Nicki Minaj did damage control on Instagram Live Monday night Aug. 1, and she didn’t hesitate to address rumors about her life and family. An Instagram account by a user claiming to be Minaj’s former assistant recently began “spilling tea” about the “Pink Friday” rapper’s finances and her stylist Arrogant Tae.
“My assistant, y’all they went and told everybody that it is true I owe $173 million to the IRS and I hooked up Tae,” Minaj said in a mocking voice as she began her video. “‘Tae is so uncomfortable around the man I married and Tae don’t ever like to be around him, and Tae was calling that assistant begging the assistant to stop spilling my tea.'”
The “Moment For Life” artist and Tae can be heard laughing hysterically at different points in the video. At one point, Minaj mentioned she came across a Twitter spreadsheet that discussed getting “rid of Nicki Finally.”
It all started with a series of Instagram posts shared by an account named @katemiller_7. The page’s bio describes her an executive at Republic Records and uses a photo of author Megan Fieldman Bettencourt. In her Instagram story, alleged assistant made a number of allegations about the rapper-born Onika Tanya Maraj and her husband, Kenneth Petty.
One post read, “I am Onika ex-assistant who she fired who for absolutely no proof of fraud with her bank account. I’m exposing all filed I have from working for her, Along with the voice message she sent me regarding many different people not just Cardi B.”
Another post mentioned that Minaj has owed the IRS $173 million since 2016, implying that revenue from the rapper’s rental homes has gone untaxed. The individual tagged the Young Money artist in a third post, saying, “@nickiminaj let’s talk about you sending Robert Sammuels $75,000 for Freaky Girl ‘abundance’ on the charts. But you’re fans love dissing ‘payola.’ You won’t sue and you know why. I have it all on video. For example when Kenneth pushed you off that lodge. Meek isn’t the only abuser.”
In a separate clip from her Instagram session, Nicki said the rumors and false stories about her have become unbelievable. “It’s the tea sounds so f—–g dumb and for a person to believe it you would have to be dumb. It’s clearly a kid,” she revealed. “Do you know how much money you would have to make to owe that amount of money to the IRS? I really need y’all to either get a job, invest in yourself and your future.”
The Trinidadian superstar then began laughing at responses in the comments and went on to thank her loyal Barbz fanbase for always coming to her defense. “To my fans, I love you early I know y’all always gon’ rep me and hold me down. God bless you,” she said. “And to the blogs that didn’t post this nonsense, God bless you.”
The mother of one said she only felt the need to address the rumors after getting calls from her label executive Mack Maine and Tae’s mother. She hinted that the rumors may be coming from another artist’s fan base.
“Y’all this is another fan base. They’re going through with their plot to take me down cause they see that all the lies they’ve made just far has never worked,” she explained. “God don’t like ugly. No weapons formed against me will prosper.”
She added, “It’s people right now that’s paying entire staffs to figure out how to end Nicki, I know for a fact from actual people that work for labels. They have meetings. They’ve concocted every plan they can.”
The Barbz rallied up once again on Twitter to show support for the rap queen, who continues to hold down the throne even through controversy. One person tweeted, “Nicki tough fr. She always has these horrible fake rumors always spread about her and she’s not crying and quoting accounts telling their mothers to catch aids. A true queen.”
Another said, “Every week it’s a new NICKI MINAJ rumor , her fans will never stop loving her idc what she potentially did. Ima stand beside my babyyyyyy. It’s legit every week. She’s not going nowhere regardless 13 years IN. New single dropping 8/12.”
But others were not so sure if they believed Nicki’s response. Others responded to the video on Instagram.
“Outta everything she said, u only addressed the IRS and Tae… cause he’s standing there.”
“I’m so confused at the laughing. It’s like a uncomfortable play it off type laugh.”
“Technically nicki didn’t deny any of it. She just ran circles around the situation.”
