Nicki Minaj is the biggest female rapper on the planet bar none, probably of all-time.
The Jamaica, Queens native is the first artist to receive BET’s Best Female Hip-Hop Artist four years in a row. She’s the first solo female rap artist ever to perform at the ‘Grammy Awards’ and the first female rapper to sell 5 million units per album.
The list continues… Minaj has passed the late Aretha Franklin for the most total appearances on the Billboard 100 in its 58-year history racking up 76 Hot 100 entries and is also worth over $50 million.
Apart from her billboard success, her character and personality is a brand worth mentioning in itself. She has a staggering 90 million followers on Instagram, 20 million on Twitter and a fanbase that is as rabid as they come.
Yet, somehow, Nicki Minaj has done more damage to her reputation in the past week than she ever has in her decade-long run as a rap star. Minaj’s likability is plummeting faster than the economy in the 30s and she’s in the driver’s seat with blinders on.
And it’s all how she’s handled the release of her fourth studio album, Queen, which dropped Aug 10th.
The first cause of concern came just four days after releasing Queen when she, inexplicably, went after her ex Safaree and others in a deranged interview with old foe Funk Flex on his Hot 97 station.
She said:
“You don’t know the f*cked up sh*t he did to me. It don’t give you a right to lie about someone’s craft just because you know that they’re a woman and people will believe you. So now years later you want to come back and say ‘I lied’ after you’ve tried to tarnish my image. I’ve gotten over it now because you can go and listen to Queen and hear it for your mothaf*cking self.”
She continued:
“For one person to do something like this to me out of sheer weakness and passive aggression and just hatefulness and vindictiveness because you got caught sh*tting on a person who was taking care of you for years and years? Because you got caught sh*tting on a person who was taking care of you while you were paying for prostitutes and stealing their credit cards?”
Even after, she went on Twitter to further air out dirty laundry between the two in what could only be explained as marketing tactics.
Safaree has before claimed he wrote some of Nicki’s songs while they were together but has since walked back those claims. Even Tyga caught a stray.
I should’ve never paid for that gyatDamn hairline!!!! It fell back out cuz God don’t like ugly!!!! You used me but God had other plans!!!!!
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 14, 2018
Tyga shit ain’t fall back out!!!! Y’all went to the same doctor!!! Yours fell out cuz GOD DONT LIKE UGLY!!!!!!
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 14, 2018
Venting, seeking revenge or whatever you may call it, a star of Nicki’s caliber surely should have more poise and class, no? But Nicki was only getting started.
The weekend following her Hot 97 fiasco the results came in for the week’s sales which revealed that Queen failed to top the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 2 behind Travis Scott’s Astroworld.
Nicki Minaj then proceeded to legit lose it, coming completely unhinged online. Minaj tweeted along with the screenshot:
Travis sold over 50K of these. With no requirement of redeeming the album! With no dates for a tour, etc. I spoke to him. He knows he doesn’t have the #1 album this week. I love my fans for the #1 album in AMERICA! I’ll explain on #QueenRadio 4 albums in, #1 in 86 countries ♥️ pic.twitter.com/CiYEuczgm3
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
She then tweeted:
I put my blood sweat & tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling ppl to come see her & Stormi. lol. Im actually laughing. #Queen broke the record of being number 1 in 86 countries. Thank Jesus & thank you to my fans.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
Minaj went on to tell her Twitter followers,
I looked at the numbers the Carters, Kanye, Nas, etc recently did. Travis sold 200K in his first week of clothes alone. I spoke to him last night & he said he’s been selling clothes b4 the music. Billboard says they’ll change the rules cuz of this, so it should be changed now!
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
People are calling me thinking I’m huffing & puffing. Omg y’all this is sarcasm/dry humor. Yikes. I’m having the most iconNIC time. Come let me kiss you. 😩😘😘😘 Who’s coming to the secret show? When people call me & hear me crackin up laughing they seem so puzzled. Loosen up 😅
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
Nicki didn’t stop the finger-pointing at Travis and Kylie.
Minaj also called out Spotify for threatening to “punish” her as retaliation for debuting Queen too early on her new Beats 1 radio show over at Apple Music, and alleged that her label, Republic Records, backed down from that fight out of fear that fellow Republic artist Ariana Grande’s numbers might be sabotaged, too.
