Anti-Defamation League condemns Nicki Minaj video; Rapper apologizes
NEW YORK -- The Anti-Defamation League is condemning a new video by Nicki Minaj for her song "Only" due to what it calls "unadulterated Nazi imagery."
The video evokes the style of Nazi propaganda films and portrays Minaj as a military dictator surrounded by red banners resembling those used by the Nazi Party during World War II.
Ranks of solders are shown with red armbands mirroring those worn by Nazi soldiers.
"Yes, it's true there is no swastika there, but just about everything else," ADL Deputy National Director Kenneth Jacobson said. "You don't have to be a nuclear scientist to recognize that she is invoking Nazi imagery."
Jacobson also questions Minaj's timing of the video release.
"On November 9th, which was the anniversary of Kristallnacht," he said. "That terrible evening in Germany which is seen as the beginning of the Holocaust.
But show people a clip of the video, and you get a variety of reactions.
"She probably going to get a lot of unhappy people about that," Terrell McMullen said. "Very offensive. From all the stuff that happened in history and then to do something like that, yeah, very offensive. I wouldn't listen to it."
"I'm not sure what the point is," Christian Pederson said. "Probably just to get attention."
Others need to see more of it.
"This is the first time seeing it," one viewer said. "I've got to see the whole thing first..
"Unacceptable," Jacobson said. "It's unacceptable when we understand what that Nazi imagery really does symbolize."
Minaj apologized in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning. She wrote:
"I didn't come up w/the concept, but I'm very sorry & take full responsibility if it has offended anyone. I'd never condone Nazism in my art."
"Both the producer, & person in charge of over seeing the lyric video (one of my best friends & videographer: A. Loucas), happen to be Jewish"
"The artist who made the lyric video for "Only" was influenced by a cartoon on Cartoon Network called "Metalocalypse" & Sin City."
