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Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift have a VMA-related feud—and they’re both right

Was all of this just a big misunderstanding?

Photo of Josh Katzowitz

Josh Katzowitz

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The nominations for the MTV Video Awards were announced Tuesday, and after receiving only a handful of chances to win, Nicki Minaj took to Twitter and declared her dismay—though she probably didn’t expect Taylor Swift to fire back at her so intently.

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While “Anaconda” was nominated for the best hip-hop video and the best female video, it was not nominated for video of the year, which will be won either by Swift, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Mark Ronson, or Kendrick Lamar.

The fact she was left out did not make Minaj happy.

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Swift apparently felt that Minaj’s tweets were directed at her and confronted Minaj about it.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/623616796277506048

OK, let Minaj respond to that, because apparently, she took Swift’s tweet personally:

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Minaj also retweeted this one.

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Does any of this stuff really matter? Most of us would agree that, in regards to award-show trophies, the answer is no. 

It’s probably all just a misunderstanding that, even though Minaj was making a valid point, Swift thought she was being singled out by somebody she perhaps considers a friend. And now, it’s all playing out across our timelines.

Luckily, Vox.com breaks down the relevance of this bickering: “The Swift kerfuffle distracts from Minaj’s larger point, which is that the artistic achievements of black people — particularly black women — are frequently co-opted and commodified by white culture, which is then celebrated for being edgy or groundbreaking. When you view Minaj’s tweets in this context, it seems much more likely that she simply wasn’t even thinking about Swift when she wrote her tweets … This is not to say that Swift is wrong, per se — indeed, both her point and Minaj’s are hugely valid. But Swift’s point utterly misses the larger discussion Minaj was trying to kick off.”

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But what’s really important is that I have two questions that, thus far, have gone unanswered.

1) Why didn’t Swift take this perfect opportunity to do her Kanye West impression, since their infamous interaction actually happened at the VMAs?

In my opinion, it’s a missed opportunity for Swift to pull out what would have been perhaps the greatest tweet in history.

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2) People still make music videos? And why are there are still award shows that celebrate said videos on a network that never plays them?

Either way, Swift has an easy solution to this whole mess. She and Minaj can reunite on the VMA stage to celebrate a Swift victory.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/623628086614036480

Update 5:57pm CT, July 23: Taylor Swift has responded to Nicki Minaj, and apologized. 

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https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/624240681750536192

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Photo via Republic Records/YouTube

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The Daily Dot