Nicki Minaj has shared her concerns about social media’s effect on young people and the “false realities” it projects.
The Queens rapper has been promoting her upcoming fifth album ‘Pink Friday 2’ ahead of its release next month. Covering the December issue of Vogue, she revealed that she wants her to use her platform to talk about mental illness and drug addiction – having recently revealed she was addicted to prescribed Percocet medication.
“It’s gotten so easy to be alone physically, where young people spend 12, 16 hours a day in their rooms on their phones, looking at these false realities, comparing themselves. I’ve seen artists gone way too soon,” she said, referring to her friendships with Juice WRLD, Pop Smoke and others who died in their early 20s. “I wonder if that could have been avoided if they’d just had the chance to talk about what they were going through.”
In 2020, the Grammy Award nominee came under fire for sharing her beliefs on the COVID-19 vaccine. She also tweeted a voice note from a family friend describing the side effects they allegedly experienced after receiving the vaccine. The tweet went viral and received backlash from former UK Health Minister Chris Witty, the Philadelphia Health Department and the Health Minister of Trinidad & Tobago. Minaj’s X/Twitter account was eventually suspended for “spreading misinformation on the COVID-19 vaccine.”
“I’m one of those people who doesn’t go with a crowd,” she said, explaining why she posted what she did. “I like to make my own assessment of everything without help from everyone.”
She continued: “Every time I talk about politics, people get mad. I’m sorry, but I am not going to be told who I should get on social media and campaign for. There’s a lot we don’t know that’s going on in the government, and I don’t think it changes whether you lean to the left or right.”
‘Pink Friday 2’ serves as the sequel to Nicki Minaj’s 2010 debut album, ‘Pink Friday’. In the new interview, she reflected on her feelings before releasing the album. “There’s nothing more complicated than not knowing if you’re going to be broke, not knowing if you’re going to be a failure,” said Minaj.
Describing her upcoming album, the rapper said: “Imagine a Nicki Minaj greatest hits album, but all the songs are new. When I look back at a lot of my music, I’m like, Oh, my God, where was the me in it? So for this album, I went back to the old game plan.”
‘Pink Friday 2’ will be out on December 8 – Nicki Minaj’s birthday – via her own record label, Heavy On It Records.
Minaj dropped two singles last month; ‘Bahm Bahm’ and ‘FOR ALL THE BARBZ’ – the latter featuring Drake and Chief Keef. Meanwhile, she picked up the Best Hip-Hop award for the music video for ‘Super Freaky Girl’ at this year’s MTV VMAs.