I’m sure you’ve heard all the sayings about haters in your years: “Make your haters your motivators,” “Haters gonna hate,” “Let the haters hate,” and who could forget the catchy song, “Hi hater”? Nicki Minaj even sent love to her haters in her hit song, “Moment 4 Life” when she said, Shoutout to my haters, sorry that you couldn’t phase me. But as we know as of late, a few of her haters got under the rapper and her bosses’ skin so much that she backed out of performing at Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert this past weekend.
DJ Peter Rosenberg got on stage during Summer Jam before the femmeC’s scheduled performance and declared that her song “Starships” (not Nicki Minaj as a whole) was “wack” and panned it as not being “real hip-hop.” Rosenberg has talked many times on his show, “The Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg Show,” about being one of those old-fogy, take-’em-back-to-the-old-days-of-hip-hop heads and has made his feelings vocal about “Starships” for a while. Once those comments were known to Lil Wayne and his team, he told Nicki that she shouldn’t take the stage. She and the YMCMB camp didn’t stand down from their choice, and through a barrage of Tweets from Roman Zolanski and her camp, she let folks know that while she will ride with her fans until the end, R-E-S-P-E-C-T was most important in this situation. She also reiterated that point in her interview with Funkmaster Flex yesterday.
After doing some thinking, I will say that I don’t disagree with Nicki’s anger and some of the comments she’s made. There is honestly something jacked up about a radio station making money off of you and then turning around and having one of its biggest representatives say you made a wack song, publicly, before you’re slated to hit the stage for them. Doing so before her performance could have fostered negative energy amongst the crowd, and that’s not cool. In everyday terms, that’s like someone asking you to help them cook for Thanksgiving, you get ready to slave over the stove, and then a family member tells Auntie Jackie and ‘nem that a dish you made before was the wackest thing they ever tasted. I’m sure you would feel some sort of way about bringing the plate of dressing after the fact. A random example, but I’m sure you understand. However, DJ Peter Rosenberg isn’t an influential fan who could make or break her, he was a random guy with an opinion. That’s it. Why get so bent out of shape that you let this man cheat your fans out of their chance to see you?
This is not only about hip-hop, but this situation reminds me of the confusion people have between individuals being haters and having an opinion. An opinion with some truth to it that they’re not ready to face. Sure, DJ Rosenberg expressed his opinions at an unnecessary time, but these weren’t new opinions he was expressing, nor was it an opinion that I’m sure she hadn’t heard before. He didn’t say that as a whole, Nicki Minaj wasn’t real hip-hop or that she was a wack musician all around, but that her song “Starships” isn’t real hip hop. And, uh, HELLO, I’m sure even she knows that it’s not. But why care so much when you were the same person saying on the radio that you weren’t worried about pleasing old hip-hop fans anymore anyway?
