There's been no shortage of shade in 2018.
There's been no shortage of shade in 2018.
From rap battles that got deeply personal to messy breakups, let's take a look back at the biggest feuds and most epic clapbacks this year.
Drake vs. Pusha T
It's hard to top a feud in which one opponent reveals that the other has a secret baby -- but that is exactly what happened when rapper Pusha T released one of the craziest diss songs of all time, "The Story of Adidon." Pusha T dropped the track in May after Drake released "Duppy Freestyle" -- targeting both Pusha T and Kanye West -- in response to Pusha T's song, "Infrared" (off his latest album, Daytona, which was produced by West) that took shots at Drake. The devastating "The Story of Adidon" accused Drake of having a secret illegitimate son, as well as unearthed a photo of Drake wearing blackface, which Drake quickly addressed.
“I know everyone is enjoying the circus but I want to clarify this image in question,” he wrote on his Instagram Story. “This was not from a clothing brand shoot or my music career. This picture is from 2007, a time in my life where I was an actor and I was working on a project that was about young black actors struggling to get roles, being stereotyped and typecast.”
Later, he acknowledged on his album, Scorpion, that he indeed has a son named Adonis
"I wasn't hiding my kid from the world," Drake raps on "Emotionless." "I was hiding the world from my kid."
On the song "March 14," he mentions his mother, Sandi Graham, rapping, "She not my lover like Billie Jean but the kid is mine/ Sandi used to tell me all it takes is one time, and all it took was one time."
Drake further discussed the surprise pregnancy that resulted in the birth of Adonis with former adult film star Sophie Brussaux during his appearance on good friend LeBron James' HBO show, The Shop, in October.
“[I was] more scared to tell my mom because my mom has had real belief and real relationships with women in my life, like, over the course of my years,” he said. “I’m sure she would expect or be elated if I were to have gotten one of those women pregnant… So it was tough for me to tell her that it’s somebody that she’s never met.”
He also addressed Pusha T's diss track, calling it “a hell of a chess move.”
"I knew something was gonna come up about my kid,” he admitted. “They had to add the deadbeat dad thing to make it more appealing."
Drake later noted that he felt Pusha T went too far when he took aim at his longtime producer and close friend, Noah "40" Shebib, who has multiple sclerosis.
"But I'm going to tell you, wishing death on my friend that has MS -- I study rap battles for a living -- when you mention defenseless people who are sick, in the hospital, that passed away that really sent me to a place where, you know, I just believed then and believe now that there’s just a price that you have to pay for that," he said. "It’s just -- it’s over. Someone’s gonna punch you in the f**king face."
Nicki Minaj vs. Cardi B:
Nicki Minaj and Cardi B's shady comments towards one another this year turned physical at a star-studded New York Fashion Week party in September. Minaj and Cardi both attended the Harper's BAZAAR Celebrates ICONS By Carine Roitfeld event, where an eyewitness told ET that Cardi lunged at Minaj and tried to "kick and punch" the rapper. Minaj's security created a barricade between the two women and Cardi then threw one of her shoes at Minaj, which was caught by Minaj's security. The "Super Bass" rapper appeared to remain calm during the chaos as security escorted Cardi -- who was only wearing one shoe -- out of the party.
Minaj addressed the brawl on Queen Radio on Beats 1 on Apple Music shortly after the incident, and said she was "humiliated." She also denied that her talking negatively about Cardi's daughter with rapper Offset, Kulture, started the brawl, which Cardi initially implied.
Of course, Minaj took pointed shots at Cardi along the way.
"She has built her career off of sympathy and payola," Minaj said. " ... I never had to f**k a DJ to play my songs.”
"You put your hands on certain people, you 'gon die. PERIOD," she also said. "I'm not the bi**hes in the strip club and Love and Hip Hop. My money is very f**king long. ... "I told you this to your face -- you gotta get thick skin, baby girl. If you give all these people all this power over you, they're always gonna push your buttons … be happy with your blessings!"
