grammys 2023

Nicki Minaj’s Category Fight With Grammys Turns Into Fight With Latto

Photo: Arturo Holmes/MG22/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Grammys gonna Grammy — and once again, Nicki Minaj isn’t happy about it. After Minaj’s team submitted her No. 1 song “Super Freaky Girl” in the rap field, the awards moved the song to compete in pop, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Minaj, who has never won a Grammy, previously competed as a soloist in rap; her one pop nomination was for “Bang Bang” with Jessie J and Ariana Grande. As the Hollywood Reporter noted, “Super Freaky Girl” has topped Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart for eight weeks. The track heavily samples a pop song, Rick James’s “Super Freak,” but Minaj raps multiple verses on the track. Minaj heavily criticized the decision on social media, saying in an Instagram video, “They stay moving the goalposts when it comes to me. Why is the goalpost only ever moved when it’s Nicki?”

Minaj then moved the goalposts for her own fight by bringing up Latto. “If SFG has 2B moved out RAP then so does Big Energy!” Minaj tweeted, referring to Latto’s hit, which samples the Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” (which was also sampled in Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy”). It’s unclear where and how Latto submitted “Big Energy” — it came out in the previous eligibility period, but had a remix with DJ Khaled and Mariah Carey this year. “Damn I can’t win for losing … all these awards/noms I can’t even celebrate,” Latto seemingly replied, referring to her recent American Music Award nominations and BET Hip Hop Award for Song of the Year. The two then went back and forth on Twitter over Minaj’s lack of support for Latto, before accusing each other of using ghostwriters and reminding the world that Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, is a convicted rapist.

It is, of course, far from the first time Minaj has picked a fight on social media — and, for that matter, with the Grammys. In 2020, she criticized the awards for racism, citing that they gave Best New Artist to “the white man Bon Iver” over her despite her success. It’s also not the only submission controversy at this year’s Grammys. Silk Sonic announced yesterday that they would not submit their album An Evening With Silk Sonic, a perceived favorite after single “Leave the Door Open” won four awards last year. And the Weeknd and Minaj’s good friend Drake are continuing their boycotts of the Grammys. Surely there’s room for another over there.

Nicki Minaj’s Fight With Grammys Turns Into Fight With Latto