Taylor Swift’s beef with Kanye West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian blew up in 2016, but this year, the ‘Midnights’ artist hit back (again) at the Skims founder – and theirs wasn’t the only reignited star feud

Taylor Swift’s devoted fan base of Swifties was shocked this year when Sabrina Carpenter, a guest performer on the artist’s highly acclaimed Eras Tour, appeared in a campaign for Skims, the shapewear brand owned by Kim Kardashian. This collaboration raised eyebrows given the long-standing feud between Swift and Kardashian and her now ex-husband, Kanye West.

Sabrina Carpenter in her Skims campaign. Photo: @sabrinacarpenter/Instagram

Carpenter later clarified in an interview with Rolling Stone that she was “very, very communicative” with Swift about the situation and that the superstar artist was hugely supportive of her career. That’s not to say the Midnights singer’s feud with the reality TV star is over. We look at their history of being frenemies, as well as four other continuing celebrity battles that have made the news this year.

1. Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian

Kanye West snatches the microphone from Best Female Video Award winner Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo: Reuters

The feud between Swift and Kardashian traces its roots to an infamous incident at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009, where Swift won Best Female Video honours, triumphing over Beyoncé. West stormed the stage, interrupting Swift’s acceptance speech to show his support for Beyoncé. In the following years, the pair seemed to make up, but friction emerged again in 2016 when West dropped the song “Famous”, with derogatory lyrics about Swift including, “I made that b**** famous”.

Swift was swift to condemn the lyrics publicly; and while West said the “Bad Blood” singer had approved them, Swift’s spokesperson refuted this, telling GQ, “Kanye West and Taylor only spoke once on the phone while she was on vacation with her family in January of 2016 and they have never spoken since.”

Kardashian sided with West at the time and retaliated by releasing a purported recording of the phone call between West and Swift, which seemingly proved that Swift had indeed heard – and even approved of – the lyrics.

Swift promptly responded to the emergence of the recording, stating, “While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination.” But it was too late to prevent the fallout: social media users quickly turned on the pop star, flooding her Instagram feed with comments and emojis accusing her of being a snake.

Swift managed to reclaim the narrative: snakes have played a major role in her imagery since she released her Reputation album in 2017. But it seems she isn’t quite done with her retaliation: on her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, released this year, the song “Thank You Aimee”, styled “thanK you aIMee” or “thank You aimEe” (notice the capital letters), appears to be a thinly veiled diss track aimed at Kardashian and West.

2. Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion

Former friends Nicki Minaj (left) and Megan Thee Stallion. Photo: @nickiminaj, @theestallion/Instagram

Former friends rapper Megan Thee Stallion and “Super Bass” singer Nicki Minaj – they collaborated on 2019 anthem “Hot Girl Summer” – took their rivalry to the next level this year by releasing scorching diss tracks. The clash started on January 26, when the former dropped “Hiss”, a song containing a veiled reference to Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty, a registered sex offender.

The lyrics include, “These hos don’t be mad at Megan, these hos mad at Megan’s Law”. Megan’s Law refers to a piece of federal legislation aimed at protecting communities from convicted sex offenders by requiring them to register and making that information public. Petty is a registered sex offender in New York state, having been convicted of rape when he was 15.

Three days later, Minaj retaliated by releasing “Big Foot”, directly calling out Megan and alluding to the feud. As well as lyrics referring to Megan’s past relationships, the title and lyrics regarding Megan’s “good foot” refer to a 2020 incident where the latter was shot in the foot by rapper Tory Lanez.

3. Cardi B and Bia

Cardi B (left) and Bia. Photos: @iamcardib, @bia/Instagram

Another pair of warring rappers are Cardi B and Bia, who started out on friendly terms. In 2021, Bia praised Cardi B’s accomplishments after the latter was named the first female rapper to achieve a Diamond-certified song when her track “Bodak Yellow” sold 10 million units.

However, rumours of a beef between the pair surfaced in March 2023 after Bia and Nicki Minaj, Cardi B’s long-time enemy, collaborated on two remixes: “ Whole Lotta Money” and “Super Freaky Girl”.

Tensions escalated in March this year when Cardi B released Like What Freestyle. Fans noticed the similarities between the beats and ad-libs she used and those on Bia’s track Fallback, released in December 2023 and speculated that Cardi B was imitating Bia’s style. Cardi B later tweeted, “Bi***es make a fool of themselves every single time. ima show ya something when I release this song tho”, firing back at the allegations. She sniped further at Bia in her verse on the remix of Wanna Be by GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion in May. The day that remix was released, Bia posted a fiery response on X.

