On Tuesday (Feb. 4), Nicki Minaj came out of retirement and previewed a new single, tentatively titled “Yikes.” The Queen rapper caught heat for one of the song’s lyrics, which some found offensive toward the late civil rights icon, Rosa Parks.
“Hella bands, pull up, stashed up, super facts up/ All you bitches Rosa Parks, uh-oh, get your ass up,” she raps.
To add to the controversy, the snippet was aired on what would have been Parks’ 107th birthday.
Now, according to TMZ, a source close to the rapper has cleared up any misconception surrounding the bar, adding that Ms. Petty meant no disrespect.
The outlet writes that rather than trying to insult Parks, Minaj was simply “using her in what she thought was a clever metaphor aimed at her haters.” According to the source, Minaj also did not intend to post the snippet to Instagram on Parks’ birthday, it was just a coincidence.
Back in September, Minaj horrified fans when she announced her retirement from music. She later explained the sudden revelation, saying that the conversation was really about her fifth album.
“So, it was really about the fifth album. Where do I stand with it, I didn’t know my fans were going to act like that with the tweet, and it hurt my feelings,” she told The Shade Room. “I felt like the way I did it was like insensitive to my fans, I didn’t know it was going to be that big of a deal. So that’s why I deleted it because it had like 600,000 likes and it was up for like less than an hour, and it took on a life of its own.”
“But you know what, I’m a human being and sometimes in the middle of all this chaos, you’re a woman, you’re a human being, you have feelings, you may speak out of term,” she continued. “You may do things or say things where you’re like ‘what the hell was I talking about or thinking about?’ but I’m human.”
Most recently, Minaj has teamed up with Meghan Trainor on “Nice to Meet Ya” and PnB Rock and Murda Beatz for “Fendi.”