Nicki Minaj Tells Fans Who Don’t Like Dancehall To “Get With It”
Rap superstar Nicki Minaj has a soft spot for Dancehall music, but not all Barbz feel the same.
Her newly-released Pink Friday 2 album bears the Dancehall track Forward From Trini with Skillibeng and Skeng, but it’s among the five least played songs on the 22-track album, with over 1.8 million plays on Spotify and almost 500,000 views on YouTube since its release.
During a recent album breakdown on Stationhead, the Trinidad-born artist had a message for fans who don’t digest her Dancehall dealings.
“You know, like 1,000 people (from 22,000) came off when we started playing our Dancehall music,” the ‘Gag City’ muse said. “Y’all, some of them don’t like it, but it’s okay. They’re gonna have to get with it… I’m sorry if y’all can’t understand this kind of music…”
Minaj was in the middle of replaying Forward From Trini when she noticed a decline in viewership. Produced by Bas Beats and Likkle Miss’ Melio Sounds, the track sees Skillibeng doting on the sex appeal of a Trini belle, epitomized by Minaj, who does country shoutouts and a cute back and forth with Skeng over all things sex and badness. The Heavy On It record label founder praised the deejays for their contributions to the song.
“Skillibeng and Skeng devoured this f–king beat,” she said before showing love to the producers. “Listen to me, I can’t love it one more time. And I saw all y’all flags but I’m bout to play that sh-t again cause that sh-t gave me f–king chills when y’all started putting up y’all flags…”
She added that the moment reminded her of when she released Pink Friday 13 years ago, when “I was just comfortably in my bag, loving music and having fun and doing music with the people that I’m a fan of.”
The Big Difference rapper has been unapologetic about her fandom for Skeng, whom she previously dubbed “the future,” sealed with her Likkle Miss takeover.
She cosigned Skillibeng by hopping on the remix for Crocodile Teeth in 2021, and even brought him out on shows.
Dancehall also appears on Pink Friday 2 with the previously-released Red Ruby Da Sleeze, built on Steven ‘Lenky’ Marsden’s iconic Diwali riddim. Though she recently admitted to not having a grasp on the Jamaican accent, she injects patois on songs like Needle featuring Drake, Beep Beep and Just the Memories, the latter interpolating lyrics from Beenie Man’s Memories (Stop Live In A De Pass) , taken from a Jerry Butler original.
Minaj’s ties to Jamaica are rooted in her upbringing in Queens, New York, which led to her former relationship with Jamaican rapper Safaree, who’s credited for co-writing some of her songs.
She has further worked with local acts like Gyptian, Beenie Man and Mavado, and paid homage to Danny Browne’s Filthy riddim on her 2019 song Megatron.