AMAs: Did Nicki Minaj Pull Jennifer Lopez Into Another Awards Show Diva Battle?
Nicki Minaj is hitting a steady string of making herself the center of music awards shows if a clip of her watching Jennifer Lopez’s performance the American Music Awards is to be believed.
Nicki Minaj reacting to J Lo’s performance https://t.co/DErtSRak8i
— Amy Odell (@amyodell) November 23, 2015
The self-proclaimed “best in the game” rap diva Nicki had a bored, smug reaction to Jennifer’s song-and-dance number at the AMAs. Minaj’s shade was especially notable considering that Lopez was performing a medley that included Nicki’s own track “Anaconda.”
Though brief, the moment will be especially legendary for fans of Minaj, who remember the look that Jennifer threw to Nicki when she was performing the track herself last year at Fashion Rocks. Though there was never a confirmation that Lopez meant any harm, speculation raged rampant about whether or not Jennifer was jealous that Minaj had worked with her ex Casper Smart on the project, reported Hollywood Life.
Fan reaction to Nicki’s expression at Jennifer’s AMAs performance was split, with some commending Minaj for her no-holds-barred realness.
shady onika! @NICKIMINAJ gave Jenny from the block the same face she gave her when she performed “Anaconda” at the MTVawards. #AMAs
— ? ????????? (@killahrih) November 23, 2015
I love how much @NICKIMINAJ hates everything. #AMAs — Kristen Baldwin (@KristenGBaldwin) November 23, 2015
Others seemed less than amused with Nicki’s choice to turn her nose up at Lopez’s AMAs performance. Some even faulted Minaj for pulling the same instigator tricks twice in one awards season.
Nicki Minaj only attends award shows to throw tacky shade and drag other women down who are more successful than her pic.twitter.com/ewskGjkOSe — Adele 25 (@TheAdele) November 23, 2015
Did i miss the moment when everyone started suddenly hating nicki minaj
— aki (@modestmgmts) November 23, 2015
Nicki is sure to be one of the trending topics of the AMAs evening for throwing extreme awards show shade for the second time this year. When accepting her award for Best Hip-Hop Video for “Anaconda,” Minaj turned to host Miley Cyrus to unload on the young host for comments she had made to The New York Times about Nicki’s attitude leading into the awards show.
Cyrus had stated that Minaj was simply looking for trouble and attention when she had called out the amount of white female artists who had been nominated for the main categories. Miley said that Nicki was using the guise of social activism to further her own wounded ego. Cyrus added insult to injury when she said that, as she felt was typical for the rapper, Minaj was just being her usual impolite self.
Fast-forward to the night Miley took the stage to host the show, and Nicki chose the moment she accepted her award to come after Cyrus. Minaj leaned in to famously ask, “What’s good, Miley?” The confrontation was without question the most talked about moment from the VMAs, with speculation ranging for weeks afterward about whether or not Nicki and Cyrus had planned the jab in order to fuel press attention for their own benefit. A similar debate is sure to pan out from the situation with Jennifer at the AMAs.
The public was decidedly split about whether or not the slam was planned. Some claimed that Miley’s shocked facial expression, and that of her dad Billy Ray Cyrus in the audience, indicated that she had not anticipated Minaj’s actions. Others side Nicki’s smile afterward gave away that she wasn’t really that mad, even as Cyrus nervously defended herself by saying that it was not her to blame, but the press twisting her words, reported ET.
With the way the internet loves to obsess about diva battles, it’s sure that Nicki Minaj’s reaction to Jennifer Lopez’s AMAs performance to “Anaconda” will be dominating coverage of the event come Monday morning. Whether or not it reaches the heights of her beef with Miley Cyrus remains to be seen.
[Image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
