In anticipation of Nicki Minaj's fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, her devoted fanbase, known as the Barbz, have sparked a new viral trend on social media.
In December, AI-generated images started appearing on various platforms, depicting a fictional realm dubbed "Gag City"—a nod to Nicki's album and its artwork, which depicts the rapper en route to a pink city.
The pink-themed graphics and depictions of elaborate fixtures in the imagined world quickly gained viral traction, illustrating a complete universe featuring businesses, concerts, and more. The imaginative universe has captivated online communities and become a creative way for the Barbz to express their excitement and celebrate Nicki’s long-awaited project ahead of its release.
Pink Friday 2 drops this Friday, Dec. 8. In the meantime, here’s everything we know about Gag City.
How was it founded?
In September, Nicki Minaj released the stunning album cover for her forthcoming album, Pink Friday 2. The image captures the Queens rapper draped in white with a gold crown aboard what appears to be an open-air train in the sky. As she takes center stage holding onto a rail, in the distance there is an aerial view of a cityscape peaking through billows of puffy, pink clouds. Following the album cover’s release, the Barbz began saying that the city pictured in the artwork was called “Gag City.” The name is a play on the word “gag” or “gagged,” which essentially is used when describing something or someone that is fierce or mesmerizing. After the Barbz dubbed Nicki’s destination Gag City, they began imagining what this city would look like on the street level and who would be there, and they went as far as to bring that to life—virtually. Fan accounts such as MinajPlaylist have played a key role in sharing a lot of those images on X (f.k.a. Twitter).
