Nicki Minaj’s fan base, lovingly referred to as the “Barbz” by Minaj, never fail at defending their Queen. Whether or not Nicki actually calls them to her defense, you do not want to be at the receiving end of an attack. They never miss a hateful comment, Tweet or Instagram post that targets their Queen, with the type of passion that is of a wholly different kind of fandom fever. They can definitely take things too far. On the flip side, they relish in any moment that Minaj shares herself with the public sphere-- they will always be there to support her movements, and they are vocal about it.
Here are 5 times the Barbz went to bat for Nicki Minaj.
Nicki Minaj at the 2018 BET Awards - Leon Bennett/Getty Images
The Barbz Vs. Tracy Chapman
Nicki Minaj recently announced a dilemma she was having concerning her album, Queen, originally set to be released August 10th. According to Minaj, the album has a record sampling the legend Tracy Chapman.
Unable to get in contact with Chapman in order to clear the sample, Nicki eventually decided to push the album back one week (a decision she also let the Barbz have some say in).
The Barbz didn’t let the unresponsiveness of Chapman go, however. Once Nicki made it known, the ire of the Barbz was felt-- they slid in Chapman’s Instagram DM, urging her to contact Nicki Minaj and clear the record. They even went as far as to ask how much Chapman would sue Nicki for if she released the album without clearing the record.
The Barbz also took to Chapman’s Instagram, apparently run by her fans, and proceeded to ask, beg, and even threaten Chapman to reach out to Nicki. After flooding her page with comments from Nicki fans, Chapman’s twitter page tweeted about the disrespect, calling it “Not acceptable.”
The Barbz vs. Wanna Thompson
Wanna Thompson is a Canadian freelance writer who also runs her own website, WannasWorld. She ended up at the receiving end of the vicious Barbz defense squad, by way of an innocuous tweet, expressing her opinion on Nicki Minaj. The tweet quickly turned into a plethora of insults, comment spamming, and even death threats. In hopes of sparking a musical conversation, Thompson initially tweeted out to her followers, “You know how dope it would be if Nicki put out mature content?” She proceeded to give her opinion: “Just reflecting on past relationships, being a boss, hardships, etc. She’s touching 40 soon, a new direction is needed." What came after is proof that the wrong 140+ characters can make or break your social media existence, and put you in bad graces forever with the Barbz. Nicki herself decided to address Thompson in a direct message clap-back. “Just say you jealous, I’m rich, famous, intelligent, pretty and go.”
https://twitter.com/_/status/1013262349367570435
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While Thompson’s tweet criticizing Nicki was deleted, that did not stop fans from chiming in, tearing Thompson to shreds. They bombarded her social media with insults and Thompson even received an email from a fan telling her to kill herself. Thompson was then eventually let go from her internship with Karen Civil, according to an NY Times article, for allegedly violating a company non-disclosure agreement. Thompson was a writer for Ms. Civil’s site KarenCivil.com. Hours after Thompson posted Nicki’s DM, she was emailed by the site’s chief operating officer, Christian Emiliano informing her that her internship position had been terminated. Emiliano wrote that Thompson was asked to ‘be respectful of any clients with whom the site is building a relationship with.' WOW. Power of the Barbz.
The Barbz & Black Ink Crew: Chicago
The Barbz prove that their fanatic support of Nicki Minaj goes past social media. Nicki Minaj featured on VH1’s Black Ink Crew: Chicago, on Wednesday, August 1st, where she got a tattoo by celebrity tattoo artist Ryan Henry. Back in June, Nicki shared the tattoo experience on her Instagram story while fans wondered if she would be on the show. The episode shows Ryan tattooing Nicki’s wrist ‘Barbie’ with pink ink while her song ‘Barbie Tingz’ (also the name of the episode), played in the background. She then shared some special advice with Ryan and the episode ratings increased by almost 1 million viewers-- the show’s highest ratings in two years, and record-breaking for the show at that. Nicki took to Instagram to share thanks to her fans for tuning in, while Ryan thanked Nicki for "bringing the barbs."
The Barbz vs. Jerome Trammel
Journalist Wanna Thompson wasn’t the only one who has felt the Barbz's wrath on social media. Cultural commentator, Jerome Trammel, felt similarly. After sharing unfavorable tweets about Minaj, Trammel was on the receiving end of online harassment from the Barbz. Trammel tweeted his critiques of Minaj’s comments that compared Instagram models and modern day sex workers in a relatively recent interview with Elle Magazine. He stated that the rapper’s comments are hypocritical in light of her Queen single “Bed,” featuring Ariana Grande. "Dear Nicki Minaj, Your lyrics are hypocritical."
Nicki responded, explaining her comments to Elle Magazine on twitter. “I was critiquing MYSELF more than ANYTHING. What I SAID was: I hope my overt lyrics and photos don’t make my fans THINK that I’m telling them to be promiscuous & to know their worth!”
Fans quickly had her back, to the point where Trammel was allegedly receiving death threats. Fans found his old work address and posted it online for people in his city to pop up and “kill him.” Trammel explained he received messages enticing him to “kill himself” and “slit his wrist.”
He started a GoFundMe page in hopes of raising money for a lawyer in order to sue Minaj.
The Barbz & Ghost Nicki
After an exciting 2017 for Nicki Minaj, the Young Money rapper decided to keep a low profile when 2018 commenced, not posting on social media for quite some time, keeping her public appearances to almost zero, including no sight of her at the Grammys. Her fans, unable to deal with the absence, frantically launched a campaign to find her. They began to question her whereabouts under her last remaining tweet before the disappearing act-- and they were not happy.
The Barbz even created a website called “Finding Nicki,” which included a countdown down to the very minute Nicki Minaj went missing from social media. While some were concerned, others believed she was was working on something new, which now we understand to be Queen.