It’s no secret that Nicki Minaj and Lil’ Kim are enemies, so fans were absolutely shook at how much Nicki looked JUST like her nemesis on a new magazine cover! In the pic, Nicki rocks lighter brown hair and dramatic cat eye makeup, and is staring into the camera with a sultry glare. She even had a prominent mole on the left side of her upper lip, the comments section blew up with people pointing out how much she looked like Kim. “Giving me throwback lil kim vibes,” someone wrote, while another added, “OOO you say Cardi B’s copying your style, gulll see this picture you copying [Lil Kim]’s style!”
Even Kim’s stylist got in on the action, posting a side-by-side photo of Kim and Nicki’s cover to really show the resemblance. “If you never seen the movie Single White Female you need to go & watch it…because this is what this situation is,” he wrote. “At this point I’m scared for my friend [Lil Kim]. Shorty out here rocking a mole & all. Shorty stole her style, management team and now her mole.” It appears Kim, herself, couldn’t agree more — she liked the stylist’s photo on Instagram!
Tension between Nicki and Kim began at the very start of Nicki’s career, when she released promotional photos that resembled ones Kim had put out in the past. Both ladies have publicly recalled meeting for the first time at a Lil Wayne show, but Kim remembers their confrontation being much more hostile than Nicki does. “Picture somebody saying to me, ‘We good?'” she once explained. “I’ll ring her throat, snatch her larynx out.”
The feud really escalated in 2010, though, when Ray J and Kim performed together, and he told the crowd, “I’m seeing a lot of Lil Kim impostors. I’m not saying no names, but you know who.” Kim explained that she “loves” this impostor, but isn’t down for someone copying her if they’re not “paying homage” to her. One day later, Drake defended Nicki while they performed together. “I don’t give a f*** what Lil Kim or nobody else talkin’ about,” he said. “You the baddest chick to ever do this s***.”
The ladies continued to take shots at one another in interviews after that, and ahead of the release of Nicki’s anticipated album, Pink Friday, Kim released a major diss track called “Black Friday.” In the song, she called Nicki a “Lil Kim wannabe,” and said she wasn’t “built” for the hip-hop industry. Nicki fired back with a diss track of her own called “Tragedy.”
In 2013, Nicki collaborated with Beyonce on the song, “Flawless,” and referred to herself as the ‘rap queen’ in her verse. This hit a nerve with Kim, who took it upon herself to add her own verse to the song. “Am I trippin’ or did this h* just say my name?” she rapped. “Queen of rap, f*** outta here. Queen’s back, f*** outta here.”
Finally, in 2018, Kim said that she’s “over” all the drama with Nicki and even wished her the best. “At the end of the day, stop asking me about that chick,” she insisted. “She did what she did. Y’all don’t do that to her. I don’t think you would [ask her about me].” Clearly, they’ll never be best friends, but maybe they won’t publicly bash each other anymore!