Ah, Twitter: where beefs are born, social discussions arise, and the place where fans can find out how celebrities REALLY feel.
During the latest saga, Nicki Minaj voiced her displeasure with the fact that her “Anaconda” video didn’t get nominated for Video Of The Year at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. “If I was a different ‘kind’ of artist, ‘Anaconda’ would be nominated for best choreography and vid of the year as well,” she tweeted. But it wasn’t until she mentioned “other girls” that set off a tense atmosphere.
Minaj continued: “I'm not always confident. Just tired. Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it.” She then wrote, “When the ‘other’ girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture, they get that nomination.” She also tweeted, "If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year."
She never said who the “other” girls are, but most people referenced that comment as being directed towards Taylor Swift, who’s up for six awards, replied to Minaj by writing, “I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot…” Minaj replied with “Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn't say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u should speak on this. @taylorswift13.”
The entire exchange set off a firestorm of #TeamNicki and #TeamTaylor reactions from fans, as well as more discussion on the historical context of white artists having more success when repackaging black music for consumption by Middle America, instead of lauding the art form by its original creators in its original form. Some even took the exchange to mean Taylor’s insensitivity to racial matters in defense of feminism (Taylor has gone on the record as being a feminist in the past).
Twitter user @itsbereniced tweeted, “@taylorswift13 stop using "support all girls" as an excuse to not be critical of racist media that benefits and glorifies you,” to which Minaj retweeted. But Taylor squashed the exchanged with a positive “If I win, please come up with me!! You're invited to any stage I'm ever on,” she tweeted.
People also chimed in with their opinions on whether or not both Nicki’s “Anaconda” video and Taylor’s “Bad Blood” video are even worthy of the Video of The Year title. Some critiques of “Anaconda” call it simply a video full of booty-shakin’ and sexual innuendos with no depth, while others critique Taylor’s video for “Bad Blood” as being overblown just for the sake of being overblown with too many cameos and a misguided storyline.
Sheesh! While Minaj raises some good points, others are calling her jealous of Taylor's success. What do you think — Are you #TeamNicki or #TeamTaylor? Sound off below!
