Two Music Stars Are Unexpectedly Feuding. The Beef May Go Back Years.
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calc(100vw - 30px)" width="1560">If you know anyone who identifies as a woman with an intense sense of unease, you should really give them a call: A new beef in the music industry has mooed between the singers Ethel Cain and Lana Del Rey, and it's distressing sad girls everywhere. The two, who often are referenced in the same breath, considering that they're both female artists exploring Americana ideals and imagery through music, were revealed to be in a standoff when Del Rey dropped a snippet of an unreleased song to her Instagram account last week. As internet sleuths piece together evidence pointing to the likelihood of years of friction between the singers, concerned members of the public are left wondering what to even make of the allegations and brewing fan wars. Now everyone from Nicki Minaj to Jack Schlossberg is weighing in on this new line drawn in the sand. But don't worry if you didn't understand a single word I've said so far: Here goes my best attempt at breaking it all down.
I didn't hear a peep about Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain's relationship before this, so how did this all start?
Del Rey, the 40-year-old Born to Die crooner known as Lizzy Grant in another lifetime, ignited the fire last Thursday when she teased part of an unheard song—captioned “Track 13” and directly tagging her go-to producer, Jack Antonoff—in a video posted to her Instagram. In the video, Del Rey listens to the track in the car, with a snippet that starts with the lyrics “Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post/Think it's cute reenacting my Chicago pose,” before going on to refer to herself as “the most famous girl at the Waffle House.” Notably, Del Rey is shown not passively listening but instead looking directly at the camera and making slight gestures, including shrugging in nonchalance after the lyric “Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post.” She ends the clip by saying “OK? OK,” nodding in satisfaction, as if she has finally put some argument or confusion to bed.
All right, let's break this down. What's this about an Instagram post and Chicago pose?
In July 2022, Del Rey was pictured posing with then-boyfriend Jack Donoghue, a co-founder of the electronic band Salem, outside the Cook County Jail in Chicago. The photo was posted to Donoghue's Instagram page, though it has since been deleted. It was rumored that Cain, a 27-year-old gothic indie rocker who gained a cult following after her debut album was released in 2022, had also dated Donoghue, though that has not been verified. Whatever the nature of their relationship, it became crystal clear that Donoghue and Cain at least knew each other when, sometime after the jail photo was posted, Cain posted her own similar photo of her and Donoghue. Cain's caption read “OK wait my turn,” seemingly in response to the photo of Del Rey and Donoghue.
Oh! Claws out, maybe. What is the significance of Del Rey mentioning Waffle House in her song snippet?
In May 2022, the New York Times ran a profile of Cain headlined “ The Most Famous Girl at the Waffle House .” Later, in 2023, a viral video surfaced showing Del Rey inexplicably working a shift behind the counter of a Waffle House in Florence, Alabama, much to the gaffe of her fans, who wondered if it was some sort of publicity stunt. It turned out that the incident involved no labor, contractual or otherwise, on Del Rey's part for the food chain. Instead, as Del Rey told the Hollywood Reporter , she, a regular at that Waffle House location, had been given a free shirt and was cosplaying as a server there while some staff took photos and videos of her, and the photos and videos blew up without the context. Some fans are wondering now if, in hindsight, the whole thing wasn't orchestrated as some comeback aimed at Cain . It's just as likely, however, that the situation went down just the way Del Rey alleged it did—in which case she really lucked out with incredible wordplay to one-up Cain on her song.
Have these two always had beef with each other, or is this new?
