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Fasten your seatbelts and pop a Dramamine, Nicki Minaj has chimed in on the discourse of the day: Why Lil Wayne isn’t headlining Super Bowl LIX’s halftime show. And, in typical Nicki fashion, her rant on Twitter (which we are never going to call “X”) turned out to be a wild ride.
First things first: I think we are all well aware of why Ms. Minaj would take this so personally. Without Wayne, her rap career very probably would have stalled out long before a “Super Bass” or “Starships,” let alone a “Super Freaky Girl” or “Say So” remix. And then, there’s her intriguing, seemingly one-sided feud with Jay-Z, the founder of Roc Nation, which books the Super Bowl halftime show.
But normally, Nicki reserves this level of unhinged for her beefs with other female rappers, like Latto and Megan Thee Stallion, so it’s kind of fascinating to see her go off like this on someone else’s behalf for once. Here’s what she said:
Denying a young black man what he rightfully put into this game for no other reason but your ego. Your hatred for BIRDMAN, Drake & Nicki got you punishing Lil Wayne?!?!!! LIL WAYNE!!!!!!!!!! THE GOAT?!!!!!!!!!!! Nola what’s good?!!!!!! Eminem stood firm on having 50Cent come out. A white man. Sh*t sad. House N***ER TINGZ. but it’s GOOD FI DEM!!!!!!! No loyalty ? Welp. then n****z will keep son’ing you!!!!!
Another tweet with a political bent:
One nigga took a knee
The other nigga took the bag.
He gon get you “n***ers” in line every fkng time
So… There’s a lot to unpack here. Jay-Z and Roc Nation did sign their deal with the NFL to be the official music partner for the Super Bowl after Colin Kaepernick’s controversial anthem protests. This was something that rightly rubbed a lot of hip-hop fans the wrong way, suggesting that Jay valued the money and platform much more than pursuing meaningful social change. Now, he did secure financial commitments from the NFL for social justice programs, but as with any incremental change, that’s never going to be quite enough for the “burn it all down” crowd.
But to suggest that Lil Wayne is somehow a revolutionary or that booking Kendrick Lamar is a sellout move made to appeal to white people is… WOW.
She’s still going, by the way:
God forbid if Wayne was to leave this earth right now, the culture would be in mourning. That’s why so many ppl keep saying to give our legends their flowers while they are still around to smell them. Sitting around all day playing games with ppl life & legacy. God ain’t sleep. Gee Roberson you will learn that, too.
For those who don’t know, Gee Roberson is the co-CEO of Blueprint Group, which has had a hand in managing the careers of several high profile artists, including Young Money’s roster with Drake, Wayne, and Nicki, although they parted ways with Nicki some time ago. However, he cut his teeth at Jay’s Roc-A-Fella Records a decade before; it seems Nicki is suggesting that he prioritized his relationship with Jay over those with his more recent charges. She, again, has a bit of a point about giving legends flowers while they’re still around, something hip-hop still struggles with. That’s not the same thing as booking him to perform the biggest corporate event of the year when he’s repeatedly proven that would be a bit of a bad bet this year alone.
When Nicki received pushback for her initial tweets and also she accused blogs covering the Super Bowl selection of being paid off (her go-to accusation, although I personally have never seen any of that money), she doubled down, railing in a follow-up tweet:
God will punish you. Mark my words.
The man that has not only pushed his pen the hardest, but gave the game more than 1 hip hop ICON as well on his watch? Represent the RAP game?!?!! The best RAPPER don’t represent the RAP GAME well enough 4u? Black ppl. Wow. If this don’t hurt your heart to read, it will one day. Look @ how our legends keep being treated. After they’ve given so much to us. Who are you?!!!! You GOD?!?!!!!! Judgmental swine DELETE!!!!!!! lol you will regret tweeting this. Life is funny that way. Don’t you dare turn your nose up @ Lil Wayne you dick munchin bozo.
She seemingly failed to notice all the tweets pointing out how the Super Bowl halftime show has only been headlined by a local act from the host city four times in the event’s 57-year history, but that’s Nicki for you. She’ll tell you a joke, but she won’t tell you a lie — just be real wrong, real loud, for most of a day.
