Cardi B and Ice Spice’s Beef, Explained

Regardless of your alliances, associating yourself with Nicki Minaj seemingly comes with some strings attached. Throughout her career, Nicki has publicly clashed with other female rappers in the industry, her feud with Bronx rapper Cardi B being the most notable.

This only fueled the public perception that Cardi and Ice Spice, despite both being from the same New York borough, would also be enemies… but not so, at least not from the jump.

So how did we get here? Here is a breakdown of Cardi B’s escalating beef with Ice Spice, explained.

June 2022: Ice Spice publicly showers Cardi B with praise

In a 2022 interview with Audiomack, Ice Spice shouted out Cardi B for what she did for the borough they share.

“Cardi B put the Bronx on the map AGAIN, especially for females. But also because it’s the last authentic borough,” she said. “I think people are interested in how it truly is, in how everybody from here is really from here. Our parents are from here, our grandparents are from here, you know? People are just really interested in our culture. They’re fascinated by how raw it is.”

September 2022: Cardi B teases “Munch” verse

Ice Spice surprised all with her meteoric success after she released her breakout smash “Munch.” Everyone wanted a piece of the action, this included Cardi B who hopped on an unofficial “Munch” remix.

In a form-fitting, sultry black dress, Cardi struts around while the unreleased track plays in the background of a clip she shared through social media. “He wants to see what it is like a gender reveal / Pissing on bitches is really a skill / Bitches dead to me, dammit, dead to me still,” Cardi raps. Much to fan’s dismay, Cardi refused to release the track, her reason being, “I like it don’t love it ….just having fun,” she said in a post to X.

June 2023: Cardi denies she’s shading Ice Spice

“For y’all muthafuckas that’s on Twitter trying to be messy, please, cut the bullshit,” Cardi said. She’s wearing a terrycloth housecoat, getting her hair styled, while addressing fans on Instagram, who claim that she was shading Ice Spice during a set at Hot 97’s Summer Jam.

During the session, Cardi called her viewers “messy and annoying” for insinuating any such thing, “That’s not me, like come on now. First of all, y’all been wanting me to be messy all things. Y’all wanted me to be messy on the song, y’all wanted me to—nah, come on now.”

During her Summer Jam set, Cardi cast an animation in the background that resembled Little Orphan Annie while she performed “Tomorrow 2.” However, due to the animation’s signature red mop of hair and accompanying dance emotes, it would be hard not to envision anyone other than Ice Spice. “Cut the bullshit, please. Get the mop. Y’all being too messy and y’all being annoying,” Cardi said.

March 2024: Fans speculate about Cardi B’s “Enough (Miami)”

Cardi dropped her new single “Enough (Miami)” and sends fans reeling, trying to figure out who are the alleged “opps” she mentions in the chorus.

Posing against an all white backdrop, Bardi takes us through her closet—donning an all-black leather ensemble at the 0:42 mark with an underglass shot. Some speculate, at this moment, she may be identifying Ice Spice as one of her many enemies by evoking a pose similar to the one Ice Spice makes on her Like..? EP cover.

It should also be noted that the original title for “Enough” was “Cardi K.” Cardi B explained on X: “The song is originally called ‘And Her Name is Cardi K’ is because I did this song…I was really angry, like bitches was ganging up on me…I feel like I was very like underestimated. Even my fan base, it’s big but it’s a very underestimated fanbase. So Cardi K, I don’t know if you know how people be like EBK, Everybody Killer, so I felt like everybody was on some Cardi K shit.”

April 3, 2024: Cardi and Ice seem to be on good terms

Never one to back down from an argument, Cardi B responded to Raymonte, a popular social media influencer, calling him out for referring to her as “very, very ghetto.”

This came after Raymonte posted a video on TikTok, repudiating any comparison to himself and Cardi B, going on to dish out disparaging remarks about her: “She’s way ghettoer than me, she’s way hooder, way gangster, greasy [than] me. She was outside with the damn Bloods, and y’all don’t say that this lady is ghetto. Y’all don’t say that she isn’t marketable,” he said.

Cardi shot back on X, writing: “It’s crazy because when I became famous people said I’m ghetto…Talked shit about my accent, call me dumb because of the way I speak, say I got no couth, talk about my teeth, my braids, my two buns… and to this day, no matter what I accomplished I still get called a stripper all because I’m from the ghetto.”

