"I'd never condone Nazism in my art. One of my best friends happen to be Jewish."

[Miles Archer]

Nicki Minaj Addresses Nazism Accusations in 'Only' Video

"I didn't come up with the concept, but I'm very sorry and take full responsibility if it has offended anyone," says rapper. "I'd never condone Nazism in my art"

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/nicki-minaj-addresses-nazism-accusations-in-only-video-20141111

By Kory Grow | November 11, 2014

Update: "Only" lyric video director Jeffrey Osborne has said he will not apologize for the clip.

Nicki Minaj's lyric video for "Only," which also features Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown on the track, sparked the ire of the Anti-Defamation League recently when the organization's director, Abraham H. Foxman – a Holocaust survivor – called it "a new low for pop culture's exploitation of Nazi symbolism." The animated video shows a horde of soldiers all with red armbands assembling around long, red banners displaying a Young Money logo that have been compared by some to a swastika. Minaj, who is depicted as a leather-clad dictator in the clip, replied to the accusations via Twitter.

"The artist who made the video for 'Only' was influenced by a cartoon on Cartoon Network called Metalocalypse and (the non–Cartoon Network-affiliated movie and graphic novel) Sin City," she wrote. "Both the producer and person in charge of overseeing the lyric video (one of my best friends and videographer: A. Loucas), happen to be Jewish. I didn't come up with the concept, but I'm very sorry and take full responsibility if it has offended anyone. I'd never condone Nazism in my art."

Foxman condemned the video not just for its imagery, but for the tactlessness of releasing the video on the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom in which tens of thousands of Jews were brought to concentration camps and more than 1,000 synagogues were burned, signaling the beginning of the Holocaust.

[hlthe2b]

1. I'm not buying it.

Frankly, I hope she reeps the blowback she has earned.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. That video

Is just awful.

Awful.

I'd like to hope she isn't being willfully ignorant - but she is. It's like Leni R. came back to life and started messing around in animation.


Shame on everyone involved with that video.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I'm giving a rec by the way

Not for content - but because we live in a pop culture world where everything is 'okay'.

And everything isn't 'okay'.


And saying you have a 'jewish friend' just makes what she did all that much worse.

[gejohnston]

4. Industrial musician

Nachtmahr is more or less accusing her of plagiarism.
http://www.nachtmahr.at/home.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachtmahr_(band)
https://www.facebook.com/nachtmahr.band/posts/10152828299910449
I doubt the imagery is really pro Nazi anymore than Disturb's cover of Land of Confusion is. I don't think she is antisemitic or intended to be pro Nazi. I not even sure she intended to copy Nachtmahr. But then again, maybe she did not realize that what worked with the (largely European) and anti-establishment fan base would not work for teenagers who are content with trite lyrics and autotune. If it weren't for Autotune, we would have never heard of her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_music

[ballyhoo]

5. Disgusting crap...

[Old Nick]

6. She really said that???

[Berlin Expat]

7. I can only conclude

that hip hop has significantly deteriorated since I first heard this back in the day:

<

>