Nicki Minaj Blames Racism In Music Industry For VMA Snub; Taylor Swift Makes It About Feminism

Nicki Minaj missed out on a Video of the Year MTV VMA nomination for her “Anaconda” music video and took to Twitter to share her belief that the music industry’s racism is to blame. Taylor Swift, thinking that she was the target of Minaj’s tweet, reacted by making it about being a good feminist.

Nicki Minaj Vs Taylor Swift

Upon hearing the list of nominations for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards and realizing that her wildly popular “Anaconda” music video had been left out of the top category, Minaj vented her frustrations on Twitter. According to her, she was the “wrong kind” of artist for the Video of the Year and Best Choreography categories.

Swift, assuming that Minaj was referring to her as one of the “right kind” of artists, decided to reply. The “Bad Blood” singer seemed to overlook Minaj’s narrative about music industry racism, and subtly accused her of being anti-woman by voicing her complaints.

Minaj replied by pointing out that she had never targeted her or her music, but that it might not be a bad idea for her to use her platform to second Minaj’s call for music industry reform.

Though “Anaconda” missed out on Video of the Year and Best Choreography nods, it was nominated for Best Female Video and Best Hip Hop Video. Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” featuring Kendrick Lamar was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Special Effects, while “Black Space” picked up Best Female Video and Best Pop Video nods.