‘Does SZA think she’s more successful than me?’: Here’s why the Nicki Minaj vs. SZA feud is going nuclear

What seemingly started as a tongue-in-cheek reference to astrology by SZA ended up in an all-out Twitter war between Nicki Minaj and the “Snooze” singer.

Believe it or not, Nicki Minaj’s initial problem wasn’t even with SZA. As the adage goes, all rap beefs end up on one road that stops at Jay-Z’s doorstep. There’s no doubt that in his long career, Jay-Z has been attached to both awful confirmed and even worse unsubstantiated rumors, so Nicki Minaj having a problem with him too wasn’t surprising. What was surprising, however, were the allegations she was placing on the Hall of Fame songwriter, allegations that seemed unfounded at best.

For the better part of two weeks, Nicki Minaj has been claiming that Jay-Z owes her up to $200 million tied to his sale of the streaming service they all jointly owned, Tidal. Per Vibe, the “Starships” singer took to her increasingly chaotic X account to claim that Jay-Z owed her “$100 – 200 million,” according to “her people,” a number that seems highly unlikely given that the entire company was sold to Square Inc. for $297 million, and there were other celebrity shareholders such as J. Cole and Madonna.

Nicki Minaj seemingly is going down a very troubling rabbit hole, and while there are people online alleging that these latest tirades are fueled by drug abuse and financial difficulties, she has been quick to threaten litigation against anyone making claims about her without proof. But how does SZA come into all this? There’s a chance SZA doesn’t know either.

As Nicki Minaj was applying a scorched-earth policy reminiscent of Kanye West, sharing every tidbit she might know about Jay-Z, criticism against her began to rise. Complex reports that TDE’s president Punch, SZA’s longtime manager and Kendrick Lamar’s former business partner, seemingly picked the wrong time to promote a song by an artist he’s working with titled “Broken Barbie.” Nicki, whose fanbase moniker is “Barbz,” took offense and began taking aim at Punch’s weight and business practices.

That’s when things got out of hand. SZA posted that “mercury is in retrograde” and that people should avoid the bait, and Nicki Minaj wasn’t having it at all. The rapper went nuclear on SZA, first accusing her of having fake freckles, then posting multiple tweets mocking her cosmetic surgery. SZA, for her part, stood up for herself and went on to battle Nicki Minaj’s Barbz for the rest of the night.

I don’t give a fuck bout none of that weird shit you popping .

— SZA (@sza) July 15, 2025

New reports have now emerged suggesting that Nicki Minaj sought a collaboration with SZA in 2020 and was rejected. It’s highly likely this also fed into Nicki Minaj feeling like SZA thinks she’s above her. Nicki posted on X, publicly pondering, “Does Sza think she’s more successful than me? Lol yall catch me up pls. Sza if every song you’ve ever done vanished right now the music business wouldn’t even miss you.”

I spoke to @iamstillpunch Szas manager and TDE president About what caused the back and forth between Nicki Minaj & Sza.. @breakfastclubam pic.twitter.com/HXtBgAwnqS

— BROWN GIRL GRINDING⭐️ (@LorenLorosa) July 16, 2025

Nicki Minaj clearly has some unresolved issues she needs to address, and it doesn’t seem like handling everything like this is doing any favors to the reputation she spent decades cultivating. We don’t need another Kanye West situation in hip-hop.