Well Nicki, welcome to the top.
Nicki Minaj’s “Only” lyrical video is under fire. But not for the sexually explicit lyrics. It’s the visuals that have many people raising a brow.
The five-and-a-half minute clip uses animation to depict her as ruthless, but sexy. However, the Nazi-esque troops and the label’s initials — YM for Young Money — twisted into a swastika-like shape have garnered much criticism.
Minaj’s video, directed by Jeff Osborne, was viewed nearly 3 million times on YouTube on Monday.
The Anti-Defamation League has gone after Minaj, both for the video itself and for releasing it on the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” which signaled the beginning of the Holocaust. ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman, who is a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:
Nicki Minaj’s new video disturbingly evokes Third Reich propaganda and constitutes a new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism. The irony should be lost on no one that this video debuted on the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” pogrom that signaled the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.
It is troubling that no one among Minaj’s group of producers, publicists and managers raised a red flag about the use of such imagery before ushering the video into public release.
This video is insensitive to Holocaust survivors and a trivialization of the history of that era. The abuse of Nazi imagery is deeply disturbing and offensive to Jews and all those who can recall the sacrifices Americans and many others had to make as a result of Hitler’s Nazi juggernaut.
Nicki issued the following statement via Twitter:
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