Music

Nicki Minaj released a video full of Nazi-inspired imagery

by Mark Teo

If you though that this Playz ‘N’ Skillz video was the most offensive thing you’d see today, well—you’re not wrong. But Nicki Minaj, who released a video for “Only” over the weekend, is giving it a distasteful run for its money.

Why? Because she’s being accused of using imagery common of Nazi propaganda. And for good reason: The colour scheme in the video is—you guessed it—black, white and red. The video’s filled with overtly militaristic imagery, right down to soldiers sporting red armbands. The Young Money logo is outfitted to resemble a swastika. The video features that very logo on red flag, flapping in the wind, not unlike, uh, this 1938 video. And depicting tanks, lined-up soldiers, and a leader marching among the ranks, it’s hard not to think of the Nuremberg Rally.

It’s all in pretty bad taste—few could argue that this video’s critics are, as the Internet’s scum are wont to do, “too sensitive.”

The Anti-Defamation League, an organization that combats anti-Semitism, has condemned the video. “Nicki Minaj’s new video disturbingly evokes Third Reich propaganda and constitutes a new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism,” said the organization’s Abraham H. Foxman, who is also a Holocaust survivor. “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.”

Then, he added: “This imagery is deeply disturbing and offensive to Jews and all those who recall the sacrifices Americans and many others had to pay as a result of the Nazi juggernaut.”

On Twitter, the criticism of the video was almost unanimous.

Inexplicably, Jeff Osborne, the video’s director, has been retweeting the negative responses to the video, purportedly as a form of mockery. Check stills of the video above, and if you must, check the vid below.