On July 15, SZA and Nicki Minaj activated their fan bases after directly responding to each other’s shade. Things heated up on the X timeline after Minaj interpreted a nameless tweet as a jab at her. Before the singer’s post, the rapper went IN on Terrence Henderson. Aside from being SZA’s manager, Hernderson, also known as Punch, is the president of Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE).
Less than 24 hours after the war of words, TDE Punch told a ‘The Breakfast Club’ host that he’s confused by the beef. However, he also revealed that he and SZA previously sidelined a business request from Nicki Minaj. Nicki has yet to respond to him, but his comments seemingly go against what she told her 27.9M X followers on Tuesday. Let’s get into it!
RELATED: Wayment! Nicki Minaj & SZA Exchange HEATED Words After Rapper’s Tweets About Singer’s Manager TDE Punch
Here’s What TDE Punch Said On X
Six hours and thirty-five minutes after SZA stopped responding, Nicki Minaj finally took the heel off her neck. Minaj had been sounding off about the singer’s voice, body shape, and past critical tweets of female artists. About two hours into his artist’s silence on X, TDE Punch tweeted, “So what did I miss?” Despite more than 1,500 responses, Terrence Henderson didn’t tweet a peep at Minaj. He later called out DJ Akademiks in two tweets for a nasty tweet about SZA, but he did not reply directly to Minaj. By that point, Queen Barb had repeatedly claimed she had evidence of him bullying her on X for years.
lol. Y’all might wanna chill. For real champ. Let’s just keep it cool this time around. Or just give me a call man. lol. https://t.co/77U0vxc4qI
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) July 16, 2025
Punch Speculates About The Cause Of Nicki Minaj & SZA’s Beef
Earlier on July 15, TDE Punch tweeted out the phrase “Broken Barbies.” Shortly after, he followed up with a video of a female rapper performing the song he name-dropped. Some fans on X speculated that the BB tweet riled Nicki Minaj up to blast him in the first place, and SZA second.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) July 15, 2025
However, TDE Punch speculated a different source of the tension while speaking to Loren Lorosa, co-host of ‘The Breakfast Club.’ On Wednesday’s (July 16) morning show, Lorosa revealed that Punch and SZA did not go through with a feature Nicki Minaj requested in 2020. Punch said Minaj reached out, but the feature collab never happened despite him telling her to send the record and assuring her he’d forward it. At the time, SZA was allegedly “in album mode heavy.” Lorosa said Punch told her he hasn’t spoken to Nicki Minaj since then. Aside from that interaction involving SZA, TDE Punch told the ‘TBC’ host he’s “lost” by the energy.
Nicki Minaj Says Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Harassed Her
As mentioned, SZA got dragged into Nicki Minaj’s beef with Terrence “Punch” Henderson. Initially, that’s who the Queens rapper had smoked with on X. When she first started dragging Punch yesterday, Minaj asked her fans for his name and identified him as the “man from TDE who kept bullying” her without reason. She kept the receipts to herself, but claimed, more than once, that she had the evidence.
“I’m going to give him a nickname. Ima call him ‘Minus 30 million’ from now on,” Nicki wrote on X. In a follow-up tweet a few minutes later, she attached a photo of Punch, captioning it “Me after I suck good zik.”
“Guarantee you wouldn’t fight a man. We have every tweet of your incessant bullying, lying, & more. Your name was added to that shit list sh*tty drawers. Same thing that make you laugh make you…sh*t.”
In a third tweet, she tripled down on her stance and claims of bullying, not including the Chucky meme she posted with Punch’s new shady nickname. Opposite to what Punch told Loren Lorosa, Nicki Minaj claimed that she “rejected his business proposition on more than one occasion.” However, she again did not clarify what propositions they were. Still, she alleges that TDE Punch acted “in what appears to be retaliation purposefully used to cause financial damages & to engage in a smear campaign against the brand.”
So glad I have proof of being bullied by AND being lied on by a man PUBLICLY, on a platform I use for my JOB; after I rejected his business proposition on more than one occasion
He failed to disclose to the public that I had rejected his business propositions— and thereby acted…
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) July 15, 2025
With no examples of bullying, the social media streets went to work. One hip-hop blogger, @RapMuseTV, dug up a tweet from TDE Punch mentioning Nicki Minaj projecting to sell 225K in the first week of sales in 2012. @RapMuseTV asserted that Barbz took the word “yikes” in Punch’s tweet as an insult.
Look at all the comments here from last year from NickiStans
Punch complimented Nicki getting 250k / BEST 1st week sales that year
& remedial Nicki fans dug it up & convinced her he was throwing a shot💀 https://t.co/15J4Y1pjCq
— RapMuse (@RapMuseTV) July 16, 2025