The beef flared up again in October when Cardi took to Instagram after Minaj went on her Queen Radio show and alleged that her friend, Rah Ali, had beat up Cardi.
“You lie so much you can’t even keep up with your f**kin lies,” a passionate Cardi said in the first video, after questioning Minaj’s claims that she “got ragged by Rah Ali."
For now, there appears to be a truce between the two rappers after Minaj attempted to squash the beef late that month.
“Ok you guys, let’s focus on positive things only from here on out,” Minaj tweeted. “We’re all so blessed. I know this stuff is entertaining & funny to a lot of people but I won’t be discussing this nonsense anymore. Thank you for the support & encouragement year after year. Love you.”
Cardi reposted the message on her Instagram account, adding her own caption encouraging “positivity.”
“@Nickiminaj alright then!” she wrote. “Let’s keep it positive and keep it pushing!”
Nicki Minaj vs. Travis Scott:
Cardi wasn't the only celeb Nicki had serious issues with this year. She blasted rapper Travis Scott in August after his album, Astroworld, hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts the same week as the release of her album, Queen. Minaj accused Scott of using his relationship with Kylie Jenner to boost album sales.
Posting a screenshot of Jenner’s post about Astroworld, Minaj wrote: “Travis sold over 50k of these. With no requirement of redeeming the album! With no dates for a tour, etc. I spoke to him. He knows he doesn’t have the #1 album this week. I love my fans for the #1 album in AMERICA!"
“I put my blood sweat and tears into writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling ppl to come see her and Stormi. lol," she also tweeted. "I'm actually laughing. #Queen broke the record of being number 1 in 86 countries. Thank Jesus and thank you to my fans.”
She continued to call out Scott later that month on her radio show, noting that she had a problem with him selling merchandise and tickets for his upcoming tour with album downloads and having those count as album sales.
"What we're not gonna do is have that auto-tune man selling f**king sweaters telling you he sold half a million albums, because he f**king didn't," Minaj exclaimed, referring to the 26-year-old rapper.
"You stupid f**k. You got your f**king homeboy talking for you and you got your girlfriend selling tour passes," she continued. "Stop it. Knock it the f**k off ... When [Travis] comes along and sells a tour pass that has nothing to do with his f**king music and says he’s sold more than Kanye West and Nas -- no you f**king didn’t, keep it the f**k real," she continued. "I know I’m that b**ch, I know I’m number one."
Things later got awkward at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards in August, when Jenner appeared to avoid Minaj on the red carpet.
Kim Kardashian vs. Tyson Beckford:
Here's the feud that nobody saw coming. In July, model Tyson Beckford threw some shade at Kim Kardashian's famous physique when he commented on a picture of her wearing tight black pants and a black cut-out top that showed off her abs while arriving for her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
"Sorry I don't care for it personally," Beckford commented on social media about the picture.
"She is not real, doctor f**ked up on her right hip," he added with a green vomiting emoji.
Kardashian later responded to Beckford, writing, "Sis we all know why you don't care for it," while adding tea, frog and painting nails emojis.
Beckford made no apologies for his comments, writing on his Instagram Story, "My opinion on women who do plastic surgery stays the same, not for me!" he wrote in part. "I personally don't care for it! Done end of story! ... Always gonna pick a Beyonce over anyone else."
While some slammed Kardashian for implying that Beckford is gay -- which he has denied -- the reality superstar defended herself during a radio interview with Big Boy on Real 92.3 in August.
"Really, dude? Like, you're going to body shame me?" she said of Beckford's initial comments. "When I choose to clap back, it's like, I don't do it to people that I know are just looking for the come up and just looking to clout chase. Like, that is like, the most annoying thing. So I see things all the time... I want to say something so badly, and I'll be like, 'I'll end you.' But it'll just continue so much more."
