Rapper Iggy Azalea defended her right to support Nicki Minaj after a fan accused her of clout chasing.
The Australian rapper, 32, had taken to Twitter to praise Minaj's new song, "Super Freaky Girl", which soared straight to the top of the charts.
Azalea wrote on August 12: "'Super Freaky Girl' is a really well written song. Like, it's constructed to be a hit and it's BIG sounding."
One of Minaj's fans—who are commonly known as "Barbs"—had nothing but contempt for Azalea, suggesting she only tweeted the compliments in order to secure a collaboration with the rapper.
"barbs really falling for this trick😭 iggy gonna think her next album can go #1 bc of that tweet," the Twitter user wrote on top of a retweet of a Barb who had written, "she knew" of Azalea's praise.
That Barb had posted a screenshot of both Azalea's tweet and one from Chartdata showing Minaj's song had debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.
Azalea was having none of it and did not hesitate to clap back at the fan.
"I personally don't operate from a transactional place, but Is that what place your operating from?" she responded.
"Is this you projecting? Why are you feeling so upset that I paid another artist a compliment/like the song?"
The mom-of-one also retweeted other fans who agreed with her point and wrote, "I meannnn. Only a child would believe tweets dictate business deals worth millions. Fr [for real]. I have to laugh."
Minaj made history this week, becoming the first woman with a hip hop song to debut at number one with an accompaniment since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" in 1998.
In its first week alone, "Super Freaky Girl" was streamed 21.1 million times, had 4.6 million radio airplay audience impressions and sold 89,000 digital downloads, according to data from Luminate.
Minaj has had two other number one singles including "Say So" with Doja Cat and "Trollz" with 6ix9ine.
Azalea is one of only a few female rappers to have their songs go to number one along with Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B, but they did not debut in the top spot.
It's a very big week for Minaj, who along with making music history will be awarded the 2022 Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
She will receive the award at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 28.
Introduced in 1984, the award celebrates an artist that has "outstanding contributions and profound impact on music videos and popular culture."
Previous Vanguard Award winners have include Beyonce, Missy Elliot, Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez.
Minaj will be the first recipient of the award this decade as it was missed for the last two VMAs, replaced with the Tricon Award in 2020—which went to Lady Gaga—and the Global Icon Award in 2021, given to the Foo Fighters.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
