Is love really dead? Have unshakeable relationships ceased to exist? These are the questions we ask ourselves when we see Jay-Z and Kanye West feuding via song lyrics and concert rants, after nearly 20 years of friendship.
The rappers have been orbiting each other since 2000, but not too long ago, West went on a tirade at one of his gigs because, apparently, Jay-Z didn’t reach out to him when his wife, Kim Kardashian West, was robbed at gunpoint. Fast forward to Jay-Z’s latest album 4:44, where he calls out West for his comments: “You got hurt because you did cool by ’Ye/You gave him 20 million without blinking/He gave you 20 minutes on stage, [what] was he thinking?”
Now it looks like West might be backing out of Tidal, Jay-Z’s paid streaming service, and taking legal action. As we wait for updates on whether ‘JayYe’ is really over, we take a look at nine other celebrity feuds that just won’t die.
Charlie Puth vs Bella Thorne (+ Tyler Posey)
Pop star Charlie Puth pulled a huge millennial no-no last year when he broke up with actress girlfriend Bella Thorne publicly via Twitter. Puth had caught wind of an outdated article about Thorne being on vacation with ex-boyfriend Tyler Posey, and assumed she had been two-timing him. The most bizarre series of tweets followed, as Puth wrote, “I don’t know Tyler personally, but no one should be treated like this.” Thorne later slammed Puth for making her look like a cheater. Rumour has it, Attention, Puth’s latest single, is about Thorne.
Feudometer: 4/5. Puth should have utilised his phone’s text message feature, along with his don’t-jump-to-conclusions faculties.
Katy Perry vs Taylor Swift
Ah, one of the industry’s most tedious frenemy relationships. Back in the day, Katy Perry’s dancers decided to become Taylor Swift’s dancers while Perry was on a break from tour. Then they asked to leave Swift’s tour when Perry was about to go back on the road. Swift, mortally offended, axed Perry and her dancers from her life forever and ever, then wrote Bad Blood about it. During a recent appearance on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, Perry spilled the beans on the whole thing and said she was over it. Us, too.
Feudometre: 2.5/5. This ‘feud’ loses points for being blown way out of proportion.
Mariah Carey vs Jennifer Lopez
Have you caught that iconic gif of Mariah Carey shaking her head and saying “I don’t know her” in response to a reporter who asked her about Jennifer Lopez? It went down as one of the shadiest moments in pop culture history. Carey has since claimed it was an innocent response. But TMZ decided to rehash the drama last year by asking Carey about it, to which she responded: “I still don’t know her.” Lopez’s take? “I’ve read things that she’s said about me that were not the greatest, but we have never met.”
Feudometer: 3/5. This is the kind of intra-diva banter that keeps the world spinning.
Jay-Z vs Solange
Does it still count as a celebrity feud if it’s between family? Back in 2014, video footage from a Met Gala elevator shocked the world as Solange Knowles attacked Jay-Z in Beyonce’s presence. Rumours surfaced that Jay-Z’s infidelity was the cause, further fuelled by Beyonce’s album Lemonade. Now the rapper himself admits it on his new album 4:44. “You egged Solange on, knowing all along, all you had to say you was wrong. You almost went Eric Benet, let the baddest girl in the world get away,” he tells himself, referencing Benet’s unfaithfulness to ex-wife Halle Berry.
Feudometer: 4/5. Everyone remembers where they were when that fateful video emerged.
Louis Tomlinson vs Naughty Boy (+ Zayn Malik)
After Zayn Malik left One Direction in 2015, he was frequently seen with producer Naughty Boy in the studio. Tomlinson, Malik’s former bandmate, responded to this apparent betrayal by directing several jabs towards Naughty Boy, culminating in one tweet where he made fun of a photo of Naughty Boy and Malik. “Remember when you were 12 and you used to think those Mac filters for your pictures were cool… Some people still do,” he wrote, to which Malik’s responded, “Remember when you had a life and stopped making [expletive] comments about mine?”
Feudometer: 4/5. Malik has since cut ties with Naughty Boy, but it’s yet to be seen whether he’s made amends with his ex-bandmates.
Rihanna vs Azealia Banks
Earlier this year, Rih Rih spoke out against President Donald Trump’s travel ban that targeted majority Muslim countries, and said she was “disgusted” that “America is being ruined right before our eyes.” Banks responded with an Instagram post telling Rihanna and other celebrities to “shut up and sit down.” She then escalated matters with a screenshot of Rihanna’s phone number captioned “Bombs away!”
Feudometer: 3/5. Blasting someone’s phone number online is never the solution.
Taylor Swift vs Calvin Harris
This lovers’ quarrel taught us what we already knew: never mix business with pleasure. After the pair split, reports emerged that Taylor Swift had written Calvin Harris’ megahit This Is What You Came For. “Hurtful to me at this point that her and her team would go so far out of their way to try and make ME look bad at this stage,” Harris tweeted. “I wrote the music, produced the song, arranged it, and cut the vocals,” he said.
Feudometer: 3.5/5. Who doesn’t love an argument over song credits?
Taylor Swift vs Kim and Kanye
It all started in 2009, when Kanye West infamously tried to strip Taylor Swift of her MTV Video Music Award so he could give it to Beyonce. Swift and West made up, but last year, the latter wrote a crude lyric about Swift, saying that he “made that [expletive] famous.” Swift shot back at West during her Grammy acceptance speech. West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, had evidence that Swift had already okayed the lyric. In a phone conversation between Swift and West posted on Snapchat, the rapper can be heard giving Swift a heads-up about the lyric, and she can be heard greenlighting it.
Feudometer: 4/5. We’ve had enough of Kanye West and Taylor Swift drama, but that Snapchat reveal was unforgettable.
Nicki Minaj vs Miley Cyrus
When Nicki Minaj’s music video for Anaconda failed to receive a Video of the Year nomination from the MTV Video Music Awards in 2015, she called out the industry for only celebrating women with “very slim bodies”. Cyrus responded saying: “If you want to make it about race, there’s a way you could do that. But don’t make it just about yourself.” Minaj took the opportunity to fire back at Cyrus on the VMAs stage, with the now iconic line: “Back to this [expletive] that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press — Miley, what’s good?” Minaj later said that Cyrus wanted to “enjoy our culture and our lifestyle” without listening to what black women had to say about their own experiences.
Feudometer: 5/5. #TeamNicki
