In case you were wondering, Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus don't seem to have made up yet.
The two pop stars had a tense moment at the recent MTV VMAs, where Minaj called out Cyrus for making critical comments about her. The drama originally stemmed from Minaj's tweets calling the music industry out for praising white performers over their black peers. Cyrus, who hosted this year's show, dismissed the remarks as "not polite," leading to an awkward showdown at the awards show.
Minaj has more to say about the dispute in the latest issue of The New York Times Magazine.
“The fact that you [Cyrus] feel upset about me speaking on something that affects Black women makes me feel like you have some big balls," Minaj said. "You’re in videos with Black men, and you’re bringing out Black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how Black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.”
So that's what "what's good?" means. In all seriousness, Minaj has a valid point. Cyrus has long been accused of co-opting Black culture for her own means. Trying to grasp the deeper issues within the community might lend her some legitimacy, or, at the very least, some insight. Good on Minaj for saying something.
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