"People were sending me stuff on his page, like, he keeps on going and going and going, and like, I'm just like, 'Dude, it's so female lame,'" she continued. "It's just lame to me. And for anyone to say that I am homophobic for the comment of saying sis, like, I'm the least...all my best friends are gay. I support the community. I love the community, they love me. Like, that has nothing to do with this."
Kim Kardashian vs. Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift still isn't over Kardashian leaking her phone conversation with West in 2016 about the controversial lyrics to his song, "Famous," leading some people to call Swift a snake and the hashtag #KimExposedTaylorParty.
During the opening show of her Reputation tour in May, Swift continued the beef by accusing Kardashian of bullying her without naming names.
"You might be wondering why there are so many snakes everywhere, huh?" Swift told the audience, referring to her less-than-subtle snake imagery onstage. "A couple of years ago, someone called me a snake on social media and it caught on. And then a lot of people were calling me a lot of things on social media. And I went through some really low times for a while because of it. I went through some times when I didn’t know if I was going to get to do this anymore."
"I wanted to send a message to you guys that if someone uses name-calling to bully you on social media, and even if a lot of people jump on board with it, that doesn’t have to defeat you," she continued. "It can strengthen you instead. "And I think something that came out of it that was good is that I learned a really important lesson that I’ve been telling you from the stage for about 10 years, but I never had to learn it so harshly myself -- and that lesson has to do with how much you value your reputation. I think that the lesson is that you shouldn’t care so much if you feel misunderstood by a lot of people who don’t know you, as long as you feel understood by the people who do know you; the people who will show up for you, the people who see you as a human being."
That same month, West said his feud with Swift over the lyrics to "Famous" contributed to his mental breakdown in November 2016. During an interview with Charlamagne tha God from iHeartRadio’s The Breakfast Club, he said that one of the tracks off his album, Life of Pablo, was not getting played on the radio as much as he would have liked at the time. He alluded that this was because of the feud that reignited between him and Swift.
"Ever since the Taylor Swift moment, it had never been the same -- the connection with radio," he said.
Kim Cattrall vs. Sarah Jessica Parker
It's the feud that just won't die. After Kim Cattrall made it clear last year that there was no love lost between herself and her former Sex and the City co-stars -- claiming she has "never been friends" with them -- Cattrall once again publicly slammed Sarah Jessica Parker in February. Parker sent "love and condolences" to Cattrall over Instagram after her brother, Chris Cattrall, died, which Cattrall clearly didn't appreciate.
"I don't need your love or support at this tragic time @sarahjessicaparker," Cattrall wrote on Instagram. "My Mom asked me today 'When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?' Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona."
In April, Parker pointed out that Cattrall's beef with her was one-sided.
“I’d just like to remind everybody that there is no catfight,” she told Vulture. “I have never uttered an unkind, unsupportive, unfriendly word, so I would love to redefine it... I’ve always held Kim’s work in high regard and always appreciative of her contributions. If she chooses not to do the third [Sex and the City] movie, there’s not a lot I can do to change her mind and we must respect it. That’s the only thing I’ve ever said about it, you know?”
“But, no, there is no catfight, there never has been a catfight,” she continued. “I’ve never fought with someone publicly in my life, nor would I. And I spent time with all of the women on the set. People need to recall that it wasn’t just two women on the set fighting, because that just never happened. We are enormously proud of what we got to do… We spent 10, 12 years of our life doing something that I really loved and I feel privileged to be part of and I don’t want this to eclipse it or change its experience for that audience that was so good to us for so long.”
Selena Gomez vs. Stefano Gabbana
Although Selena Gomez has worn Dolce & Gabbana on numerous occasions, designer Stefano Gabbana decided to shade her out of nowhere in June by calling her ugly on Instagram. Gabbana commented on The Catwalk Italia’s Instagram post featuring a five-picture split of Gomez in five different red outfits.
"#Selenagomez rocks red dresses?? Choose your fave: 1,2,3,4 or 5?" the post read.
