Nicki Minaj's lyric video for her The Pinkprint single "Only" has put the singer, and the video's director Jeff Osborne, in the middle of controversy over the use of Nazi imagery, including the Nuremberg-like rallies, armies, and SS-style Young Money banners which are littered throughout the animated clip. The ADL National Director and Holocaust survivor Abraham H. Foxman, issued a statement condemning the use of Nazi imagery in the animated visuals earlier this week:
"Nicki Minaj's new video disturbingly evokes Third Reich propaganda and constitutes a new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism. The irony should be lost on no one that this video debuted on the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the "night of broken glass" pogrom that signaled the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.
It is troubling that no one among Minaj's group of producers, publicists and managers raised a red flag about the use of such imagery before ushering the video into public release.
This video is insensitive to Holocaust survivors and a trivialization of the history of that era. The abuse of Nazi imagery is deeply disturbing and offensive to Jews and all those who can recall the sacrifices Americans and many others had to make as a result of Hitler's Nazi juggernaut."
Both Minaj and Osborne stayed quiet on social media for a few days—Osborne retweeted a handful of complaints, and compliments, on the video, but Minaj spoke up earlier this morning with a few tweets addressing the backlash.
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, 2014TMZ caught up with her at LAX where she laughed off some of the controversy and referenced her "new Jewish boyfriend," who is Alex Loucas a.k.a. Grizz Lee, her videographer and the producer of the "Only" lyric video, which you can watch below.
Update: The video director, Jeff Osborne, issued a statement to MySpace—read an excerpt below and the full thing right here.
First, I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism.
But a majority of the recognizable models/symbols are American: MQ9 Reaper Drone, F22 Raptor, Sidewinder missile, security cameras, M60, SWAT uniform, General’s uniform, the Supreme court, and the Lincoln Memorial. What’s also American is the 1st Amendment, which I’ve unexpectedly succeeded in showing how we willfully squeeze ourselves out of that right every day.
