Once Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift performed and made up, we thought the rest of the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards would run smoothly. But not so, MTV fans! Nicki refuses to take unprovoked criticism from her peers lying down, and she called host Miley Cyrus out for recent comments she made in which Miley referred to Nicki as "not too kind." The wonders of live TV!

After accepting the VMA for Best Hip Hop Video (and thanking her pastor), Nicki looked over to Miley and said, "And now.. back to this bitch that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press. Miley, what’s good?"

Miley, clearly unprepared for a confrontation of this magnitude during a live television broadcast in front of millions of viewers, responded weakly: "Hey, we’re all in this industry, we all do interviews and we all know how they manipulate s--t. Nicki, congratulations."

Some viewers are adamant that this was merely an MTV-staged attempt at some added drama, but Miley sure did seem visibly flustered:

During a recent interview with the New York Times, Miley weighed in on the feud between Taylor and Nicki, commenting, "What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite. I think there’s a way you speak to people with openness and love. You don’t have to start this pop star against pop star war. It became Nicki Minaj and Taylor in a fight, so now the story isn’t even on what you wanted it to be about.”

Miley then invoked the tone argument, which is one of the most infuriating forms of derailment when invalidating the meaning behind someone's point. She said, "If you do things with an open heart and you come at things with love, you would be heard and I would respect your statement. But I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it.”

She continued, “You made it about you. Not to sound like a bitch, but that’s like, ‘Eh, I didn’t get my VMA.’"

We're surprised Nicki didn't call her out sooner. You can check out a video of the moment above.

See the MTV 2015 VMAs red carpet looks:

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