Nicki Minaj Has a Big Issue With Fashion Magazines—And She's Calling Them Out

Rapper Nicki Minaj has a bone to pick with the magazine industry, and she’s letting it be known.

Thursday, the "Rake It Up" rapper spoke out on how magazines often steer the star away from wearing certain hairstyles, but then let women of other races wear those exact hairstyles. “For years, fashion mags would change my hair for their covers but allow women of a diff race to wear the exact style on the cover,” she tweeted.

Loyal Minaj fans, quickly came to her support. One fan tweeted that magazines could no longer do it because of her queen status, however Minaj responded “Actually, they’re still doing it babe. [sad-faced emoji]."

And another fan backed-up Minaj’s statement by tweeting a side-by-side image of a black women and Betty Boop both wearing finger waves, indicating that the hairstyle was originally worn by women of color long before the iconic figure was created. Which some could also view as a form of cultural appropriation. Minaj also retweeted the image.

While the origin of Minaj’s concerns remains unknown, Minaj has never been one hold back when it comes to issues of race and cultural appropriation within the fashion industry. During a performance this past New York Fashion Week at the Phillip Plein's Spring/Summer 2018 show, Minaj thanked Plein for including her culture rather than exploiting it as with other designers. "Thank you, Philipp Plein, for including our culture,” Minaj said. “Designers get really big and really rich off of our culture, and then you don’t see a motherf***** that look anything like us in the front row half the time. So let’s make some noise for Philipp Plein tonight.”

This past February, Minaj also called out famous shoe designer Giuseppe Zanotti, claiming that the designer did not want work with her because of her race. To this day, Zanotti has yet to comment on Minaj's remarks.