Long before the shoe came out, these talented musicians were locked in a rap battle.

Pitting female against female is a tried-and-true practice, one even more customary in the entertainment industry when the perception is that women are eyeing the same goals—album sales, movie roles, trophies, accolades and respect from their peers—and thus couldn’t possibly act cordial or simply get along for the sake of professionalism.

And in the rap industry where beefs and diss tracks are as commonplace as expensive rides and guest verses? Well let’s just say two women as talented and outspoken as Nicki Minaj and Cardi B would never have been able to exist at the same time without fending off at least a few rumors of a rivalry.

And in those initial months after Cardi dominated the summer 2017 charts with her impossibly catchy track “Bodak Yellow” that’s what both insisted they were: just the expected, clichéd rumors that attach themselves to accomplished women simply trying to exist in the same field.

“I feel like people wouldn’t even be satisfied if me and her was making out on a freaking photo,” Cardi noted to Complex last October.

“I feel like people just want that drama because it’s entertaining.”

By then the pair had teamed up to join trap trio Migos’ on “Motor Sport,” the hip-hop equivalent of saying, we’re fine, nothing to see here. And bloody shoes were still for rapping about, not hurling at one’s opponents.

But we’ll get to that later.

Last fall’s collaboration seemed to temporarily stem the rivalry chatter that had begun in earnest back when Minaj guested on Katy Perry’s diss track “Swish Swish.” The song, of course, was directed at Taylor Swift, Perry’s pal turned frenemy, but the 10-time Grammy nominee, 35, added her own bad blood when she threw out the line, “Silly rap beefs just get me more checks,” then name-checked Cardi’s boyfriend (now-husband) and Migos member Offset: “My life is a movie, I’m never off set / Me and my amigos (no, not Offset).”

By May 2017, Cardi, who parlayed a stripping gig into a part on Love & Hip Hop: New York before launching her music career in earnest, was taking to Instagram Live to riff about the “fake” people she’s had to deal with in the industry.

“I hate this s–t, I really, really do. A bitch like me, I was happier when I was macking in the hood,” the New York native, 25, vented. “This s–t right here is so fake. When I used to be a regular bitch from the Bronx—a hood bitch—when somebody used to be fake to me it was cool because I could approach a bitch and punch her right in her closure…Now that I’m in the industry, you don’t work like that, just have to watch s–t go, watch s–t go. You gotta see people play you and just say nothing like a d–k. That s–t is so wack my n—a like that shit be breaking my heart because the people, your idols, become rivals.”

Coupled with her decision to join Minaj’s avowed enemy Remy Ma at her Hot 97’s Summer Jam festival performance that June, mere days ahead of the “Bodak Yellow” release, hip-hop enthusiasts began to suspect the reality star’s ire was directed at Minaj. After all, she had joined a slew of other female MCs to sing “U.N.I.T.Y.” ahead of Remy’s performance of her Minaj diss track “ShETHER.”

So when Minaj appeared on London on da Track’s “No Flags” that August going off about “These labels tryna make another me / Everything you getting, lil hoe, is cause of me,” the natural assumption was she was taking a dig at Cardi.

But, “It sure ain’t,” Minaj tweeted. “Wrote this one a cpl months ago too.”

Nor was Cardi’s verse on G-Eazy’s “No Limits” (sample lyric: “Swear these hoes run they mouth, how these hoes out of shape? / Can you stop with all the subs? Bitch, I ain’t Jared”) a reference to Minaj. During a September visit to Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, Cardi denied there were issues—”We just conversated man. And that’s it,”—an insinuated her lyrics could be directed at one of many people: “People don’t understand that I got beef with 10 bitches in the hood, and I still be in the hood.”

Further serving her point, Minaj was quick to celebrate when “Bodak Yellow” made Cardi the second female rapper to top the Billboard Hot 100, tweeting, “Congratulations to a fellow NEW YAWKA on a RECORD BREAKING achievement. Bardi, this is the only thing that matters!!! Enjoy it.”

Cardi’s grateful response: “This means sooo much coming from you!!”

Then they teamed up for October’s “Motorsport” proving they were two musicians strong enough to challenge each other for chart positions and trophies, but self-assured enough to come together in the interest of creating something great.

If only that were the end of the story.

Instead, rapper Joe Budden got involved, wondering on an episode of Complex’s hip-hop podcast Everyday Struggle how the collaboration came together, speculating that Kanye West, a producer on the upcoming Culture II album, got involved and “suggested to Migos to put Nicki on this song.” He continued, “I do not think that Migos or anybody stepped to Nicki and said, ‘We have a record featuring Migos and Cardi and we would like you to get on it.’ I don’t believe that happened.”