Why in the World Is Travis Scott Beefing With John McEnroe?

One of the most popular and (controversial) rappers in the world is beefing with an old tennis star?! Not something I had on my 2023 end-of-year bingo card. But when you hear why the two are at odds, it starts to make sense.

On Saturday, a video of John McEnroe unleashing on Travis Scott during a Zoom meeting leaked on social media. The two were discussing the name of their Nike Mac Attack sneaker collaboration with other executives from the shoe company.

In the video, the former tennis player isn’t happy with Scott, as McEnroe wants to call the shoe “Cactus Mac” (which would combine the name of the shoe and Scott’s label). Scott has a calm demeanor throughout the clip as he disagrees with McEnroe’s name suggestion, saying that it sounds more like a burger than it does a shoe (he’s right).

The clip below shows the entire interaction:

While McEnroe’s reaction seems extra, tennis fans know that the former U.S. Open winner is known for lashing out at others. Just look at him screaming at a chair umpire during a 1981 match at Wimbledon (which he won). You can hear McEnroe repeating, “You cannot be serious!” at the umpire.

A day after the video leaked of the two arguing over the name of their Nike collab, an Instagram video posted by @thepeoplegallery_ shows McEnroe addressing his disagreement with the “UTOPIA” rapper, saying, “I was wearing these things in the 80s before Travis Scott was born. Now all of a sudden Travis Scott has got this thing, ‘Cactus Jack,’ so I just made it ‘Cactus Mac.’ Just a little respect, that’s all I’m asking for.”

While Scott’s response wasn’t as direct as McEnroe’s, it was just as disrespectful. On Sunday, just hours after McEnroe’s short interview was posted, a video of Scott defacing a memorial of the legendary tennis star with spray paint was shared on social media. Talk about having no respect.

There’s clearly no love lost between the two. But it seems that this weird “beef” between the two hasn’t delayed any of Nike’s plans to release the collaboration sneaker on Dec. 19th. Hopefully, McEnroe doesn’t have a problem with that.