When Nicki Minaj finished her performance at Phillipp Plein’s Spring/Summer ’18 fashion show during New York Fashion Week, she not only took time out to praise the designer for including diversity and hip-hop influences in the show, she also blasted designers who openly take inspiration from hip-hop and Black culture without also including Black people in their shows.
NY Post reports that at the close of the show, Nicki graciously thanked her host, saying, “Thank you, Philipp Plein, for including our culture,” but went on to admonish those designers she sees as exploitative. “Designers get really big and really rich off of our culture, and then you don’t see a motherf*cker that look anything like us in the front row half the time. So let’s make some noise for Philipp Plein tonight.”
While not naming any names, Nicki certainly served notice to the fashion world that hip-hop is here to stay and refuses to be ignored. Trailblazer Kanye West has often had to battle in the same way to earn consideration in for his Yeezy Season styles and shows, which he’s gone to great lengths to cast with models of color.
Nicki’s set included appearances from collaborators on three of her biggest hits, Yo Gotti, 21 Savage, and Rae Sremmurd, and the show was closed out by Future, with an extra-dramatic assist from Teyana Taylor.
