After a report claiming that Nicki Minaj was aware of and regretted the backlash against her new song “Yikes” for making reference to civil rights figure Rosa Parks, Nicki herself clarified that she “had no clue anyone was mad” about the lyric. On Wednesday, Nicki shared a snippet of the upcoming in a Twitter video that contained the offending rhyme. Within minutes, Rosa Parks trended on Twitter as a result of the lyric, which incidentally also came out on the activists’ birthday.
If Rosa was alive, she would fasho sue like she did outkast. And barbershop lmfaoooooo
She did not play the radio about folk using her name for giggles https://t.co/M0CMoOken9
— Mel (@TheBaddestMitch) February 6, 2020
On the song, Nicki raps, “All you b*tches Rosa Parks / Uh oh, get your ass up,” a rhyme which TMZ reported Nicki was aware of the grievances against the bar and intended no disrespect; she was simply using what she felt was a clever metaphor. Unfortunately for TMZ, Nicki then posted a screenshot of the headline to her Instagram stories, insisting that, “Never said this. Had no clue anyone was mad. Don’t care.” While it seems pretty unlikely that a volume social media user like Nicki wouldn’t have noticed — considering she was tagged in many of the reactions — it is entirely possible that her attention was pulled away by other concerns.
It wasn’t the first time Ms. Minaj’s rhymes have caused controversy. A rhyme from her 2018 Queen track “Majesty” was called out for homophobia, while the lyrics video for her 2014 song “Only” was censured for its use of fascistic imagery. However, the Rosa Parks controversy wasn’t even the biggest one Nicki had on Twitter Wednesday. She also went in on ex Meek Mill, inciting a back-and-forth that had fans on the social platform slamming the refresh button on the two rappers’ timelines every two minutes. You can check out Uproxx’s coverage here.