In a statement given to Variety, Spotify denied Minaj’s allegations, adding, “The company continues to be big fans of Nicki.”
Remember, we’re talking about the biggest female artist in music right now and she’s blaming merchandise sales, streaming platforms and an infant for her album dropping at No.2; all publically, having absolute zero chill(!)
That following Monday, as you can imagine, Travis Scott had his and Kylie’s seating changed for the MTV VMAs. They moved their seats from behind Nicki to the other side of the room real close to the Pinkprint rapper’s rival, Cardi B. Later that evening, trust, Nicki continued her tirade, this time comparing herself to civil rights hero Harriet Tubman.
“All the QUEENS I remember, SHOOK S–T UP!!!!!!!! Queen of the week may go to HARRIET TUBMAN!!!!!!” Minaj wrote. “Had she just sat there & ate her rice, you n—-z history would’ve been a lot less triumphant.”
Y’all I had no idea Harriet Tubman was now trending. I said what I said. 😂😂😂😂😂 #QueenRadio will honor her tmrw. She said she could’ve rescued more slaves had they known they were slaves. I fought for streaming services to count toward billboard when alotta niggz stayed quiet
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 20, 2018
The following Tuesday on her Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio show Nicki came after Travis and Astroworld yet again for what she believes to be “unfair” promotional tactics. She claims,
“When Scott realized that Queen was about to [be] the No. 1 album in America, he and his label decided to have Kylie and baby Stormi put up a tour pass… He had her post and say, ‘Hey, me and Stormi can’t wait to see y’all.’ How are you selling something that does not have anything to do with your album but it is being counted on Billboard as album sales?”
She continued on her spill, calling Scott the “Ho N—a of the Week” and accusing him of “selling f–king sweaters and telling y’all he sold half a million f–king albums, ’cause he didn’t.”
Nicki criticized Travis’ decisions, saying,
“You stupid f–k! You’re a f–king man! You got your homeboy talking for you, your girlfriend posting tour passes saying you sold albums—stop it! Knock it the f–k off!”
Every day since the release of her album it seems like Nicki Minaj has been concerned with everything but the music itself. Focusing on external factor after external factor, blaming everyone she can for something only she see’s as a blemish.
She’s gotten Donkey of the Day from Power 105.1’s Charlemagne, was challenged by Smokepurpp for calling out his bud, Travis and, ultimately, has lost the favor of everyone that isn’t her already brainwashed constituents.
On nicki minaj merch site just like travis scott merch site.. she bundled a digital album with clothes too… dont be mad travis got niggas buying more clothes. Dont call out the act of selling clothes only after you tried it and it failed for you and worked for someone else. JS.
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) August 21, 2018
Pick a L @NickiMinaj
— ICE: I Change Everyday (@OfficiallyIce) August 22, 2018
So it’s official Nicki Minaj has beef with Stormi…. History has been made beefing with a baby is next level!! 🤣🤣🤣
— the Old Man Ebro (@oldmanebro) August 21, 2018
Nicki Minaj mad that Astroworld is outselling her?! Travis Scott album production is bananas and all Nicki does is talk about her vagina and call other female rappers her son
— N.B.A. Honedge (@meowize) August 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/Jiggs285/status/1031986833368989696
Luckily for Nicki, bankability is unaffected by likability, especially when you’ve already established a fanbase. Given how she’s acted and the reputation she’s supposedly tarnished, it’s actually very far from her downfall.
Through what seems like a PR meltdown, she still has the number two album in the world, her #QueenRadio program was trending number one Tuesday, she is the second highest streamed artist on Spotify — despite claims of foul play — has the most Billboard Top 20 debuts this decade amongst all female artists with 32, after the single “Barbie Dreamz” charted this week.
It may not matter what Nicki does. She’s done the pop crossover, she’s secured her loyal hip-hop fanbase, and all else is in the wind. She’s playing with house money and the more she moves with reckless abandon it appears that she’s knowledgeable of just that.
It doesn’t matter that she fights with her ex like a highschooler, throws temper tantrums for being number two or feuds with an infant. Bankability trumps liability and Nicki’s brand is just that.