During her acceptance speech for Best Hip-Hop Video at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, Nicki Minaj called out Miley Cyrus for an interview Cyrus gave to the New York Times late last week.
“You know who I want to thank tonight? My pastor,” Minaj said. “I love you so much. And now, back to this B!tch that had a lot to say about me in the press. Miley what’s good?”
Cyrus’ interview in question touched on Minaj’s response to being shut out of the Video of the Year category by the VMAs. Minaj tweeted at the time, “If I was a different “kind” of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well… If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.” (Cyrus won Video of the Year in 2014 for “Wrecking Ball.”)
“People forget that the choices that they make and how they treat people in life affect you in a really big way,” Cyrus told the Times. “If you do things with an open heart and you come at things with love, you would be heard and I would respect your statement. But I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it. […] If you want to make it about race, there’s a way you could do that. But don’t make it just about yourself. Say: ‘This is the reason why I think it’s important to be nominated. There’s girls everywhere with this body type.’”
She went on to add that Minaj’s words were “not too kind” and “not very polite,” but instead “very Nicki Minaj.”
“I know you can make it seem like, ‘Oh I just don’t understand because I’m a white pop star.’” Cyrus continued. “I know the statistics. I know what’s going on in the world… But to be honest, I don’t think MTV did that on purpose.”
Cyrus was apparently caught off-guard by Minaj’s comments on Sunday. “We’re all in this industry. We all do interviews. We all know how they manipulate. Nicki, congratulations,” she said, before plugging the show. “Just because the VMAs have already started doesn’t meant he voting is done you can still vote at home for who you think is the future of music. It’s the Artist to Watch award. The past winners of this award gone on to incredible success and the past losers of the awards have still gone on to make their mark on the VMA stage. Me. I lost this award back i 2008 and I was fine with it. Whatever, because it’s no big deal! It’s just an award and I persevered! So here are the nominees still vying for your vote. Congratulations, Nicki.”
In the moments after Minaj’s remarks, the rapper tweeted “Lmfaooooooooooooo” with a trio of heart-eye emoji.
