As the world bid farewell to 2023 and welcomed the dawn of a new year, Nicki Minaj commanded the stage at Miami's E11EVEN to bid farewell to "Starships." As the familiar beats of her 2012 Pop hit began to play, Nicki quickly cut the excitement short after rapping a few words. "Hold on. Psych, psych, psych, psych. I don't perform that song no more, y'all," she announced mid-performance. The crowd's reaction was mixed—some booed while others looked befuddled. "I don't like it. What y'all want me to do. Stupid song."
The significance of this moment circles back to Nicki Minaj's infamous beef with Hot97's on-air personality, Peter Rosenberg, at the 2012 Summer Jam. Rosenberg stirred the pot back then by publicly snubbing
"Starships" and Nicki's fans when he told the crowd:
"Now hold on, before I get to the real hip-hop shit of the day, because I see the real hip-hop heads sprinkled in here, I see 'em. I know there's some chicks here waiting to sing 'Starships' later, I'm not talking to y'all right now, fuck that bullshit. I'm here to talk about real hip-hop shit."
His brazen dismissal of the track in front of a divided audience ignited a feud that led to Nicki's decision to cancel her performance—a move that elevated the Rosenberg vs. Nicki Minaj saga, which perplexed and captivated fans and the media.
The two made up the following year, but Rosenberg has not forgotten, so with this video of Nicki Minaj calling Starships "stupid" going viral, he reposted the video with smiley heart emojis - a subtle nod to their past beef.
I JUST HAD AN EPIPHANY...
Nicki Minaj's change of heart doesn't end with 'Starships' but extends to her 2018 album, "Queen." She recently admitted to not liking that project. Remember, this is the same album she went scorched earth over and used as the backbone for her now-defunct "Queen Radio," a platform where she vehemently
defended her musical credibility. Now, she admits "Queen" wasn't up to the Queen level she claimed at that time.
Not to dwell on the past, but because "Queen" was all over the place and lacked continuity, it helped in her blackballing and validated her critics when the music did not match the big talk coming out of her mouth. That affected her standing in the music industry, not what other girls were doing.
With Nicki feeling high off the success of "Pink Friday 2" and having all these epiphanies about her past music, many people, like Rosenberg, feel vindicated. But it also makes you wonder how Nicki Minaj will feel about "Pink Friday 2" when all the pink dust settles.
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