"She just glows like a lava lamp" — Lil Yachty was scared of facing Nicki Minaj after siding with Cardi B in their rap beef

Lil Yachty recently addressed his fallout with Nicki Minaj after he sided with her rival, Cardi B, amid the feud between the two women, that resulted in an altercation at Harper's Bazaar's New York Fashion Week party in 2018.

Lil Yachty revisited the feud during his recent appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast, uploaded to YouTube on January 29, 2025. Yachty expressed his regret at siding with Cardi B, which left him in Minaj's bad books. He said that he never attempted to reach out to Minaj to clear the air, adding:

“I was so scared to talk to her, bro. She just glows like a lava lamp. She’s so beautiful, and she just walks around glowing.”

Cardi B and Nicki Minaj's rivalry, which started in 2017, culminated at the Fashion Week event, where the former reportedly threw a shoe at the latter. The Anaconda rapper's security reportedly stopped Cardi from attacking Minaj, and pictures taken from the event allegedly showed Cardi leaving the party with a bump on her forehead.

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What did Lil Yachty say in the aftermath of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B's feud?

Lil Yachty was asked about the feud between Nicki Minaj and Cardi B during a BET interview with a TMZ reporter in October 2018, over a month after their altercation at the New York Fashion Week party. The rapper sided with Cardi as they were signed to the same management team called Quality Control Music.

When the reporter asked him if he would ever want to work with Minaj, Yachty replied:

“I couldn’t—as much as I probably would want to.”

Following this, Lil Yachty took to X to clarify his statement, saying the publication "twisted my words." He added he had been a huge Nicki Minaj fan since elementary school, however, he explained that he decided to defend Cardi as the Bodak Yellow rapper has shown him "too much love" for him to not take her side.

According to All HipHop, Nicki Minaj reportedly caught wind of Yachty's answer and blocked him on her social media accounts. In a 2021 interview with TMZ, Yachty said he tried everything in his power to get Minaj to unblock him, including retweeting his old tweets praising her. Minaj has yet to unblock Lil Yachty at the time of this article.

During his recent interview at Club Shay Shay, Lil Yachty expressed regret for his answer during the 2018 BET interview. He said he inserted himself into a situation where he had no stakes, continuing that he respected both rappers "aside from their differences."

“I hate it that I even answered that question because I kind of just inserted myself in something that had nothing to do with me and the craziest thing is, I was apart of the barbz,” he said.

When Shannon Sharpe, the host, asked Lil Yachty if he had ever reached out to Drake to mitigate his situation with Minaj, the rapper replied that he "never even asked him to." For context, Drake has worked with both Minaj and Yachty multiple times.

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In other news, Lil Yachty also addressed his relationship with Mariah the Scientist when he appeared on the podcast, admitting he treated her poorly when they were together.

“I was a s**t person to her. She was really great. So great, so I get it. She was a great person though, man,” he said.

Mariah revealed her former relationship with Yachty when she appeared on an episode of Yung Miami's Caresha Please in October 2024. She said that she had known the rapper since high school but they started dating in college. It is unclear how long they dated or when they broke up. Mariah has been in a relationship with Young Thug since 2021.