Nicki Minaj has been criticized for attacking Little Mix while defending Jesy Nelson amid allegations of blackfishing
Nicki Minaj defended Jesy Nelson in reaction to blackfishing allegations, and used the chance to lash out at Little Mix.
During an Instagram Live discussion of Nelson’s debut solo track Boyz, which she co-wrote with the rapper, the pair addressed the blackfishing allegations that have been floating online, accusing Nelson of changing her appearance to appear Black or racially ambiguous.
People have also criticised Nelson’s latest song, accusing him of employing a “Blaccent” voice while singing lines like “So hood, so good, so damn taboo.”
Nelson recently reacted to these allegations. In an interview with Vulture, she stated, “The whole time I was in Little Mix I never got any of that. And then I came out of [the band] and people all of a sudden were saying it.
“I wasn’t on social media around that time, so I let my team [deal with it], because that was when I’d just left.”
Later, she said in a statement, “I take all those comments made seriously. I would never intentionally do anything to make myself look racially ambiguous, so that’s why I was initially shocked that the term was directed at me.”
During the Instagram Live, Minaj appeared to criticise Nelson’s former Little Mix bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock over an alleged Instagram comment she made.
Messages purportedly from Pinnock’s account, address the blackfishing incident while alleging Nelson has cut her and her Little Mix bandmates off. Nelson is also supposedly described as a “horrible person.” by her.
Nelson departed Little Mix last year, claiming the negative effects of being in a girl group on her mental health.
“Take them text messages and shove it up your fing a, because when you do clown sht I got to treat you and talk to you like you a clown,” Minaj stated of the supposed messages.
“If you was in this woman’s group and you ain’t talk about this sht for 10 years and as soon as you see she got a video coming out with Nicki Minaj and Puffy, now you sending text messages and all this sht…
print those text messages out, bust your a** open and shove them up your motherf*ing a.”
“Stop trying to hurt people and kill people’s lives and careers, this is the way people feed their families. Stop – if you want a solo career, baby girl, just say that.”
The rapper went on to call Pinnock a “big jealous bozo.”
Nelson stood back calmly and appeared to lend the occasional laugh as Minaj was raging about her former comrades.
Nelson also explained why she had such a dark tan. “When I was in the [Boyz] video with you, I didn’t even have any fake tan on… I’d been in Antigua prior to that for three weeks. I’m just so lucky as a white girl that when I’m in the sun I tan so dark,” she said.
“Leigh-Anne even said to me in the group, ‘Are you sure you’re not mixed race because you go darker than me in the sun, that’s crazy’”.
She also stated that worries about blackfishing were addressed on the set of Little Mix’s most recent music video, Sweet Melody.
“It’s just hard for me because I was in a group with two women of colour for nine years and it was never brought up to me up until the last music video when she messaged me and said ‘Jesy, I just want to make you aware’…” she explained.
Following the dramatic Instagram Live, Minaj took to Twitter to accuse Pinnock of “bullying,” while also citing Nelson’s previous mental health difficulties.
People have taken to Twitter to criticise Minaj for commenting on the subject, accusing her of harassing Pinnock. Some also accused Nelson of hypocrisy, claiming that she should not have allowed Minaj to make those remarks after speaking out about internet bullying in a BBC documentary.
Pinnock and her other Little Mix members have not responded to Minaj and Nelson’s charges.
Others were disappointed with Minaj’s decision to go after Little Mix because the band has previously supported and protected the rapper – and even cooperated with them prior to Nelson’s departure with the song Woman Like Me.
Other Little Mix fans are dissatisfied with how things have ended out.
Nelson confessed in an interview with Glamour that she and her ex-bandmates no longer speak.