This lead to a heated back and forth between Raymonte and Cardi B, where he mistakenly refers to her as “Mexican.” Cardi provided a more vulnerable response: “Same reason why you felt comfortable calling me Mexican when I’m Dominican and I asked you why you feel comfortable calling me a Mexican when [Ice Spice] and jharell jerome Zoe Saldana are Dominicans and you don’t do that to them. You do it to me because you know that’s what people use to hurt me…”

By this time, Ice Spice entered the fray, quote-tweeting Cardi’s post, offering up an explanation of sorts: “no offense bardi its because I have a dominican parent & a black one [sobbing emoji] [black heart emoji]. Cardi goes on to clarify what she meant, by responding to Ice via quote-post, “I think there might be some confusion on what was said. I asked why he feels so comfortable calling me Mexican? I have no Mexican parents. My mom is Trini.. she came out of a whole black woman. My father is Dominican..I’m Dominican just like you. I also used other Dominicans as an example because as you should know a lot of times we get clustered into one because of the language. Also can you send me that pic you took of me wit ya camera from vanity fair? Thank youuu [lipstick kiss emoji]”

Ice Spice follows up with another quote-post, containing an image of the two divas posed together at the Vanity Fair Oscar’s Party, which took place that March. The post was captioned “de lo mio,” adorned with a kissing emoji and a Dominican flag emoji.

Cardi quickly reposted with three heart emojis in the colors blue, white and red to symbolize the Dominican flag colors. To any one intently watching this online exchange, it would seem as though whatever underlying tension there was between the two Bronx rappers was extinguished with this sweet, friendly photo.

July 2024: Ice Spice releases “BB Belt”

In July 2024, Ice Spice released her debut album, Y2K.

The album features the single “BB Belt,” which has an appearance from Central Cee. And the song seems to have sparked the beef.

On the track, Ice Spice raps:

“This one bitch is built like an ant/Crashouts and they goin’ on rants / Cash cow, I be gettin’ them bands / Bitches switching but they wasn’t trans.”

Ice delivers the cherry on top later on in the song, rapping: “Think she pretty but changin’ her face / Fallin’ behind, like, bitch, pick up your pace. / It was funny till I took her place / Her man callin’, but I be like “Who dis?” / I’m a switchy bitch, I really do this (damn).”

Now, one could read those lyrics and think that Ice Spice was simply playing the game that all rappers are known for: bragging and boasting their superiority over the competition; she names no names in any of these verses. However, Cardi may have felt as though these lyrics hit a little too close to home, triggering her to randomly shoot off the following posts on X to no one in particular: “These bitches have absolutely lost their mind…I’m getting all my lick backs on my album tho …ON EACH ONE OF YOU BITCHES !!!”

She quickly follows that post with another, “These bitches can’t see me in numbers or status y’all had WAY too much time to catch up. Can’t see me in money, can’t see me in real estate, fashion, and CAN’T SEE ME IN PERSON either.” Cardi continues, claiming that she’s not in anyone’s league, “I’m not in a rat race with none of you bitches!! And Ima show yall.”

September 16, 2025: Ice Spice shouts out Cardi

In September, Ice Spice sat down to chat with Keke Palmer on her podcast Baby, This is Keke Palmer about her upcoming single, “Baddie Baddie.” Keke asked Ice Spice whether there was a moment or a specific person that inspired her to pursue a career in rap. Ice Spice goes on to cite Cardi B as the one person that made it all seem possible, “I feel like Cardi B definitely, like, brought back that like, hope, that like, girls could rap. For a long time, Nicki seemed like so like, unattainable.”

September 19, 2025: Cardi B gets her lick back

As promised, Cardi took all of her suppressed rage to the booth and came out swinging on tracks “Pretty and Petty” and “Magnet.”

Most of the digs were undeniably meant for other rappers that have occupied top spots on her list of haters for some time, others require a little more speculation.

There’s line “Magnet” that seems like a response to Ice Spice’s slight in “BB Belt,” Cardi spits, “Slow-face bitch (Bitch), whose spot is you takin’? (Who?) / My spot’s forever’s forever, ho, I’m like a Dalmatian (Who?).”

September 29, 2025: Nicki enters the conversation

Am I The Drama? has truly stirred up seemingly endless drama in the rap community.

Over the last week, social media has been praising Cardi B for going double platinum, clearing 200K sales, and claiming the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200.

Needless to say, this didn’t sit right with Nicki Minaj, who recently emerged from her noted social media hiatus to announce new music in March 2026 in the middle of Cardi’s tracking week.

She took to X and Instagram to disparage these claims. Nicki mocked Cardi’s flow and rhymes, calling her “Barney Dangerous” and teased her for selling her album for $4.99 on delivery apps. (These tweets are now deleted.)

