Nicki Minaj Defends Jesy Nelson Against Blackfishing Allegations

At this point, Barbz, it’s getting harder and harder to defend Nicki Minaj.

Source: Getty Images / Getty Images

Last week, the “Truffle Butter” hopped onto former Little Mix member Jesy Nelson’s debut solo single, “Boyz.” The song features a sample of Diddy’s “Bad Boy For Life” and the video sees Nelson dress in a number of hip-hop-inspired outfits, darkening her tan until she’s about the same complexion as her collaborator.

Nelson–who has been called out for blackfishing before–was once again being criticized online for her unnatural tan and big, curly wigs, which caused all of the members of Little Mix to unfollow her. Not only that, her former bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock, the only Black member of Little Mix, reportedly urged a Youtuber to make a video about Nelson’s blackfishing. The leaked messages also show her calling Nelson a “horrible person.”

Now, Nicki is defending Jesy, insulting the rest of Little Mix for disowning her and claiming artists only get backlash like this after collaborating with her.

Minaj and Nelson did an Instagram Live together on Monday, October 11, where the rapper fired back at anyone accusing her collaborator of blackfishing.

“There are lots of women out here in the United States that tan, get bigger lips, get all types of s**t done to themselves,” Nicki said on IG live. “I wear blond hair, straight blonde hair down to my feet if I want to when I want to, contacts, whatever, I do whatever the f**k I want. As long as you’re not hurting anybody or speaking negative about anybody’s race or culture, you should be able to enjoy your makeup, your body however you want to.”

She went on to insult the other members of Little Mix, without naming any names, saying, “Sweetheart take them text messages and shove it up ur f**king a**, because when you do clown s**t I gotta treat you and talk to you like you’re a clown.”

Nicki also insinuated that her former bandmates are just jealous of her solo success, saying, “It screams insecurity, it screams that you’re jealous, only jealous people do things like this and now you just look like a big jealous bozo.”

That’s when Jesy took a second to speak, thanking Minaj for her support and apologizing to anyone she offended.

“While we’re on this subject I personally want to say my intention was never ever to offend people of colour with this video and my song,” Nelson said. “Like I said when I was a young girl this is the music that I listened to, these are the videos I watched and thought were the best. I just wanted to celebrate that era of music because it’s what I love, my intentions were never ever to offend anyone. It does really hurt me that I may have offended people and hurt people’s feelings by genuinely celebrating things that I love.”

But the drama didn’t end there. Later on, Nicki doubled down on her defense of her collaborator, taking to Twitter to claim that all of this backlash is solely because she’s connected to the rapper.

“How come the black fishing label doesn’t go to the men?” someone asked, to which Nicki replied, “It’ll only apply if they do a solo song with me. right after I worked with doja she was racist, remember? Now it’s all good? They said Bia was black phishing once our song came out, too. Bwaahahaaaha. but all these other artists acting like black caricatures get praised.”

She then referenced Leigh-Anne Pinnock by name, calling her out for criticizing Jesy while knowing she left Little Mix because of mental health concerns.

“JeLeigh btchs actin real messy. ~ if you know someone has been suicidal from bullying in the past, why try to get a bunch of ppl to bully them again about smthng else, on an even bigger scale?” she tweeted. “Shame on you— that’s rlly sad. You don’t know what ppl can deal with. Mental Health.”

As many people pointed out in the replies, Pinnock released a whole documentary about the problems she faced being the only Black member of Little Mix, causing her to struggle with her mental health.

Of course, that’s the whole problem with blackfishing, which Nicki doesn’t seem to understand. It’s not okay for white women to cosplay as racially ambiguous to look cute while actual Black women are out here being discriminated against for their complexion every single day.

Unfortunately, with people like Minaj defending her, it doesn’t look  like Jesy will stop blackfishing any time soon.