Cardi B took to Instagram Live to address the bad blood, revealing that she had initially tried to resolve the conflict through a phone call with Bia that turned confrontational. She also accused Bia of spreading false rumours about her cheating on her husband Offset and threatened legal action if the allegations continued.

Bia responded with a diss track of her own on Instagram captioned, “SUE ME??? that’s not hip hop”. The song further called out Cardi B’s supposed infidelity, advising the latter to “put it on your hubby since you lying on your vows”.

4. Ice Spice and Latto

Ice Spice (left) and Latto. Photos: @icespice, @latto/Instagram

The rumoured conflict between “Munch (Feelin’ U)” rapper Ice Spice and “Big Energy” artist Latto has been simmering for more than a year. Initially, Latto appeared to be feuding with Minaj as well, but fans now suggest that her focus has shifted to Ice Spice, who has collaborated with Minaj on songs including Barbie World; Latto in turn has collaborated with Cardi B, Minaj’s long-time rival.

While tensions between the two rappers were initially subtle, with veiled digs in their music and social media posts, things have taken a more overt turn. In March 2023, Latto was accused of imitating Ice Spice when she shared a picture on Instagram that showed her bending over in front of a pink car, revealing her backside. The resemblance to Ice Spice’s signature pose, which she often strikes during live performances and public appearances, didn’t go unnoticed by fans.

An Instagram screenshot of Ice Spice’s signature pose. Photo: @icespice/Instagram

Latto promptly responded to the criticism on X, expressing her frustration at the copycat allegations.

In October 2023, Latto collaborated with Offset on “Fine as Can Be”, featured on his album Set It Off. On hearing the song, listeners picked up on what appeared to be references to Ice Spice and her debut track.

In January, Latto tweeted a video of her and her friends rapping, “I just want a one-on-one / Don’t know why she so nervous”, while playing Ice Spice’s music video in the background. A month later, Ice Spice spoke out during a Twitter Space appearance, stating that she was shocked to see herself in the back of Latto’s “weak-a** snippet”. “This has to be fake – this is AI,” Ice Spice said, “but bi***es be bold, so I was like, ‘Alright, we’re being bold today.’”

5. Drake and Kendrick Lamar

Drake (left) and Kendrick Lamar. Photo: @champagnepapi/Instagram, @DailyLoud/X

The long-standing feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, two of the most popular rappers in the world, can be traced back to several moments in their careers. In 2011, Lamar was featured on Drake’s album Take Care, which was a significant boost for the up-and-coming rapper. The following year, Drake invited Lamar to join him as an opening act on his Club Paradise Tour. They collaborated again on A$AP Rocky’s song F*****’ Problems and Lamar’s “Poetic Justice”, little knowing that that would be the last of their joint efforts.

From 2013, the artists began exchanging subtle jabs in their music and in public. Lamar questioned Drake’s use of ghostwriters in his 2015 song “King Kunta”, rapping, “I can dig rapping / But a rapper with a ghost writer? What the f*** happened?”

In October 2023, Drake released his hit song “First Person Shooter” with J. Cole, in which Cole declares that he, “K-Dot” (Lamar’s stage name) and “Audrey” (Drake’s birth name is Audrey Graham) are the top three rap artists. In response, Lamar dropped “Like That” in March, refuting the idea that the other two were competition, rapping, “M********* the big three, n****, it’s just big me”.

The following month, Drake released “Push Ups”, stating there were other rappers better than Lamar, such as SZA and Travis Scott. He followed up almost immediately with a second diss track, “Taylor Made Freestyle”, suggesting that Lamar hadn’t responded with a track yet because he was afraid the imminent release of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department would eclipse its success: “But now we gotta wait a f*****’ week ‘cause Taylor Swift is your new top / And if you ‘bout to drop, she gotta approve.” The reference is to Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, the CEO of Kendrick’s former record label, which controlled the timing of his releases.

Lamar released several diss tracks in response, including “Euphoria” in April and “Not Like Us” in June – the latter went on to receive five nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards, including for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. He then hosted his sold-out The Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert in June, uniting West Coast hip-hop icons including Dr Dre, ScHoolboy Q and Jay Rock to take jabs at Drake. Lamar performed “Not Like Us” five times and tweaked the “Euphoria” lyrics to include, “Give me Tupac ring back and I might give you a li’l respect”, suggesting Drake’s 2013 purchase of a ring belonging to late rapper Tupac Shakur would make him turn in his grave.