In an attempt to shock people for reasons that don’t include a massive display of cleavage at a music awards show, Nicki Minaj has taken a page from the early days of punk by incorporating a Nazi aesthetic into her new video. The lyric clip for “Only,” the third single from her forthcoming album The Pinkprint, features a series of militaristic images, including weapons, gas masks, fighter planes, missiles, tanks, and a vast array of soldiers wearing armbands with some form of Nicki Minaj iconography. The video also features images of Chris Brown as a highly decorated military leader, Lil Wayne as a businessman, and Drake as some sort of religious figure.
Since it debuted, fans have invoked the rap video version of Godwin’s Law by tweeting criticism about its supposed Nazi imagery to Minaj and its director, Jeff Osborne. While Osborne hasn’t responded directly, he has been retweeting some of them.
@JOsborne32 you are obviously anti semitic and your nazi propaganda bullshit is absolutely unacceptable.
— keyarraaa (@alohakeyarra) November 8, 2014
Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of The Anti-Defamation League, issued a statement condemning the use of the Nazi aesthetic, saying, “The abuse of Nazi imagery is deeply disturbing and offensive to Jews and all those who can recall the sacrifices Americans and many others had to make as a result of Hitler’s Nazi juggernaut.”
Possibly even more disturbing than the Nazi imagery is the song’s reference to Jon And Kate Plus 8, because mankind similarly hoped that horrible chapter of history was behind it.