Nicki Minaj has become exhausting.
Correction: Nicki Minaj has been exhausting.
As Black women, we were already tired. Nary one of us has the bandwidth for her attention-seeking antics. She has become nearly impossible to like or even tolerate at this point. I think some of The Barbz are even confused.
Nicki and I were both raised in Queens, New York (QBorough!), and I’ve long wanted her to win for that reason alone. Ever since KRS-One dropped that line…but I digress. Back to Nicki. She can “spit,” and undeniably created a lane for herself as an animated lyricist when she landed on the music scene nearly 20 years ago. Let’s not pretend women have an easy road in the hip-hop game.
I’m also a golden era hip-hop nerd of sorts. I keep A Tribe Called Quest and Nas (coincidentally also from Queens) in rotation, so much so that my 7-year-old son can recite some of their lyrics. I know a thing or two about this genre. I recognize that Nicki has a distinctive flow, an almost arresting look that made the fashion and beauty industries take note and the Trinidadian rapper put her own spin on women’s sexuality and empowerment.
I wanted to root for her.
But now? Nah. Nope. Not happening. No one I know is Team Nicki right now. This didn’t happen overnight. Let’s do a quick recap of her more cringe-worthy shenanigans over the past few years, shall we?
2019: Megan Thee Stallion – Megan seemed ecstatic that one of her longtime rap influences appeared on her hit song, Hot Girl Summer. Nicki once praised Meg for continuing her education while pursuing her rap career. Their love affair was short-lived, however, and the two engaged in a huge “beef” that resulted in Nicki releasing Big Foot which poked fun about Megan’s size and the fellow rapper’s shooting injury. Nicki had many not-so-nice things to say about her former mentee.
2024: Kendrick Lamar / Jay-Z – Nicki threw a tantrum after learning that Kendrick would be headlining the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show. She felt the gig should have been given to Lil Wayne and that Jay-Z blocked Wayne from the opportunity. [Blank stare.]
2025: SZA – There was a weird beef with singer SZA last summer over the social media platform X and we’re still not sure what the catalyst was for that one. Nicki openly criticized SZA’s decision to re-release her 2022 album SOS as the deluxe version Lana. Fortunately, Grammy-winner SZA took the high road, writing: “Lol ur having a moment .. im not sure why but be blessed”
2025: Cardi B – Whew! Nicki and Cardi had an epic battle online last fall and it got quite ugly. Hip-hop feuds are by no means new—see MC Lyte and Antoinette circa 1988 (10% Dis is still a bop!)—however, these two both hit below the belt and thanks to the power of social media, the insults spread fast. Am I the only one who hoped that Nicki, as the music industry veteran and older of the two, would have squashed it before their innocent babies got involved?
2026: Don Lemon – Just earlier this month, the good brother Don was minding his Black business covering an ICE protest when Nicki’s idle fingers started insulting the broadcast journalist on social media. She called him “disgusting”, used mean homophobic slurs against him and demanded that he be jailed.
Girl, whettt is happening?
Her latest performance at this week’s U.S. Treasury Department’s Trump Accounts Summit in Washington, D.C., is beyond bizarre, even for Nicki. And we are collectively trying to understand what she’s hoping to accomplish from all the grinning and tap dancing she’s doing for POTUS these days. Sure, it is keeping her name in the press, but at what cost? Some argue that she might be angling to get some sort of legal assistance for her husband and brother with her performative acts. Again, even if that were to happen, what are the hidden costs? Will her music, and everything she has worked so hard for, ever be taken seriously again?
Donald Trump’s damaging stances on immigration, women’s reproductive rights and minimizing any acknowledgement and celebration of Black contributions to the United States are no secret. He never misses an opportunity to remind us of where he stands on these matters. As a Trinidadian born, Black mother who was raised in South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York, Nicki is moving in a way I cram to understand right now. I mean, she was smiling like a Cheshire cat at this week’s Trump Accounts event.
How, Sway?
Nicki isn’t the only Black hip-hop artist who has shown some level of support for Trump, though (see Nelly and Snoop). For the record, I’m still disappointed at the way we collectively and unfairly scrutinized Chrisette Michele—an undeniably talented vocalist and one of the most lowkey R&B artists of our time—for performing at Trump’s 2017 inauguration. And again, Nicki’s fawning over Trump and proclaiming to be his biggest fan, is just her latest in a very long list of WTF? acts.
Truthfully, I miss when we didn’t know so much about our popular musicians and entertainers. I am a Stevie Wonder fan. He doesn’t go live on social media often, and his private life is, for the most part, just that—private. It seems to be working for the musical genius. My parents enthusiastically enjoyed the music of The Temptations and Gladys Knight and the Pips. Their songs were always playing in our home when I was growing up. But would my parents have been such big fans if they knew too much about their faves beyond their artistry?
Nicki absolutely has every right to be a Trump supporter. This behavior is bigger than Trump though. It’s just the most recent scratch-our-collective-heads moment involving the rapper. Whatever her motives are, I hope she can achieve them and still sleep well at night. And I hope she hasn’t forgotten about the little girl who grew up near Baisley in “Southside” Jamaica, Queens. I hope she hasn’t forgotten about the teenager who made the trek on that long subway ride across boroughs to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and for Preforming Arts to pursue her big dreams of becoming a star. Whatever Nicki’s soul is in search of right now, I hope she finds it and can find a way to stay true to that young girl.