It seems as if this has been brewing for a while. Plenty of X threads from fan accounts have sought to chart the full history of Del Rey and Cain's interactions over the years. Cain was apparently an open fan of Del Rey's, apparently mentioning her as a favorite artist in screenshots of an old DeviantArt page and even covering Del Rey's songs “Born to Die” and “ Mariners Apartment Complex .” An Some Del Rey fans also point to a 2021 interview with Our Culture Mag in which Cain pushes back against the themes of Del Rey's popular album Born to Die as evidence of Cain turning on Del Rey. In a 2022 interview with iD , Cain admits that she “love[s]” Del Rey and her music but feels that it's “a detriment to the expansive work of two female artists to just reduce them to being similar to each other.” The aforementioned
Additionally, a Reddit thread from a couple of years ago asserts that Cain used to edit her own Wikipedia page , removing her older work and other information, including any references to Del Rey . Now Del Rey's teased song has been dubbed by fans as “All About Ethel”—a play on All About Eve —and has been transcribed by fans on Genius , with two additional rumored lyrics at the end.
It seems as if Cain just has a particularly sarcastic sense of humor and was tired of a, well, tired comparison.
That might not be all. Del Rey commented to explain her position a bit further on a now-deleted Pop Base Instagram post about the snippet. In the comment, Del Rey claims she “didn't know who Ethel was until a few years ago” (ouch!), after someone alerted her to the “disturbing and graphic side-by-side images” Cain would allegedly make of Del Rey “next to unflattering creatures and cartoon characters” and “making constant comments” about the singer's weight. (Del Rey has been subjected to media and fan scrutiny for her fluctuating body size over the years.) Del Rey went on to accuse Cain of bad-mouthing her behind her back to their mutual friends, saying that Cain's alleged attempts at “inserting herself” into Del Rey's “personal life” left Del Rey “disturbed.” (Thus far, these claims have gone unverified by fan-found evidence.)
Has Ethel Cain responded to any of this?
As far as I can tell, Cain's only reference to this mess was one post to her Instagram Stories last Thursday. The post consisted of white text on a black background: “Update: Lana Del Rey has blocked Ethel Cain on Instagram.” It's unsurprising that Cain has been tight-lipped about the matter, seeing as she's currently touring for her critically acclaimed album Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You , which was released earlier this year.
However, leave it to your family to have your back. Cain's sister, Delilah, responded to Del Rey's diss with her own captioned selfie directly tagging Del Rey, which she posted to her Instagram Stories before swiftly deleting it. Screenshots of the post show Delilah's caption, which tags Del Rey's account and reads: “I can't wait to watch your hologram perform this 'diss track' while you hit your vape backstage diva … What inspired you to suddenly make a country album?” After deleting the more direct response, Delilah followed up with a secondary photo, which she allegedly left up on her Stories, captioned “KEEP CRYING.”
A lot of the comments on various Instagram posts related to the apparent feud seem to mention Nicki Minaj. What on earth is that about?
In a livestream , the Pink Friday rapper praised Del Rey while singing her own rendition of the now-infamous lyric name-dropping Cain. Minaj said that “Lana can say anything and it sounds dope,” noting that she's wanted to sing the opening line about Cain “since the moment” she heard the snippet. (Do yourself a favor and listen to Minaj's rendition of that line.)
Minaj is not the only celebrity speaking on this brewing feud. The internet's favorite weirdo , Jack Schlossberg (aka JFK's grandson), also mentioned the feud on his YouTube livestream , in case you were waiting with bated breath to hear his opinion.
Surely the fans have been normal about all this.
For the most part, it seems as if everyone's main reaction was that of surprise. However, if you riffle through enough tweets and social media comments, it won't take long before you see some Cain fans being fatphobic toward Del Rey, and some Del Rey fans being transphobic to Cain (who is transgender), all of which takes some of the fun out of this whole petty debacle. Additionally, some fans in Del Rey's comments have chastised her for arguing with someone much younger than she is. While it's true that styles of humor don't always translate across generations, and perhaps many of Cain's public statements have been lost in translation, it is also true that you're never too old to put a hater in their place.
Really, though, the unsavory fan comments are a shame, because not only does the real meat of this beef seem to involve people we don't know and evidence of words whispered behind closed doors, but everyone knows that celebrity fallouts often lead to the best music. If any of Taylor Swift's songs about her ex-beaux or the Kendrick and Drake diss tracks have taught us anything, it's that sometimes it's better, sonically speaking, if the claws come out.