Gabbana commented in Italian, writing, “è proprio brutta," which roughly translates to “She’s so ugly.”
Though Gabbana made no apologies for his comments, even baiting his haters online, plenty of fans came to Gomez's defense, including Miley Cyrus.
“Well what that di*k head said (if it’s true) is f**king false and total bull sh*t," Cyrus wrote. "She’s fine as f**k."
In September, Gomez got the last laugh when she appeared to troll Gabbana by rocking a bedazzled hair clip reading "ugly."
Eminem vs. Machine Gun Kelly
Eminem and Machine Gun Kelly's feud exploded this year after Eminem dropped a surprise album, Kamikaze, which targeted MGK in the track "Not Alike." He directly calls out MGK in the song, rapping, "And I'm talkin' to you, but you already know who the f**k you are, Kelly."
"I don't use sublims and sure as f**k don't sneak-diss, but keep commenting on my daughter Hailie," he continued.
MGK has previously stated that their beef started after he commented that Eminem's daughter was "hot as f**k" on Twitter when she was 16 years old and he was 22.
A few days later, MGK hit back at Eminem with his song, "Rap Devil," a play on the rapper's song, "Rap God." MGK took aim at everything from Eminem's "weird" beard, his "corny hats," his age and his sobriety.
"Mad about something I said in 2012 / Took you six years and a surprise album just to come with a diss," he raps. "Homie we get it, we know that you're the greatest rapper alive / F**king dweeb, all you do is read the dictionary and stay inside."
Things got heated even more when Eminem released "KILLSHOT" on Sept. 14, a track that slams MGK from beginning to end.
"Realized I forgot to call you back / Here's that autograph for your daughter, I wrote it on a Starter cap," he raps. "Stan, Stan, son, listen, man, dad isn't mad / But how you gonna name yourself after a damn gun and have a man bun?"
"So what good is a f**kin' machine gun when it's out of ammo," he continues. "Had enough of this tatted-up mumble rapper."
In a later interview with The Breakfast Club, MGK made it clear that he didn't take too much offense to Eminem's latest digs.
"You want to talk about man buns?" he said. "You want to talk about a hairstyle I wore for a movie, a blockbuster movie -- shout-out Nerve -- and a 10-episode Showtime series called Roadies? I'm an actor, homie. How disconnected are you?"
"You called me a 'mumble rapper'?" he continued. "Can we just pour some out for this old dumba**? I can't even."
Iggy Azalea vs Bhad Bhabie
The bad blood between 28-year-old Iggy Azalea and 15-year-old Bhad Bhabie -- aka Danielle Bregoli of Dr. Phil's "Cash me outside" fame -- started in November when Bhabie clapped back at Azalea on Twitter. When makeup artist Anthony Merante posted a photo of Bhabie and asked if anyone was going to her tour, Azalea responded with a shady, "Are you?" Bhabie promptly wrote back, “u should come. would be a good memory for u of what a sold out show looks like.”
Later that month, the feud escalated when they both attended the Fashion Nova X Cardi B launch at Boulevard3 in Los Angeles, and Bhabie threw a drink at Azalea. Azalea laughed off the incident, showing off her wet wig in a video.
"So the Dr. Phil girl is really upset about me apparently and thought I’d fight a child?! LOL Anyway! The fashion nova party is LIT!" she wrote.
Azalea later tweeted, “Imagine me scrambling around the floor in a dirty night club trying to hit a teenage girl. Girl. NO. I’m grown and will simply have you REMOVED and continue enjoying myself. #YouNotSpecial. Anything else from her mouth is ignored -- it’s too preschool for me.”
Bhabie didn't back down on her own Instagram Story.
“Don’t talk s**t on the internet Iggy u a b**ch just mad at 15 year old outsold your a**. NEXT," she wrote. "Bye broke b**ch, bye hoe. Glad u left wit a bag cuz u certainly ain’t making no money from music anymore.”
