Chance the Rapper on Beefs Like Cardi B and Nicki Minaj: ‘A Lot of That Stuff Is Produced’

As Cardi B continued to ascend in the music industry, she was often pitted against Nicki Minaj. The two eventually traded insults, but it never exploded into a full-fledged beef. Chance the Rapper, who has worked with both artists on separate occasions, opened up in a Thursday interview with Big Boy about why he believes that situation was orchestrated by everyone but the rappers themselves.

“A lot of that stuff is produced,” he said at the 1:12:40 mark of the interview. “We live in… A lot of everything is curated before we get to see it. Like, all the information, the way that they phrase it to us… The way they put people against. It’s made for you to like, accept it a certain way, so a lot of people had to choose a side. I don’t want to speak for them at all, but I feel like to a certain extent they got pushed into that too, and I don’t think that all of that was a hundred percent their feelings.”

Chance also praised both women, adding, “Just being honest, they are two of the greatest recording artists. And that’s just facts. The way that their music touches people, the way they’ve impacted music? It’s been incredible.” He referred to Nicki as a “mentor,” and said that people referred to his verse on Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam” as his “Monster”” moment.”

Chance also opened up about how Offset changed his life, and revealed that he knew about his and Cardi’s marriage long before it was announced. After he was told about the situation, he told Offset that he was going to propose to his now-wife because he was inspired. “Offset definitely… probably one of the big inspirations in me manning up,” he explained. 

Earlier in the interview, Chance discussed Kanye West becoming a “spiritual advisor” of sorts for him. “Ye is like one of my spiritual advisors, all he does is read the bible and make samples and turn songs into gospel songs now,” he explains at the 25:00 mark. “Last year he came to Chicago for a little while, and we worked on a few different things and didn’t turn into an album,” he added. 

Chance revealed that Kanye lived with him for two months, and while the two weren’t able to figure out what they wanted to do in the studio together, Chance spoke very highly of the experience. “I just felt weird about it, I just had the opportunity of a lifetime and it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.” Watch the full interview above.