rapper's most savage moments

Rapper Nicki Minaj turns a year older and the day wouldn’t be complete without honouring this true queen of sass.

Hailed as "the most influential female rapper of all time" by a New York Times editor, Nicki Minaj was born on December 8, 1982 as Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad.

Unapologetic, bold and opinionated, people can't help but be inspired by her aura. Over the years, Nicki has given us countless iconic songs, looks, and performances.

But, with great success often comes messy controversies. As the star celebrates her 39th birthday, here’s a look at some of the most savage moments of the rapper, which took the Internet by storm, because she’s really given us so much.

1) Taking down Travis Scott, Kylie Jenner & Stormi

Nicki Minaj may say that she’d never talk about someone’s kid but that’s not exactly true: take this feud for instance.

When her album, ‘Queen’ didn’t debut at number one on the Billboard Chart, she wasn’t afraid to call out Travis Scott for bundling his album ‘Astroworld’ which released the same week, with concert tickets and merchandise to boost album sales.

In a tweet, she specifically said that Kylie helped promote it by telling everyone that she and Stormi would be on tour with him. She later told Ellen she wanted to punch Scott in the face.


2) Dissing Miley Cyrus at the VMAs

This was the diss that was heard around the world. While accepting an award at the 2015 VMA ceremony, Nicki publicly addressed Miley Cyrus, the award show’s host, and called her 'not too kind' in an interview.

Miley had spoken about Nicki calling out of Taylor Swift over the VMA nominations, but Nicki clearly didn’t want her inputs.

She shot down Miley with the now-infamous: "And now back to this bitch that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press — Miley, what’s good?"

The malice in her voice and the delivery had everyone stunned. She later went on to further accuse Miley of cultural hypocrisy.

3) The Taylor Swift Twitter takedown

One of the most unexpected sparring partners for Nicki was pop princess Taylor Swift. When Nicki questioned the nominations for the Video of the Year Award for the 2015 VMAs, she called out MTV for only rewarding videos of women who looked a certain way.

Taylor took that as a dig against her since she was nominated for the award, and told Minaj that maybe one of the male nominees took her spot. Confused, Nicki let her know the tweet wasn’t aimed at her but invited her to speak on it.

The whole “beef” was squashed pretty quickly and the two later performed together at the ceremony.

4) The beef with Cardi B and 'MotorSport'

Minaj was basically the only female rapper that dominated the charts before Cardi B entered the music scene with her mixtapes in 2016. That changed once Cardi’s big hit 'Bodak Yellow' was released in 2017.

Fans immediately began pitting the two women against one another. Cardi rejected the idea of having issues with Minaj, and the two worked together on the song ‘MotorSport’ with Migos. However, the song reportedly created some tension between Cardi and Nicki.

In September 2018, the situation escalated, at an after party hosted by Harper’s Bazaar during the New York Fashion Week, where rapper Cardi B threw one of her shoes at Nicki Minaj and attempted to physically rough her up.

But we've saved the best for last

5) The 'swollen testicle' debacle

With Covid-19 vaccines becoming widely available in 2021, there has been a lot of discussion about their efficacy, especially among anti-vaxxers.

Nicki Minaj joined the chorus after declaring on Twitter she would not be attending the Met Gala in New York in 2021 because attendees were required to provide proof of immunization.

In another tweet, Minaj claimed that her cousin’s friend in Trinidad 'became impotent' and had swollen testicles after getting the Covid jab.

Many health experts called her out for this absurd logic, including Terrence Deyalsingh, Trinidad’s Health Minister.