Decoding WTF’s Happened With Nicki Minaj And Taylor Swift

This is no simple feud, and to mistake it as one doesn’t do Nicki justice…

Decoding WTF’s Happened With Nicki Minaj And Taylor Swift

by Sophie Wilkinson |
Published on

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Nicki has accepted Taylor's apology!

As for what she wants us to move on to? The story of Sandra Bland.

ORIGINAL POST: You’ve heard there’s been a bit of a disagreement on Twitter between Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift. And you want to know what’s going on, right? Well, before we begin, a few things need to be made clear. Firstly, this is no simple argument, with both parties declaring their love for each other and secondly, Nicki’s hit out at pop music as an industry – not Taylor Swift.

Now we can begin. After the MTV VMA nominations were announced – Taylor got nine, Nicki got four (two of them via collaborations) – Nicki got the feeling that Anaconda should’ve been a bit more… recognised. After all, it was the video that spawned a billion memes and we’ve still got the tune rumbling through our heads right now.

Nicki noted that in previous years, videos similar to hers got nominated much more than Anaconda has been. What’s the issue here?

At this point, she then noticed what her fans had to say about MTV’s snubs:

She also had a point to make about different body sizes and how certain ones will get applauded while Anaconda – a video extolling the virtues of a curvier body – will get forgotten at awards ceremonies.

Nicki then spoke about how much she rates Beyoncé’s 7/11 video (nominated for video of the year) and how much she appreciated how ‘hands on’ she was with their nominated collaboration. Anyway, while she was musing on all this, Taylor Swift saw it and leapt to the conclusion that Nicki was having a go at* her*:

Taylor then offered Nicki the opportunity to be one of her stage-pals (Taylor’s got a thing about bringing her friends on stage whenever she can)

But Nicki was a bit thrown by this:

See, calling out a culture that sees white women celebrated over black women doesn’t actually mean Nicki’s having a go at any specific white woman. In the same way calling out homophobia isn’t an attack on straight people or calling out sexism isn’t an attack on men. In its simplest terms, Nicki was hating the game, not the player. But Taylor responded by making it about her.

As one person put it:

While the conversation might be reported as a ‘feud’, it’d be good to seek a resolution. Somehow, Taylor could do well to realise that, hey, there’s millions of reasons why people might love her and fawn over her, but it's not always just because of her talent or skill.

It’s worth noting that, for some, Taylor will always be their fave, because she simply fits the bill of a pretty slim blonde woman that they want to see succeed in pop. As for Nicki? We eagerly await how she’s going to make sure MTV know that her problem is with them; will she turn up to the VMAs in a show-stopping outfit that distracts from everyone else? Or will she snub them as hard as they snubbed her?

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Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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