Cardi B experienced a historic moment last night (February 10, 2019) at the 61st annual Grammy Awards where she was awarded best rap album, the first solo woman to ever win the award. Given the music industry’s default hostile posture toward women, it was inevitable that there would be fall out from Cardi winning such a prestigious award.
In addition to intense push back from fans angry their artist didn’t win the award, this morning a writer for BET penned a column championing Cardi’s win while at the same time dragging Nicki Minaj for never having won a Grammy. The article was linked with a tweet that read, “Meanwhile, Nicki Minaj is being dragged by her lacefront.”
Blow back on Twitter was immediate and fierce. BET reacted by first deleting the Tweet and then took down the article. The Barbz also set their sights on the article writer, who put her Twitter feed on private in response.
A frequent attendee and award recipient at BET’s annual award show, Minaj, who was scheduled to perform along with Lil Wayne at an upcoming BET concert, responded with a Tweet announcing, “Young Money will no longer be apart of the BET Experience or award show. ♥️♥️ Summer Tour dates dropping soon .”
BET followed the tweet with an apology statement, first published on Pitchfork. The statement reads as follow:
“BET loves Nicki Minaj. We have supported her from the very beginning of her career and will continue to do so moving forward. Nicki has paved the way for so many performers and has solidified her place as one of the most powerful figures in the music industry. Unfortunately the respect we have for Nicki was violated by this post that should never have been written. The post does not reflect how we feel about Nicki. And further does not reflect our company values.
“We deeply apologize for the hurt, disappointment and confusion that this post has caused. We are committed to doing everything we can to address the situation. We are also conducting an internal audit to assure these types of posts are not published again. We have apologized to Nicki and her team. The post has been removed and we have taken additional appropriate action. We understand Nicki’s position and look forward to continuing our dialogue with her. Finally, we apologize to all of her fans. This should have never happened.”
Meanwhile. Minaj spoke out about being effectively shadow banned by the Grammy Awards and went on to pin the blame on producer Ken Ehrlich. She wrote, “I pissed off the same man Ariana [Grande] just called out for lying. Grammy producer KEN. I was bullied into staying quiet for 7 years out of fear. But I’ll tell my fans the REAL on the next episode of #QueenRadio they deserve the truth.”
Check out the Tweets below.
I pissed off the same man Ariana just called out for lying. Grammy producer KEN. I was bullied into staying quiet for 7 years out of fear. But I’ll tell my fans the REAL on the next episode of #QueenRadio they deserve the truth.
Also, CONGRATS to everyone who won last night. https://t.co/YjmoIOPt6o
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) February 11, 2019
Ken Ehrlich is a bully
Also, CONGRATS to everyone who won last night.
Young Money will no longer be apart of the BET Experience or award show. ♥️♥️ Summer Tour dates dropping soon
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) February 11, 2019
Cardi B statement on BET
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) February 11, 2019
BET “lacefront” tweet
