As if things didn’t already feel dystopian enough. This morning, Bhad Bhabie — née Danielle Bregoli, of “Cash Me Outside” fame — dropped a diss track aimed at Alabama Barker, the daughter of Travis Barker and stepdaughter to Kourtney Kardashian. The song, titled “Ms. Whitman,” set the internet abuzz and has already racked up more than a million views on YouTube. It is the latest in a months-long feud between the two.
On the track, Bhad Babie calls Barker out by name over the beat for Ye’s “Carnival,” claiming the 18-year-old musician and online personality relies on her famous parents’ money for clout and that she stole her flow from Latto, as well as a number of more explicit jabs involving NFL players and a 35-year-old Tyga.
Some needed backstory: Bhad Bhabie and Barker first started beefing in December after Bhabie accused Barker of trying to steal her then-boyfriend and the father of her child, Le Vaughn. Making matters more salacious, Bhabie claimed that Barker made overtures to Vaughn while she was undergoing cancer treatment. (In November, Bhad Bhabie revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer that she later clarified involved her white blood cells.) Barker denied the allegations, claiming instead that it was Vaughn who approached her. Bhad Bhabie then dropped “Over Cooked” earlier this month, and she brought the feud into the booth, airing out her grievances with rap. On the song, she says Barker had an abortion after allegedly getting pregnant by the rapper (and grown-ass man) Tyga, a claim that made the rounds in gossip rags and which both Barker and Tyga quickly denied.
Barker responded to “Over Cooked” just a few weeks ago with “Cry Bhabie,” where she refutes Bhabie’s attacks about trying to steal her boyfriend and claims that Bhabie’s boyfriend has been unfaithful and that her friends violated her trust behind her back. It’s all very dramatic in a high school sort of way. Indeed, despite seeming like a perennial online celebrity, Bhad Bhabie is, in fact, just 21 years old. She went viral a few years back after she revealed her earnings on OnlyFans shortly after she turned 18 (a whopping $57 million.) Barker, for her part, is literally a teenager, which makes some of the more explicit claims in the song feel icky in the same way the pedophile refrain in “Not Like Us” feels unsettling.
And perhaps viral rap beef that teeters on the edge of going too far is the new language of our era. In the music video for “Ms. Whitman,” a Travis Barker look-alike plays drums while Bhad Babie besmirches their family name. It’s peak rap bravado of the 2020s sort, fueled by an insatiable hunger for drama online. Both of these young women seem very good at keeping the internet’s attention, so much so that one has to wonder about the nature of viral fame and, really, this whole enterprise of social media — hell, the whole internet — when these are the cultural figures of our time. But, then again, maybe this is how it was always going to be…
Anyway! Now you know why Bhad Bhabie and Alabama Barker are beefing. You’re welcome.
