On the fifth day of Nicki Minaj’s intense fixation on Megan Thee Stallion following a jab the “Savage” rapper likely threw Minaj’s way on her latest track, Minaj invoked Rihanna to claim that Megan tried to force sympathy for herself as a victim of violence. She also refuted that she has encouraged her fans to approach or desecrate the gravesite of Megan’s late mother. The Texas cemetery where she’s buried has reportedly enhanced security and informed local police of the risk it faces as Nicki Minaj fans may have encouraged each other to disrespect it.
On Jan. 31, Minaj joined podcast host Joe Budden on Spaces, the live audio arm of X, formerly known as Twitter. Budden, who has had a rap career and often critiques hip-hop on his show, called himself an “objective Barb,” implying that he is a fan of Minaj and somehow is not biased as a music critic (a job that is inherently subjective). This meant that it was a relatively safe space for Minaj to speak without contest.
In a conversation of at least 40 minutes, Minaj speculated that Megan’s management company, Roc Nation, has launched a smear campaign against her, dissected the diss track Megan’s estranged ex Pardison Fontaine released in November, and accused Megan of seeking sympathy and controversy to bolster her career.
“It’s so obvious,” said Minaj. “She wanted a Rihanna moment so bad.”
When another participant in the Space asked Minaj to specify which “Rihanna moment” and what she meant by it, she responded, “You gon google,” before continuing. The probable allusion the rapper could have been making is to Chris Brown’s 2009 assault on Rihanna, the start of more than a decade of allegations and reports of violence and harassment for Brown.
Rihanna discussed the assault and its aftermath in an intense interview with ABC News months after it. Somewhat similarly, in April 2022, Megan discussed being shot by rapper Tory Lanez nearly two years prior with Gayle King on CBS Morning. Lanez was convicted of first-degree assault with a firearm, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, and having a concealed firearm in a vehicle and is currently serving a 10-year sentence in prison.
“Rihanna never would milk…” Minaj began in the Space. “You could tell she couldn’t wait to try to move on with her life. And then people even bashed her for not milking it.”
“Rihanna knows she was a superstar with or without controversy,” the rapper continued. “She’s loved, with or without controversy, sympathy.”
Minaj also implied that Megan Thee Stallion can’t succeed without provoking her, though a lone bar on her new song “Hiss” seems to be the most directly Megan has engaged with Minaj since their “Hot Girl Summer” collaboration in 2019. On her latest record filled with charged bars at myriad unnamed foes, Megan raps, “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law,” likely a reference to Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty’s status as a convicted sex offender.
Since that song’s release on Jan. 26, Minaj has incessantly talked and posted about or around Megan, engaged with her frenzied fanbase, and released a diss of her own called “Big Foot,” focused entirely on Megan. “I understand that it’s confusing and chaotic and they don’t understand my personality,” Minaj said on the Space as many have condemned the pioneering rapper as tarnishing her own legacy. “When people see me tweeting they think I’m tweeting like this,” she said before screeching wildly. “No, I’m actually rolling on the floor laughing most of the time.”
When another speaker, a colleague of Budden’s, asked Minaj to “clear up to people” that she hasn’t incited her fans to target Megan’s mother’s grave, she immediately interrupted him to shut him down. “You just spoke on a fake story,” Minaj insisted. “It’s a ploy! Lying on your dead momma to go Number One!” Minaj has long been obsessed with sales figures and has accused other rappers of gaming the system. “That’s a prime example of the constant lies I’ve had to face as a human being, and as an artist, and as a wife. I’ve simply asked for them to stop now that I’m a mother and it hasn’t. And now people believe what you’ve just said and it’s disgusting.”
She went on to claim that she has faced tribulations like swatting that she hasn’t sought or garnered sympathy for or “cried” about publicly.
“Black men have to wear a dress according to Katt,” she said, referencing comedian Katt Williams’ recent viral interview in which he implied Hollywood has sought to emasculate Black male comics. “Black women have to cry… You better not be a Black woman and show resilience. And on that note, get up on your good foot,” she said exiting the Space with a reference to her song mocking the shooting that Megan survived.
