Nicki Minaj sent her regards to conservative commentator Ben Shapiro for his MAGA rap track hitting number one on the U.S. iTunes chart on Saturday.
Minaj tweeted, “I just listened to it @benshapiro not bad. Congrats on #1. But it def sounds like Roman’s Revenge when the beat first came in…idk,” with a fair amount of implied side-eye as she compared the song’s similarities to her own 2010 hit.
Apparently, one tweet was not enough for Minaj as she followed up minutes later with another bewildered, emoji-peppered response: “what is rlly happening & whos is that other man rapping???? Is this real life??!! He said ‘Nicki take some notes’ nah.”
Some of Minaj’s fans, collectively known as the Barbz, were unimpressed and criticized the rapper’s comments toward Shapiro as tone-deaf. They were quick to point out that the conservative yapper she congratulated regularly spews hateful speech about the people who make up much of her most dedicated fanbase. One irritated user slammed Minaj as a “person whose career was carried by queer poc fans who identified with her work from the start embracing a homophobic white supremacist because she can’t stand her rapist husband being called a rapist.”
Minaj’s Shapiro comments trailed a tweetstorm in which she publicly beefed with Megan Thee Stallion. The latter made an apparent dig at Minaj’s husband, who is a registered sex offender, in her song “HISS.”