Nicki Minaj is coming to Jesy Nelson’s defense.
After dropping the video for her debut solo single “Boyz” on Friday, on which Nicki is featured, the former Little Mix member was accused of Blackfishing, a term that refers to someone who darkens their skin to appear Black or racially ambiguous.
Amid the controversy, Jesy’s former Little Mix bandmates–Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, and Jade Thirlwall–appeared to unfollow her on Instagram. However, in alleged Instagram DMs to TikTok influencer NoHun, Leigh-Anne brought up the Blackfishing accusations and claimed Jesy blocked her.
Jesy addressed the Blackfishing claims in an interview with Vulture. “I’m very aware that I’m a white British woman; I’ve never said that I wasn’t,” she said, adding, “I take all those comments made seriously. I would never intentionally do anything to make myself look racially ambiguous, so that’s why I was initially shocked that the term was directed at me.”
While going live on Instagram with Jesy on Monday, Minaj defended her “Boyz” collaborator against the accusations.
“What we won’t have is putting out text messages to try and ruin someone and telling people and influencers to talk badly about this girl,” she said. “I know singers that tan a lot… It’s their fu**ing business. It’s their fu**ing right. It’s different when someone comes out and pretends to be Black.”
She continued, “Unless a person to me is pretending that they’re not a race that they’re not and lying…and I could name a couple people that done lied to y’all and told y’all that they was a certain race that they’re not.”
Without naming names, Nicki seemingly slammed Leigh-Anne, who she collaborated with on Little Mix’s 2018 single “Woman Like Me.”
“Sweetheart, take them text messages and shove it up your fu**ing ass,” she said. “Because when you do clown shit, I gotta treat you and talk to you like you’re a clown. Don’t have to come and try to ruin anyone. Let her enjoy this time. If you was in this woman’s group and you ain’t talked about this shit for 10 years and as soon as you see she got a video come out with Nicki Minaj and Puffy, now you sending the stations for text messages and all this shit.”
“Print them text messages out, bust your ass open, and shove it up your motherfu**in’ ass,” added Nicki. “And stop trying to hurt people and kill people’s lives and careers… If you want a solo career, baby girl, just say that.”
For her part, Jesy told Nicki that she never intended to offend anyone and only wanted to celebrate her love for ’90s R&B.
“I personally want to say that my intention was never ever to offend people of color with this video and my song because like I said, growing up as a young girl, this is the music that I listened to,” she said. “These are the videos that I watched and thought were the best. For me personally, ’90s R&B were the best years in music. I just wanted to celebrate that. I just want to celebrate that era of music is what I love.”