Nicki Minaj vs. Cardi B: The Stats Behind Their Clash
Nicki Minaj vs. Cardi B is a long-standing hip-hop rivalry for the books. Instead of taking sides, we’re comparing these competitors head to head, crunching numbers and data to deeply analyze content performance to settle who is more popular once and for all. Spoiler alert: they’re both winners.
In this thorough breakdown, we cover:
- The backstory of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B’s rivalry.
- Nicki and Cardi’s social stats.
- Top performing posts from both artists.
- How to analyze competitors with Dash Hudson.
Nicki Minaj vs. Cardi B Backstory
Before we get into the numbers, we must add context and discuss this squabble's culmination point.
2017: The two appeared to have a cordial relationship and even had their first collaboration on the song “MotorSport” with Migos. This collaboration is actually where rumors of a feud began due to changes in verses and tensions during the song’s production (allegedly).
2018: Nicki and Cardi’s relationship began to sour publically in 2018. Social media posts from both stars were seen as indirect digs at the other and were scrutinized constantly by fans and the media, who speculated about the depth of the feud and, in turn, likely made it into a larger issue than it would be otherwise. Tensions also reached their peak in mid-2018 after there was a physical altercation between the two at the Harper’s Bazaar ICONS party during NYFW. The media widely covered this altercation, which marked the first official escalation of their feud from speculation to truth.
2018-2019: Both stars were interviewed and took to social media to discuss the NYFW incident and their perspectives on what truly happened.
2019-Current: Following the major incident at NYFW, Nicki and Cardi never had any direct confrontations again. Of course, there was speculation over certain social media posts, songs or lyrics, and there has been no public reconciliation. Since then, it seems the two chose to focus on their careers and personal lives instead of their feud.
Now that we have the background information surrounding Nicki and Cardi let’s see how they perform on Instagram.
Nicki Minaj and Cardi B Stats on Instagram
We can go back and forth all day about who makes better music, has better features or puts together better outfits. Still, that all seems minuscule when we have raw Instagram data at our fingertips to truly see how Nicki Minaj and Cardi B compare — on social, at least.
We used a combination of Dash Hudson’s Competitive Insights to gather follower and engagement data (from January 1, 2023–November 29, 2023) and Social Listening for sentiment analysis to gain a deeper understanding of how these two are discussed online.
Followers
While follower count isn’t the be-all-end-all metric it used to be, it’s still a quick and easy way to measure someone's popularity — especially on Instagram. Nicki has almost 60 million more followers than Cardi, which is likely attributed to the fact that she has had a longer career and more time to establish her presence on the platform.
- @nickiminaj: 228.4 million
- @iamcardib: 169.1 million
Average Daily New Followers
Both Nicki and Cardi are gaining a fair amount of new followers daily, with Nicki gaining about 15 thousand more followers daily than Cardi on average.
- @nickiminaj: 78.1K
- @iamcardib: 63.8K
Engagement
Engagement is one of the most important metrics to measure on social media. It shows how much users interact with your content and gives a great idea of what types of content people like to see. Although Nicki has a high amount of followers, it’s actually Cardi who has a higher average engagement rate of 1.3%. This percentage could mean that while Cardi has fewer followers, the followers she does have are more engaged in her content.
- @nickiminaj: 0.5%
- @iamcardib: 1.3%
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment is an interesting metric to analyze because it breaks down how people talk about you through social listening. Nicki and Cardi have a healthy mix of sentiment, with ‘neutral’ as their highest percentage and ‘negative’ as their lowest. Cardi has a higher positive sentiment than Nicki, but she also has a higher negative sentiment, so in a sense, this makes their results pretty equal.
- @nickiminaj: positive sentiment: 16%, negative: 3%, neutral: 81%
- @iamcardib: positive sentiment: 20%, negative: 4%, neutral: 76%
Nicki Minaj and Cardi B’s All-Time Top Performing Posts
The final interesting comparison to examine between Nicki and Cardi’s social presence is which Instagram posts performed the best, using data pulled with Dash Hudson’s Competitive Insights tool.
@nickiminaj
It’s no surprise that Nicki’s top performing post is related to the box office hit ‘Barbie’ that hit theatres in mid-2023. The post is a carousel featuring a cover shot of Nicki with Barbie herself, Margot Robbie, followed by an array of solo still shots and videos of Nicki walking the pink carpet. This post was estimated to have reached over 60 million users and received almost three million likes.
- Engagement Rate 1.5%
- Effectiveness Rate: 4.8%
- Estimated Reach: 60.6M
- Likes: 2.9M
- Comments: 25.9K
@iamcardib
Cardi’s top-performing post pulls on our heartstrings. It is a carousel posted in June 2023, dedicated to her daughter, Kulture, who graduated from pre-school. There is an array of photos of Cardi and Kulture together and then a couple of solo shots of Kulture enjoying her day and celebrations. This post alone earned an engagement rate of 3.2% and over five million likes.
- Engagement Rate 3.2%
- Effectiveness Rate: 10.8%
- Estimated Reach: 50.3M
- Likes: 5.4M
- Comments: 25K
Final Thoughts: Cardi B or Nicki Minaj?
So, we’ve gathered and analyzed the stats and numbers, but what exactly can we conclude from it? Both Nicki Minaj and Cardi B have their strengths. Both have done an incredible job sharing content they know their fans want to see. While Nicki has a leg up regarding followers and some more traditional metrics, Cardi shines at earning higher engagement rates and getting her fans involved.
To us, this means that it’s not Nicki Minaj OR Cardi B; it’s Nicki Minaj AND Cardi B. Whether you like one or the other, there is space for both of these legends at the table, and we cannot wait to see what they do next.
Spotlight Your Social Stars With Dash Hudson
Imagine easily uncovering the same information we collected on Nicki Minaj and Cardi B for your own competitors in a few simple clicks. Sounds like a dream, right? With Dash Hudson, it’s a reality.
We’ve touched on the basic capabilities of Competitive Insights and Social Listening, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With Competitive Insights, brands can access competitive and industry benchmarks that allow you to surface key posts, top-performing content and trends directly from your competitive set. Use this information to create custom reports and dashboards that simplify competitive analysis instead of taking hours or even days of your time.
With Social Listening, go beyond what people say and understand how they say it. Monitor specific keywords and hashtags, stay on top of trends, utilize visual search and filters and bring honest customer feedback to the surface with Dash Hudson’s modern listening solution.
FAQs
How did Cardi B and Nicki Minaj’s argument impact their social media?
If there is one thing social media users love, it’s celebrity drama. Especially when it’s between two powerhouse stars like Nicki and Cardi B. Arguments and ‘beef’ between these two inevitably lead to an uptick in engagement and followers for both, as many passionate and passive fans alike like to show their allegiance to one or the other by following the star and interacting with their latest posts to show their support.
While there may be some fluctuations as users unfollow the star they choose not to side with, the new followers outshine and quickly replace the losses.
How many followers does Nicki Minaj have on Instagram?
As of January 2024, Nicki Minaj has 229 million followers on Instagram.
How many followers does Cardi B have on Instagram?
As of January 2024, Cardi B has 169 million followers on Instagram.
