Nicki Minaj is responding to the ishstorm of controversy she created this weekend with her lyric video for her new song "Only". Check out her explanation inside...
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and plenty of people on social media had a huge problem with Nicki's new Jeff Osborne-directed lyric video for "Only". There was plenty of Nazi propaganda throughout, which read as Nazi glorification. To make matters worse, the lyric video was released on November 9th, the date that is believed to be the start of the Holocaust.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:
Nicki Minaj’s new video disturbingly evokes Third Reich propaganda and constitutes a new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism. The irony should be lost on no one that this video debuted on the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” pogrom that signaled the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.
It is troubling that no one among Minaj’s group of producers, publicists and managers raised a red flag about the use of such imagery before ushering the video into public release.
This video is insensitive to Holocaust survivors and a trivialization of the history of that era. The abuse of Nazi imagery is deeply disturbing and offensive to Jews and all those who can recall the sacrifices Americans and many others had to make as a result of Hitler’s Nazi juggernaut.
Ncki offered up this explanation today, saying the video wasn't her idea:
The artist who made the lyric video for “Only” was influenced by a cartoon on Cartoon Network called "Metalocalypse" & Sin City.
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) November 11, 2014
Both the producer, & person in charge of over seeing the lyric video (one of my best friends & videographer: A. Loucas), happen to be Jewish
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) November 11, 2014
I didn't come up w/the concept, but I'm very sorry & take full responsibility if it has offended anyone. I'd never condone Nazism in my art.
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) November 11, 2014
The artist who made the lyric video for “Only” was influenced by a cartoon on Cartoon Network called "Metalocalypse" & Sin City. Both the producer, & person in charge of over seeing the lyric video (one of my best friends & videographer: A. Loucas), happen to be Jewish I didn't come up w/the concept, but I'm very sorry & take full responsibility if it has offended anyone. I'd never condone Nazism in my art.
Hmmm. Maybe one of the 25 conference calls per day, the ones Nicki claims she conducts so she can have control over her business, should have been with her homie A. Lucas.
The fact this video also came out on the same day as her hosting gig at the 2014 MTV EMAs casts a little shade on the genuineness of this simply being artistic work influenced by a cartoon. It caused the controversy Nicki thrives off of, on the same day she was in front of millions of people across the world.
We're not calling it a PR ploy, but...
[UPDATE] Nicki's director Jeff Osborne has put out his own statement, saying he stands by his work, which he confirms involves Nazi imagery, and asks 'What else is trending?':
“Before I start, be clear that these are my personal views and not the views of Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, or Young Money.
First, I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism.
But a majority of the recognizable models/symbols are American: MQ9 Reaper Drone, F22 Raptor, Sidewinder missile, security cameras, M60, SWAT uniform, General’s uniform, the Supreme court, and the Lincoln Memorial. What’s also American is the 1st Amendment, which I’ve unexpectedly succeeded in showing how we willfully squeeze ourselves out of that right every day.
Despite the fact heavy religious and economic themes were glossed over, there’s also Russian T-90 tanks, Belgian FN FAL, German mp5 (not manufactured until 1966), an Italian Ferrari, and a Vatican Pope.
As far as an explanation, I think its actually important to remind younger generations of atrocities that occurred in the past as a way to prevent them from happening in the future. And the most effective way of connecting with people today is through social media and pop culture. So if my work is misinterpreted because it’s not a sappy tearjerker, sorry I’m not sorry. What else is trending?”
So was this a PR ploy, just like we figured?
