OP ED: Is The Reign Of Queen Nicki Over?
In 2018, it was rare to go a week without hearing the words "Nicki Minaj and Cardi B feud". We saw heated Twitter exchanges, dissing on radio and to the press, leaking numbers and an actual physical fight. Nicki is always the one to claim that Cardi is the problem, but is that necessarily true?
Let's think about it - before Cardi blew up, Nicki was by herself at the top of the female rap game. She had no competition and no one to challenge her when she called herself the Queen. But then Cardi came along and, by basically copying the path Nicki had followed (take no shit attitude, wild bars, a series of high profile collaborations, described as "crazy"), she was very, very successful. For someone who had never faced competition, surely this would have rubbed Nicki up the wrong way.
This isn't the first time anyone has noticed that maybe Nicki is jealous of her younger competitor, but when Nicki hit up Australian shores for her headliner performance at FOMO Festival she was labelled pretty unanimously as disappointing and not worth seeing. Interestingly, when people said that to us here at CK, they almost all followed up with "I'd love to see Cardi though."
In my opinion, Nicki has recently made a huge mistake for herself as a brand - teaming up with controversial rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine. Both their hits together, 'FEFE' and 'MAMA', are undoubtedly bangers, but the whole idea of collaborating with 6ix9ine was a poor decision. Tekashi is in the midst of a slew of legal issues, including the fact that he filmed himself having sex with a minor - it's not seen as fun and dangerous to work with him, it's seen as a desperate grab for attention while trying to stay relevant.
There is also the age gap - Cardi is 26 whereas Nicki is 36. That's not to say Nicki can't still do her job, but in every industry, there are always younger and newer acts that come through to replace the older ones. Nicki has had the monopoly on this industry since 'Super Bass' dropped in 2010, so it's about time a fresh new face came along to appeal to the main consumers of pop music and rap - the youth. What Nicki has to offer isn't new anymore, so it's no wonder her sales are paling in comparison to someone fresher.
So, is Nicki still the Queen...? We asked who we could find around the office and here are the results we got:
TEAM NICKI: 2
TEAM CARDI: 12
It's worth noting that the owner of CK said Cardi B. It's over for you Nicki.
