It was the shot that rang out around the world: “Miley, what’s good?” asked Nicki Minaj, the reigning queen of rap. As foretold in Monster, Nicki “just killed another career, it’s a mild day.” It took Miley a few seconds to recover from the blow, twirling her dreadlocks before continuing on with her hosting duties.
Later, when announcing Artist to Watch Award Miley turned to Nicki, “I lost this award back in 2008, whatever. Because it’s no big deal! It’s just an award.” The thing is, Nicki isn’t mad about an award, she has plenty of them. That is about systemic racism in the music industry. This isn’t something Nicki’s speaking on come award season, she’s been talking about black women’s artistry for years.
Why did Nicki mention Miley in the first place? In a recent interview with the New York Times, Miley gave Nicki some unsolicited tips on how best to speak about racism – something she’s never experienced – without sounding ‘angry’. Miley explained “I don’t respect [Nicki’s] statement because of the anger that came with it.” Fancy that: systematic racism might upset somebody. Throughout the interview, Miley leaned hard on the ‘angry black woman’ stereotype, as in this excerpt:
Miley: If you want to make it about race, there’s a way you could do that. But don’t make it just about yourself. Say: “This is the reason why I think it’s important to be nominated. There’s girls everywhere with this body type.”
[Interviewer] I think she did say that ——
Miley: What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite.
By the end of the VMAs, Nicki had taken home the best hip-hop video award, sat on a throne literally made of men, and performed with Taylor Swift.
.@NICKIMINAJ just killed it opening the #VMAs and so did her special guest! http://t.co/Xpl2djiKQ4 — MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015