After coming under fire for using apparent Nazi imagery in Only, Nicki Minaj said the new music video wasn’t intended to be anti-Semitic.
In one part of the animated lyric video, which was released last Friday, Nicki sits between two large Young Money (YM) banners that seem to be styled similarly to the Swastika. She also walks among soldiers in tanks. The word “chamber” even pops up when she is walking by a soldier with a gas mask on, which many took to be an allusion to the gas chambers used in concentration camps.
Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor, told Fox411 he believes the video “constitutes a new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism.” He added, “This video it is insensitive to Holocaust survivors and a trivialization of the history of that era.”
After the outcry reached a fever pitch yesterday, Nicki spoke out on Twitter…
The artist who made the lyric video for “Only” was influenced by a cartoon on Cartoon Network called "Metalocalypse" & Sin City.
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) November 11, 2014
Both the producer, & person in charge of over seeing the lyric video (one of my best friends & videographer: A. Loucas), happen to be Jewish
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) November 11, 2014
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.
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) November 11, 2014
Video director Jeff Osborne hasn’t directly addressed the video or defended himself, but has retweeted both supportive and critical messages about it.
