Nicki Minaj, or “The Queen of Rap”, has had a tumultuous relationship with her celebrity. Her breakout, “Super Bass”, which was a significant hit in 2011 and set the stage for her to create a strong fanbase, who call themselves “Barbs”. Like most fanbases, they are ride or die for her. This can start to become a problem when Minaj gets into controversy.

Nicki Minaj has recently received major backlash for attending and speaking at the Turning Points AmericaFest. Unlike most of the other guests, Minaj isn’t a major political figure. 

Throughout most of her career, she was an outspoken ally for the Gay community and had left leaning stances. At one point, she even called herself a Gay rapper. She’s appeared on RuPauls Drag race for season 11 as a guest judge and she indicated that she supports Joe Biden when she tweeted “We did it Joe” after he was elected as president in 2020. Minaj has spoken up in the past about being an illegal immigrant as a child, which contradicts the support she now has for President Trump.

At AmericaFest, she called California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a “New-Scum” which Trump previously said himself. She also stated, “Boys, be boys. Be boys, it’s okay. Be boys, there’s nothing wrong with being a boy.” Minaj is talking about transgender people, and how she believes that people are born the gender they are.

All of these contradictions begs the question, why is Minaj doing this? Well, this isn’t her first time getting into hot water with her fans. Keneth Perry, her husband, was convicted of attempted rape in 1995. When a sex offender moves residency, they are required to update their details within 5 days of that move. When he failed to do that, he was charged which subsequently made Minaj’s fans aware of this. She has defended him, and his victim sued the pair after they allegedly harassed her and tried to make her take back her claims.