Friday, July 5, marked the 12th anniversary of the debut of Nicki Minaj's first mixtape, "Playtime is Over." Since then, the New York City native has gone on to sign with the Young Money/Cash Money label, for whom she's consistently churned out hits and hit albums that helped her make her the first woman to be included on MTV's annual Hottest MC List, the first woman to snag a spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart more than 100 times and a 10-time Grammy nominee.
Despite those and other music achievements, Nicki's press has not always been favorable, as she noted in a long post on Instagram on Friday.
"12 years ago I dropped my 1st mixtape. Wrote every single word on every single song. I was so proud of that," her post began. "Eventually the barbz were all wearing pink hair, Chinese bangs, & Barbie chains. Colorful wigs came all the way back in style. Everyone became Barbies & Dolls."
She went on to say how important other artists have been to her development, asking why discussing one's influences seems to have fallen out of favor with younger musicians.
"I always shouted out my influences in my interviews," she said in the post. "Now a days, it's become cool to pretend u weren't influenced by other artists. S/O to the ones big enough to did it: Kash, Asian, Cuban, Saweetie, Meg, Malibu, YOUNG MA, Ms. Banks, Lady Leshurr, etc. No female rapper (other than Trina) did a song w/me or congratulated me on my billboard accomplishments. I didn't mind. I never felt they were obligated to do so."
Nicki continued: "I never had a crusade by radio stations, influencers & blogs to make my song number 1 when Anaconda was #2 on the Hot 100. I never had a group of men in the studio writing my songs for me so it took a while between albums. Please stop these write ups about what I didn't do. Y'all are rlly sick & ima call y'all out one by one on Queen Radio. Most of yall doing these write ups have never fought for anything in life. You just sit on the sidelines & watch the doers do!!!!"
Before signing off, she ended on a positive note, telling her fans, "I love, cherish you, adore you, and thank you. God bless you."
The post garnered both positive and negative responses, with Nicki fans including Erykah Badu and MC Lyte posting heart Emojis and words of support as others criticized the rapper for posting too many "rants."
Nicki wasn't having the negativity, though. When a user said she should make a point of giving credit to Lil' Kim, Nicki pointed to her "early interviews," saying she always made a point of citing Kim as an influence.
"Blocked for being f-ing dumb & wanting black women to keep being afraid of speaking their truth," Nicki replied to another troll, adding, "Taylor Swift can speak but I can't?!" seemingly referencing Taylor's long post about Scooter Braun's acquisition of her music (via E! News).
Nicki's currently facing backlash for agreeing to perform at the Jeddah World Fest in Saudi Arabia, where the government's policies regarding the gay community, women and other minorities has come under fire by human rights groups.
Liam Payne, Steve Aoki and R3 Wire & Varski are also slated to play at the festival, set to take place July 18.