By: Jenny Nelson
The Nicki Minaj Vs. Taylor Swift VMAs Twitter Feud As Explained For Olds
Are you #OLD and curious about the news you ‘ve heard of the ‘Twitter feud” between popular musicians Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift??????
First of all, it wasn ‘t a ‘feud, ‘ so don ‘t say that, and secondly don ‘t worry because we are #young and here to explain it to those of you who are too old to “get it.” This way, you can stay informed before you choose a side, but also absolutely do not choose a side because you are grown and it ‘s not a feud and there are no sides to choose and Nicki is right. #TeamNicki.
Here is a ‘reaction GIF” of Nicki being right (For those of you who identify as #olds: GIF stands for ‘Graphic Interchange Format,”and a “Reaction GIF”is an animated GIF meant to convey a physical or emotional response to something):
To recap: On Tuesday, nominees were announced for the 2015 MTV VMAs. ( ‘VMAs” refers to the ‘Video Music Awards,” an award show honoring music videos that airs every year on MTV; MTV used to stand for “Music Television” but now it ‘s just ‘MTV” which doesn ‘t stand for anything because they play some music on that channel still but now they also play other kinds of programming which is OK; 2015 = this year/now.)
After the VMAs published nominees online, Nicki Minaj ‘took to Twitter” (=”logged onto popular microblogging platform Twitter”) and ‘tweeted” (= ‘published content on popular microblogging platform Twitter”) to make several calm, slightly “cheeky” (not entirely sure what that word means??) observations about her videos that were or were not honored with nominations.
Minaj ‘s first tweet was about her video for ‘Feeling Myself” ft. Beyonce, which wasn ‘t nominated for anything even though it was a cute video with two big time female pop/hip-hop stars and I, as well as other young people, loved it. The video was launched on Tidal, a streaming music service. Streaming music is, um, when you listen to music online?? Like Spotify is streaming music. You have to download Tidal to watch the whole ‘Feeling Myself” video or you can watch a trailer for ‘Feeling Myself” here.
Hey guys @MTV thank you for my nominations. Did Feeling Myself miss the deadline or…?
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
Shortly after this first tweet, Minaj calmly commented, or calm-mented, on the reception of her video ‘Anaconda,” which was nominated for ‘Best Female Video” and ‘Best Hip-Hop Video” but neither ‘Video Of The Year” nor ‘Best Choreography.” ‘Anaconda” came out last year and was something of a cultural phenomenon, like it or not, and also I really liked it and so did Ellen.
If I was a different “kind” of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well.
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
Ellen did her own anaconda video and did the #choreo lol. Remember her doing that kick . Even mtv did a post on the choreo @MTV remember?
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
U couldn't go on social media w/o seeing ppl doing the cover art, choreo, outfits for Halloween…an impact like that & no VOTY nomination?
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
Here ‘s that Ellen video mentioned above. Old people know who Ellen is, right? I don ‘t usually watch Ellen ‘s show because I ‘m not at home during the day, but if you are old that means you might be retired, in which case you probably have the TV on while Ellen is on so you ‘ve already seen this clip. Revisit an old favorite vid (or, as you know them, ‘video”):
After mentioning Ellen, a person who I think that old people probably know, Nicki Minaj dropped some tweets where she used language like ‘slim bodies” and ‘other” and ‘impact culture” and ‘black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it,” making some hugely valid points about the institutional racism of popular music that I could explain more or you could just read her tweets:
When the “other” girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination.
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
I'm not always confident. Just tired. Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it. https://t.co/2xOvJzBXJX
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
Then, apparently reading the ‘slim bodies” tweet as Nicki subtweeting her ( ‘subtweeting” is when you publish content on the microblogging platform Twitter and it ‘s about someone but you don ‘t notify them that you are writing about them in your content), Taylor Swift (debatably us young people ‘s most popular pop star) sent out a tweet of her own. In doing so, Swift took a series of comments about music ‘s lack of respect and attention paid to black women ‘s voices and made it about her and her limited idea of feminism as being women not going against other women.
Essentially, as several people observed on Twitter, Taylor #AllLivesMatter ‘d Nicki. Also this is what #AllLivesMatter is. Also this is what intersectional feminism is.
@NICKIMINAJ I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..
‘ Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 21, 2015
Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn't say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u should speak on this. @taylorswift13
‘ QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015
@NICKIMINAJ If I win, please come up with me!! You’re invited to any stage I’m ever on.
‘ Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 21, 2015
Although Nicki and Taylor ‘s #beef/#feud (again, technically neither a beef nor a feud, Nicki is right and black women deserve to be rewarded for their contribution to music) takes a lot to explain, other things need no explanation, even if you ‘re old. Some things are just crystal clear:
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