Rapper Nicki Minaj is under fire Monday, after the racy video for her latest song “Only” that features rappers Lil Wayne, Drake and Chris Brown was revealed to be peppered with Nazi symbolism.
In the video, Minaj is portrayed as a powerful totalitarian dictator with a massive army – like Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Third Reich – with all actors bearing red, white, and black armbands with the “YM” logo of her record label “Young Money” instead of swastikas.
Several fans took to Twitter immediately after the video’s release, demanding she take it down and noting that using Nazi imagery is “a bad idea.”
A USA Today poll Saturday revealed that 67.17% of respondents believe Minaj – who has stayed silent throughout the controversy – should apologize for the decision.
But some have rushed to defend the rapper, with one commentator on pop culture site Buzzfeed saying that the use of Nazi symbolism is justifiable in the context of art.
“The point is that Nicki Minaj is vehemently critiqued for whatever she does, whether it is allegations regarding her body, her clothing…Regardless of all the hate, she comes [out] on top all the time,” Buzzfeed‘s Kelley Dunlap argued.
Dunlap continued “by appropriating Nazi symbols, she is illustrating the paradox that she has so many haters (with people now accusing her of being anti-Semitic), yet she is still ruling the industry, much like a dictator.”