After Nicki started a conversation about racism against black women in the music industry when she criticized MTV for not nominating her super-popular “Anaconda” music video for Video of the Year at the VMAs – and Taylor surprisingly bit back at her by accusing her of pitting women against other women – the 25-year-old “Bad Blood” singer apologized on Thursday.
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Nicki, who tweeted about how race, gender and body-type may have played into nominations, “subtweeted” Taylor. Taylor offered, unsolicited. When Nicki attempted to clarify her remarks (“You must not be reading my tweets”), which were about MTV and the music industry’s tendency to borrow liberally from black female culture without rewarding the original creators, Taylor blithely ignored her and responded with a mildly condescending, “If I win, please come up with me!!” Maybe one of the men took your slot”, to which Minaj responded, “Huh?
“I thought I was being called out”, Taylor wrote.
She also tweeted an acceptance of Swift’s apology. It’s bad enough when just Taylor is trending, but add Nicki Minaj and the VMAs to the mix and it’s all I saw on Facebook all day.
“Finding it ironic to parade the “pit women against other women” argument about as one unmeasurably [sic] capitalizes on the takedown of a woman”, she wrote to her almost 73 million Twitter followers. And I love you guys for supporting me.
“If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year”, Nicki tweeted on July 21. On the specifics: “She said, ‘Look, I didn’t understand the big picture of what you were saying but now I get it, ‘ so we’re all good”. “Didn’t say a word about u”, Minaj said to Swift.
Minaj is nominated for three awards, including best female video and hip-hop video for “Anaconda“. Good on her for rethinking her initial reaction, and offering a direct apology.
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Miley Cyrus will host the ceremony, which takes place in Los Angeles on 30 August.