Cardi fired back, “Damn she was streaming Magnet hard as hell huh?” She went on to call out the Queens rapper in posts to X, “Why you keep bringing up my album?? It’s not the gag that you think it is..You been in the game like 16 years.. you need to compare yourself to YOUR peers that started around YOUR time. Rihanna, Taylor swift, Drake…those are the numbers you need to be competing wit and you can’t cuz you doing lower than all of them… I was in highschool when you came out wtf is you comparing yourself to me for???”

The rappers continued to trade jabs back and forth, utilizing AI images and making uncouth fertility cracks. Amidst the heated online spat, Ice Spice tweeted out a “chuckling emoji” from the sidelines. This’ll be important later. JT, the main recipient of Cardi’s diss track “Magnet,” chimed in as well, questioning the accuracy of Cardi’s album sales.

September 30, 2025:

After the dust settled, in the wee hours of the night, unverified audio of Cardi B screaming at Ice Spice’s manager, James Rosemond Jr., over the phone surfaced on X.

Many wager this audio is from a year ago; Cardi’s initial reaction to Ice Spice’s contentious verses on “BB Belt.” In it, Cardi B can be heard asking for clarification on words that were said, and threatening violence against Ice Spice and her producer RiotUSA, “I’m not Latto! I’mma beat her the fuck up, I’mma knock her the fuck out! I’mma beat her ass, I’mma get Riot beat up by my niggas, y’all gonna see what the fuck is up! Y’all think I’m as pussy as Latto?” Cardi goes on, screaming for Ice Spice to get on the phone, in which her manager responds that she’s about to make an appearance for an event in the Empire State building in New York. “You think I’m Latto? You think I’m Megan?,” Cardi screams.“I’ll beat you the fuck up! All y’all! I’mma beat her ass, I’mma beat her! Any red carpet, any fuckin’ show I see her at, any fuckin’ event, I’mma fuckin beat her, I’m going in dat mouth.”

At 3:44AM, Ice Spice dropped a teaser to a possible new song with the caption “#prettyprivilege.” “Double park the Escalade, I’m poppin’ out, can’t see my lace. / She might talk shit on the ‘gram, but she won’t talk it to my face,” Ice remarks. “Chauffeur, I got a driver. I don’t gotta touch the brakes. / Poser, she hear my song and copy everything I say. / Like what the fuck? These bitches dirt, just be yourself, this shit could work. / Pretty privilege, that’s a perk / I can’t help it, I’m a flirt. / Fine shyt, that’s a fact. / From the front, you see the back. / PR said no clapping back. Ahhhh…”

Wonder who that’s about?

In what seems like a confirmation that the leaked audio is indeed real, Cardi took to X later that day to clarify her feelings for rapper, Latto, who was just featured on Cardi’s remix to “ErrTime.”

“I was ranting and hot at the moment but I fck with Latto HEAVY!! I respect everything about her including her team thats so sweet.. AND NOPE! I’m not too prideful to apologize to somebody I really respect so this is my public apology and now ima privately buy her a bag,” she tweeted.

She then turned her sights on Ice Spice’s manager, James, the other voice on the end of the line in the leaked audio, “But wait James… cuz I just know you didn’t only record the beginning of that conversation.. Go ahead baby post the whole 11 minute convo when Ice Spice said she was in her feelings all because I said Sexyy deserved a BET Award and she had just won some iHeart award I wasn’t even thinking about.. POST IT ALL!!! You came to bang right???”

Cardi also responded to be the source of the leaked call. She denied it saying, “I was in my bedroom by myself.. I just sound more higher cuz not only was I louder but it was more echo because it’s bigger…everything louder in there.”

Rosemond Jr. then quote-tweeted Cardi’s tweet, saying he did not record or leak the call. “I did not record or leak that call. You hear me on speaker w/ ur manager Tubby who called me with you on three way & u can literally hear that in the clip. The audio didn’t come from me. I respect private conversations & I’m not in the business of leaking anything. @iamcardib”

“James be foreal and be a man,” Cardi responded. “I was in my bedroom by myself… it was only you me and tubby on the call.. So you saying it was tubby??… Your artist put a laughing emoji then leaked the convo then posted a trash ass clip of her song in less than a hour…”

Rosemond Jr. claims that Cardi is using all of this attention to boost sales for her new album. Cardi responded by saying, “Your artist new song is not charting anywhere.. What can you possibly do for my rollout?? The gaslighting is insane.”

Ice Spice has yet to respond to the allegations.