Nicki Minaj Pulls Out Of The BET Experience In Response To An Unflattering Facebook Post

When Cardi B won the Best Rap Album Grammy last night at the 61st Grammy Awards, BET posted about Nicki being mocked online in their coverage of the historic win on Facebook. Now Nicki says she won’t perform at the BET Awards’ BET Experience weekend concert in retaliation, nor will she appear at the Awards themselves.

“Cardi B Is The First Solo Female Rapper To Win Best Rap Album, And Fans Are Weeping,” read the headline on the celebratory post. However, the accompanying text in the Facebook post for the article also read, “Meanwhile, Nicki is being dragged by her lacefront [wig],” referencing the interminable feud between the two female rappers, which Nicki herself ignited in April of last year when she addressed the long-rumored antipathy between the two in an appearance on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 Radio show.

While she seemingly embraced the “bad guy” role with her words on her single “Chun-Li,” she also painted herself as the victim of unfair treatment by the younger rapper and her Migos extended family. However, by the time her album Queen had rolled out, the beef had been set to simmer, only to explode again when the two got into a physical confrontation at an NYFW party, resulting in traded threats, projectile footwear, and lumped noggins.

https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/1095037185470849024

Again, the fireworks died down until both were announced as the headliners — on different nights — of BET’s upcoming BET Experience weekend concerts. However, given the Facebook post, it seems Nicki no longer wants to have any parts of BET, even if it means giving up whatever money and exposure could come from the appearance. As she wrote on Twitter, “Young Money will no longer be apart of the BET Experience or award show. Summer Tour dates dropping soon.” She followed up, as usual, with retweets of affirmation from her always-loyal fan base/attack squad, The Barbz, including an out-of-context Malcolm X quote that really doesn’t work for her purposes. That’s Nicki though. She sees herself as a pioneer, a trailblazer, and an icon, and while those classifications may be true in many respects, no one is immune from criticism — or from social media’s nonstop joke machine. See the full tweet stream below.

https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/1095044465008361472

https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/1095048774722834432

Update: BET responded to Nicki’s outburst with a statement, which they sent to Billboard in the wake of the backlash against the offending post. The full text can be read below.

“BET loves Nicki Minaj. We have supported her from the very beginning of her career and will continue to do so moving forward. Nicki has paved the way for so many performers and has solidified her place as one of the most powerful figures in the music industry. Unfortunately, the respect we have for Nicki was violated by this post that should never have been written. The post does not reflect how we feel about Nicki. And further does not reflect our company values. We deeply apologize for the hurt, disappointment and confusion that this post has caused. We are committed to doing everything we can to address the situation. We are also conducting an internal audit to assure these types of posts are not published again. We have apologized to Nicki and her team. The post has been removed and we have taken additional appropriate action. We understand Nicki’s position and look forward to continuing our dialogue with her. Finally, we apologize to all of her fans. This should have never happened.”

We will see if Nicki accepts this apology and rescinds her earlier promise to withdraw from the BET Experience.