Lana Del Rey vs. Azealia Banks
Lana Del Rey and Azealia Banks' nasty feud blew up in October, when Banks came to Kanye West's defense after Del Rey criticized him for his support of Donald Trump.
"Trump becoming our president was a loss for the country, but your support of him is a loss for the culture," Del Rey wrote, calling both West and Trump narcissists. "I can only assume you relate to his personality on some level."
Banks was not having it.
“Wow okay Lana, this would be cute if you were consistent with your outrage and refused to collab with ASAP rocky who has physically assaulted women too,” Banks tweeted. “To me this just looks like the typical White woman taking using a weakened target to ‘pretend’ to be an ally.”
“Don’t use Kanye for your own vapid attempts to seem politically aware when there is SO MUCH MORE bootleg witchcraft you could be doing to TRY and take down 45,” she added. “Kanye is not your enemy or THE enemy. In fact, your selective outrage makes YOU. The enemy. You approve of ASAP rocky because his victims weren’t white. You’re exactly the kind of thought police Kanye is fighting against…”
Del Rey didn't back down, and definitely escalated the feud.
“U know the addy,” the singer wrote to Banks. “Pull up anytime. Say it to my face. But if I were you -- I wouldn’t. I won’t not f**k you the f**k up. Period.”
“Banks. u coulda been the greatest female rapper alive but u blew it,” she continued. “Dont take it out on the only person who had ur back.”
The back and forth continued, with the tweets getting increasingly personal.
“First, we need her to call the surgeon who did her pointy Michael Jackson nose and ask for some kybella for those chicken patties!!” Banks wrote about Del Rey. “Next we need her to head over to Instagram and invest in some @FlatTummyCo lollipops and a $20 waist trainer!”
Del Rey hit back, “I’ll send you my surgeon’s number and a good psychiatrist I know in LA. Your psych meds aren’t working #uneedanewcocktail.”
Drake vs. Kanye West
West and Drake's longtime simmering feud continued this year after West produced Pusha T's Daytona, which took shots at Drake. Drake also accused West of dropping his surprise album, Ye, in June when he was supposed to release his latest album, Scorpion.
In August, Drake dissed West during a show in Chicago, West's home state. Drake changed the lyrics to "Know Yourself" to take a shot at West's album sales for Ye. While the original lyrics are "Had a job sellin' Girbaud jeans/ I had a yellow TechnoMarine/ Then Kanye dropped, it was polos and backpacks," Drake changed the last line to "Kanye flopped."
Later that month, West called Drake "insensitive" during his appearance on Chicago’s 107.5 WGCI Morning Show, and insisted that he didn't give Pusha T the material for his devastating diss track, "The Story of Adidon."
“We all got love for Drake,” West said. “We understand that he got upset about ["The Story of Adidon"]. I feel that it was insensitive for him to, in any way, stress me out in any way after TMZ, while I’m in Wyoming healing, pulling all the pieces together, working on my music. And you know, we’ll reconcile that one day because we got to, because we got work to do, and these voices is just too powerful.”
“When we talk about the Drake thing, it hits me in a really sensitive place, because you hang around people and they come to your house and be around your family and this and that," he added. "And they get mad about a beat and send you purple demon emojis.”
Hours after West's comments, Drake hit back on social media, Instagramming a picture of him looking unbothered and tellingly captioning the snap with a purple demon emoji.
Although West apologized to Drake in September for "stepping on [his] release date," the bad blood was still evident later that month when West took to Instagram to slam Drake. West addressed rumors that Drake had an affair with his wife, Kim Kardashian -- which she quickly shut down. West explained he's upset that Drake's hit, "In My Feelings," mentions a woman named KiKi -- Kardashian's well-known nickname -- and made it personal by bringing up Drake's past relationship with Rihanna.
