Skip to main content

Home Culture Culture Film & TV

Nicki Minaj explains her Miley Cyrus VMAs beef

By Nick Bond

It was arguably the most memorable moment of this year’s MTV VMA Awards: Nicki Minaj, wrapping up her acceptance speech for Best Hip-Hop Video, unexpectedly going in on the event’s host, Miley Cyrus.

“And now back to this bitch that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press,” she announced. “Miley, what’s good?”

nicki2-1441031732

A clearly stunned Cyrus was left to stammer a retort about “the media manipulating” what she had said.

For background: Minaj had previously publicly expressed her disappointment that her sexually-charged video for hit Anaconda was snubbed for a Video of the Year nom, tweeting that the show only “celebrates women with very slim bodies” and doesn’t properly celebrate the achievements of black women.

Cyrus then weighed in, saying in an interview a couple of days before the ceremony that Minaj’s complaints were “not polite” and and “just about [her]self,”. Hence the MTV VMAs dressing down.

2015 MTV Video Music Awards - Fixed Show

Now, in a new interview with the New York Times, Minaj has explained why she felt she had to speak out at the awards. Addressing her comments to Cyrus in the interview, she says:

“The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls. You’re in videos with black men, and you’re bringing out black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.”

We’re guessing organisers at the next big music awards ceremony are scrambling to seat these two FAR away from each other.

650px X 150px ATTITUDE TV BANNER