How 2 ugly celebrity feuds catapulted 4 songs to the top of the charts.

In some delightfully petty news, the iTunes music charts have been taken over by messy celebrity feuds. 

Yes, feuds – plural. For those of us who thrive on distant drama (guilty!), we have been spoilt. 

Two celeb beefs are boiling at once, thanks to the exchange of 'diss tracks' between Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj, alongside the competing 'Selfish' singles between exes Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.

In a screenshot that perfectly encapsulates these chaotic times, this week's iTunes charts were shared on Reddit's Pop Culture Chat feed. 

The iTunes chart this week. Image: Reddit/Frosty_Story_6610. 

The celebs! They are fighting! Celebrity feud season is upon us.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro topping the charts by lending his voice to Tom MacDonald's track 'FACTS' is a topic for another day, but it's low-key iconic to see how the rest of this week's top five is shaped around celebrity drama.

And the fandoms have bought into it hook, line and sinker. Never underestimate the power of a passionate stan with a target in sight.

So what are these feuds all about, and what do the songs have to do with them? Let us explain.

Megan Thee Stallion vs Nicki Minaj.

Beginning with the two rappers occupying the second and third spot, it all began after Megan released her new song, 'HISS'.

The track included the lyric: "These h**s don't be mad at Megan, these h**s mad at Megan's Law." Megan's Law is a US law that requires all states to have sex offenders put on a public registry, with the mention presumably directed at Minaj's husband, Kenneth Petty – a registered sex offender.

Petty was convicted and served a four-year prison sentence for the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1995. Petty later served more prison time for manslaughter in the first degree. 

Nicki has historically stood by her husband's side and defended him. "I didn't know that in our society, you have to be plagued by your past. I didn't know that people can't turn over a new leaf," Minaj told Wendy Williams in 2019.

Kenneth Petty and Nicki Minaj in 2019. Image: Getty. 

When Megan's song dropped, Minaj came out swinging against her rap rival. She started retweeting loads of offensive posts about the 'WAP' rapper on X (formerly known as Twitter), before she started an Instagram Live to preview a new track titled 'Big Foot'.

In the song, she raps, "Bad b***h she like six foot, I call her big foot. The b***h fell off, I said get up on your good foot."

There's no denying this song is a direct dig at the rapper, with an accompanying promo post on X featuring a meme of Megan crying.

Tomorrow
3PM PST #BIGFOOT pic.twitter.com/vPa7yATEU3

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) January 28, 2024

The line "get up on your good foot" appears to reference the time Megan was shot in the foot by rapper Tory Lanez in 2020.

In another snipe on Instagram, Minaj said, "You have three Grammys and you have to learn how to rap on the beat and be comfortable in the music." 

She also took aim at Megan's mother, who died in 2019, telling her followers, "You bringing up 30-year-old tea from when this man was a 15-year-old child. You bringing up 30-year-old tea cause no man will ever f**king love you, and lying on your dead mother."

Bit harsh, Nicki!

When she released the full 'Big Foot' track, listeners heard the rapper continue her tirade against her nemesis. "Hoe, the things that you've lied about, even pertaining to your mum – you don't want them out, okay?"

Megan Thee Stallion at the Mean Girls premiere in 2024. Image: Getty. 

After the release of 'HISS', Megan appeared on The Breakfast Club to explain that the song was about the "motherf**kers [who use] Megan Thee Stallion name – they get 24 hours of attention".

"That's it. Whoever feel it, feel it," she said.

The two women previously collaborated on 2019 single 'Hot Girl Summer', but clearly, the friendship soured along the way. Now, given the public nature of their rivalry, it's unsurprising that both the rappers' fans have been trying to get their respective favourites to chart with their diss tracks about each other.

Britney Spears vs Justin Timberlake.

The song rivalry between Spears and Timberlake is far less personal, as it's been spearheaded by the singers' fans, rather than the celebs themselves. But it's no less juicy. 

The drama began when JT decided to release a new single called 'Selfish', which happened to share a name with a 2011 Spears track, from her Femme Fatale era.

In response, Spears fans rallied around her song, which explains why both 'Selfish' singles are charting simultaneously. 

So where exactly did this beef originate between these two exes who dated in the early '00s? 

In Spears' 2023 memoir, The Woman In Me, she made several allegations against her ex-boyfriend. In one story that garnered the most headlines, she claimed Timberlake encouraged her to get an abortion when they were together.

"If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it," she wrote. "And yet Justin was so sure that he didn't want to be a father." 

She also wrote about the public backlash from Timberlake going along with the narrative that Spears' cheating had ended their relationship. "Everyone felt very sorry for him. And it shamed me," she wrote.

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in 2002. Image: Getty. 

Off the back of her fans trying to bury Timberlake's song, Spears has attempted a ceasefire by – surprisingly – apologising to her ex-boyfriend. 

"If I offended any of the people I genuinely care about, I am deeply sorry," the 'Stronger' singer wrote on Instagram.

"I also wanted to say I am in love with Justin Timberlake's new song, 'Selfish'. It is so good."

As for Timberlake, it looks like his new album, Everything I Thought It Was, might be an attempt to redeem his reputation following the tea Spears spilled.

"I was able, on some of the songs, to look back at the past and have a real, not a refracted perspective of what it was, because they always say... you always hear that thing about, well, there's never any truth, there's just everybody's perspective of what happened," he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music.

"But to really look at it and be able to metabolise and verbalise my perspective on it, I don't think I've ever really done that before."

While Timberlake and Spears might be on a better path, we sadly can't say the same for Megan and Minaj. In fact, it looks like this is only the beginning of an increasingly ugly celebrity beef. Welp.

But we've probably got some damn good music coming our way.

Feature Image: Getty.