"The fact that his people making rumors or thinking that you f**k my wife and you not saying nothing and you're carrying it like that don't sit right with my spirit," West said about Drake. "You know if I had a girlfriend from Chicago, her name is Renita, and you was married to Rihanna, I wouldn't make no song called 'RiRi.' So when you're like, 'I don't know where it comes from,' you're too smart for that, bro. You know where that come from, don't make no record with nothing that could get confused."
"Don't speak on nobody from my family, nothing that could be even mentioned with my wife, period," he continued. "We don't have to talk again. I'm not giving no energy to that."
During Drake's appearance on LeBron James' HBO show, The Shop, he aired out his beef with West, accusing him of being shady and giving Pusha T material for his diss track.
Mandy Moore vs. Ryan Adams
It's no secret that Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams didn't have an amicable divorce, and Moore reiterated that in an interview with Glamour for its November issue.
"Not the smartest decision," she said of marrying Adams in 2009. "I didn’t choose the right person.”
Moore said she was “spiritually and fundamentally stuck" during the marriage.
“I don’t feel guilty for it," she said of their eventual divorce in 2016. "I don’t fault myself for it. When people said, ‘I’m sorry,’ I was like, ‘No. Sorry would have been had I stayed in a very unhealthy situation.’ I didn’t. I found my way out. And when I did, things opened back up again.”
Not surprisingly, the quotes didn't sit well with Adams.
"She didn't like the Melvins or BladeRunner," he tweeted. Doomed from the start... If only I could remember the start lol."
"When someone told me we got married I thought they were joking," he continued. "Then I realized how many painkillers I was taking. Honestly there weren't enough to numb the shock. Gollygooops."
He later responded to a fan who said that he "probably wrote the 75%" of his love songs for his ex.
"There's not actually a single song about her," Adams replied. "Like not one. Fact."
The musician later apologized for his tweets.
"I apologize for my remarks. I was trying to be funny," he wrote. "But I have and will always choose to remember the amazing moments. It isn't classy or ok lessen what was. I am happy for everyone and doing my best."
Little Xan vs. Noah Cyrus
Breakups don't always go smoothly -- especially in the age of social media. This was definitely the case for Little Xan and Noah Cyrus, who broke up over Labor Day weekend after Lil Xan accused Cyrus of cheating on him in a post on his Instagram story. Cyrus took to Instagram to deny the allegation and explained why he believed she was cheating on him. According to Cyrus, she texted him a meme featuring singer Charlie Puth's head Photoshopped onto a naked porn star's body.
He later responded that his cheating accusations had nothing to do with the naked Puth meme, but instead stemmed from a photo she'd posted to Instagram posing with EDM producer Ookay.
"Y'all think that meme is the reason I broke up with Noah, that is hilarious. I broke up with her 'cause she was all over some other dude," he said in a video posted to his Instagram Story. "This is the picture, call me whatever but if you my girl you ain't touching no dude like that sorry aha."
Cyrus then turned the tables on Lil Xan.
“Cheaters like to accuse their partners of cheating to make themselves feel less guilt," she shared. "This isn’t the first time this has happened to me and now I’m being forced to deal with crazy accusations when I’m not even sure where all this came from."
In September, Cyrus threw some serious shade at her ex. When WorldStar Hip Hop's Instagram account asked their followers, "What mistakes did you make in your last relationship that you won't repeat again?" Cyrus commented, "My last relationship was the mistake. Lol."
ET spoke to Cyrus later that month, and she insisted that it's now "totally fine" between the two.
"It's all love and it's all good," she said. "I'm confused, is all I'm going say. It was just a shock for everybody, I think. [But] there's no point in drama, really, just because [I have a] tour, EP, [and a collaboration with] PIZZASLIME."
"I just gotta focus on me right now and I don't really need to have a boyfriend now anyway," she continued. "I realized that when everything blew up in my face. ... You don't need a man to make you happy, so that's for all you girls out there... except for your dads! Dads are the best."
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