Rumours of a feud between
Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey have existed in Internet lore for years. And,
like most pop star-on-pop star feuds which appear to exist solely in the minds
of fans, it’s the type of thing that the two are constantly having to deny.
Twice this week Jennifer Lopez has had to address it and, twice this week,
Lopez has denied it.
So here’s how the whole thing
went down.
The
Beginnings
In the early ‘00s, Mariah
Carey was doing an interview with a foreign TV station in which she was asked
her opinion about several pop stars. She called Beyoncé “nice” and “a
good writer” and then she was asked about Jennifer Lopez. “I don’t know
her,” Mariah Carey said. And, immediately, a meme was born.
If you’ve not seen the GIF,
you’ve probably not spent a lot of time on the web.
The Aftermath
It is years later; “I don’t
know her” has become perhaps the most iconic words to come out of Mariah
Carey’s mouth since “all I want for Christmas is you.” It was Andy Cohen, in
2014, who was the first to ask J.Lo directly about the shade of it all.
“I know from back in the day,
I’ve read things that she’s said about me that were not the greatest, but we
have never met,” Lopez, who is no amateur at delivering a verbal knockout,
said. “Like, we don’t know each other. I think it’s kind of from word of mouth
of things that have happened in the past that I’m not really aware of.”
Then, last year, Carey was
doing an interview with The Cut in which she
was asked about gifts she receives from her army of fans, the “Lambs.”
Recently? I don’t know. [yawns] I’m sorry, I’m
having a “sleep” moment…
Well, there was a very interesting shirt that a fan made with a quote that I said years ago that, when I said it, I really wasn’t trying to be funny. I was just being honest and everybody’s kind of blowing it out of proportion but this guy had a shirt on and it was a picture of me that he made and the quote was underneath it — and I’m going to leave you hanging as to what it was.
Well, there was a very interesting shirt that a fan made with a quote that I said years ago that, when I said it, I really wasn’t trying to be funny. I was just being honest and everybody’s kind of blowing it out of proportion but this guy had a shirt on and it was a picture of me that he made and the quote was underneath it — and I’m going to leave you hanging as to what it was.
To recap: Carey yawns
before she explains she was “just being honest.” The word shade is thrown
around hyperbolically these days, but true shade doesn’t really sound like an
insult. However, the recipient knows. Mariah Carey is one of the masters
of the art.
Round Two
Talk of the feud picked up
after last year’s Billboard Music Awards, at which Lopez was caught checking
Instagram during Carey’s performance. Video of Lopez idly scrolling through her
feed immediately became Lopez’s visual response to Carey’s “I don’t know
her” GIF.
Jennifer Lopez is currently on
a media blitz promoting the staggering number of projects — Shades of Blue,
American Idol, The Fosters, etc. — she’s currently working on.
Her first stop was Watch What Happens Live
where, again, Andy Cohen asked about Mariah Carey.
“First of all, that was not
fair with the texting thing because I watched a lot of it — it was a long
performance,“ Lopez said, in what is not not shade. “I watched most
of it, I may have looked down for one second and people were like, ‘Look
at her! Look at her!’”
Lopez then booked it over to The
Wendy Williams Show where she was talking about her Vegas
residency, saying she saw all the shows currently on before she signed her
deal, except for Mariah Carey because Carey’s show didn’t start until Lopez was
already back in New York to film Shades of Blue. Williams saw her chance
and took it with the gusto of a bird of prey.
“Who?” the talk show host joked
of Carey. “No, I’m playing because that’s what Mariah said about Jennifer
one time.”
“She does say that,” Lopez
responded, before delivering her magnum opus. “She’s forgetful I guess.”
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