Nicki Minaj Drops Off BET Concert After Network’s Cardi B Social Media Post
Nicki Minaj says she has cancelled a planned upcoming appearance at the BET Concert Experience in June, where she was set to co-headline with Cardi B days before the annual BET Awards, as TMZ reports. The concert’s lineup was announced a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed like a good get, especially considering Minaj and Cardi B’s very public feud.
But last night during the Grammys, where Cardi B became the first solo female rapper to win Best Rap Album award, BET’s social media captioned a post about the win with the sentence: “Meanwhile, Nicki Minaj is being dragged by her lacefront.” (A reference to Cardi’s red carpet look.)
Minaj was not pleased, and today she took to Twitter to publicly pull out of the BET Concert Experience show. “Young Money will no longer be apart of the BET Experience or award show,” she tweeted, seemingly indicating that Lil Wayne would no longer perform now, as well.
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) February 11, 2019
Young Money will no longer be apart of the BET Experience or award show. ♥️♥️ Summer Tour dates dropping soon
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) February 11, 2019
UPDATE: BET has issued an apology to Minaj, saying that they are “conducting an internal audit to assure these types of posts are not published again,” and they say that they “have taken additional appropriate action.” (Please tell me no one’s lost their job over this, ugh.) Here’s the full statement:
BET loves Nicki Minaj. We have supported her from the very beginning of her career and will continue to do so moving forward. Nicki has paved the way for so many performers and has solidified her place as one of the most powerful figures in the music industry.
Unfortunately the respect we have for Nicki was violated by this post that should never have been written. The post does not reflect how we feel about Nicki. And further does not reflect our company values. We deeply apologize for the hurt, disappointment and confusion that this post has caused. We are committed to doing everything we can to address the situation.
We are also conducting an internal audit to assure these types of posts are not published again. We have apologized to Nicki and her team. The post has been removed and we have taken additional appropriate action. We understand Nicki’s position and look forward to continuing our dialogue with her. Finally, we apologize to all of her fans. This should have never happened.
Cardi B also mentioned the whole Nicki/BET drama in an Instagram story, along with addressing some of the online hate she’s received in the wake of her Grammy win:
Cardi B reveals that she does not support BET’s aim at Nicki Minaj and defends herself from haters discrediting her #GRAMMYs win. pic.twitter.com/ZA1nKoiuUO
— Music News Facts (@musicnewsfact) February 11, 2019
UPDATE 2: On Monday night, Cardi deactivated her Instagram.