Music

Nicki Minaj Slammed For “Disrespectful” Lyric About Rosa Parks

"Nicki Minaj consistently disrespects Foundational Black American icons in her raps and cover art."

by Michelle Rennex  5 February 2020
nicki minaj rosa parks photo

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Despite announcing her retirement from music in September last year, yesterday Nicki Minaj shared a snippet of a new track, called ‘Yikes’.

It was doubly curious, as along with her step away from music, Nicki also stopped posting on social media up until about a week ago. For her return to the fold, Nicki teased a portion of ‘Yikes’ on Instagram and Twitter. Sitting in the studio in a red wig and sunglasses next to her new husband, Nicki Minaj happily bopped along to the track.

The track is classic Minaj, but some of its lyrics have left people completely baffled. Namely, her strange and disrespectful line about Rosa Parks, the beloved African-American civil rights activist, has people upset and bewildered. “All you bitches Rosa Parks, uh-oh, get your ass up,” Nicki raps. Watch a clip of the track below.

The timing of the name drop was also made worse by Nicki releasing the snippet on what would have been Park’s 107th birthday. It’s also Black History Month in the US at the moment.

Beyond the basic disrespect, many people pointed out that the lyric doesn’t actually make sense. Very famously, Rosa Parks is known for her refusal to stand up. The civil rights icon remained seated when a white man asked for her seat, sparking the American civil rights movement in the ’50s. Nicki’s lyric about “bitches” needing to “get [their] ass up,” is quite literally the opposite of what Rosa Parks did.

However, @hiphop_issues, an account dedicated to breaking down lyrics, came to Nicki Minaj’s defence. The page tried to explain that the bar was simply a double entendre, not an attack against Rosa Parks herself.

“Basically she talking about how everyone want to act like they’re in for a movement, or for the culture, but they’re not doing anything about it,” they tweeted. “Although Rosa Parks was sitting down, she made an impact. But others are lazy [and] ‘sitting down’ trying to attain an equal result as Rosa.”

It’s obviously not the first time Minaj’s lyrics have raised some eyebrows. In the 2014 remix of ‘Flawless’ by Beyoncé, Nicki rapped: “Yo’, like MJ doctor, they killing me — Propofol, I know they hope I fall”. Two years before that Nicki referenced the deadly Columbine school massacre in ‘Roman Reloaded’ with Lil Wayne. “Take bitches to school, then I Columbine these hoes,” she rapped.

But at the end of the day, the Barbz (Nicki Minaj fans) will always ride hard for their idol. So while a lot of people were offended by Nicki Minaj speaking about Rosa Parks, even more just poked fun at the whole thing. As with anything that is a little bit serious, jokes about the unexpected name drop flooded Twitter and even had #RosaParks trending on her birthday — just not for the reasons it should be.