Mr. Vegas Under Fire For Calling Nicki Minaj A Dancehall ‘Culture Vulture,’ While Praising Cardi B
Nicki Minaj’s throng of “Barbz” took to Instagram and Facebook to rebuke Dancehall veteran Mr. Vegas after he described their “Queen” and Drake as being Dancehall ‘culture vultures’, while giving props to rapper Cardi B following her Dancehall-themed “Passa Passa” birthday party two nights ago.
“Unlike Nikki and Drake, Cardi sincerely loves Dancehall. She does not see it as a little flavoring for albums or remixes. The queen dedicated her birthday to wi culture (passa passa dancehall). This is how you know she is not a vulture,” Vegas, who performed at the party, had written on Instagram and Facebook in capital letters.
Following the outrage from the Barbz, Vegas edited the posts three hours later and deleted Minaj and Drake’s names. However, the damage had already been done, as some of the Beam Me Up Scotty artist’s fans who stormed his Facebook page to repudiate the claims, resurrected the edited post and re-shared it on the thread.
While the accusations against Drake remained largely undisputed, Minaj’s fans accused Vegas of being divisive and of having a personal vendetta against the rapper after he said he did not benefit from her use of Danny Browne’s Filthy riddim for her hit song Megatron, on which Vegas’ Heads High was also laid.
“??? Nicki literally samples one of your songs,” one fan wrote in defense of Nicki, to which Vegas replied: “And straight up cut me out of the winnings. Fcuk Nikki!”
The Barbz, who saw the Heads High singer’s response, were highly amused.
“@mrvegasmusic that’s on u lmaaoo read ur fcking contract,” svmuburese jeered, while sonia.maraj mocked: “@mrvegasmusic I’m weak asf so you just mad you ain’t get no money 😭💀💀”.
Another follower, carolebaski, told him that Minaj owed him nothing. “She paid the right person royalties for the song. Why dont you take her too court if you think she did you wrong?” she wrote.
The Barbz also argued that the Trinidadian cannot be typecast as a culture vulture, firstly because she is from the West Indies, and that she has, in words and in deed, helped to uplift Dancehall by, among other things, collaborating with many of the genre’s artists including Mavado, Stylo G, Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man, Gyptian, and most recently Skillibeng on the Crocodile Teeth (remix) which peaked at No. 100 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Nicki Minaj has been unapologetic about the influence Dancehall music and its performers have had on her career. On her album Queen, she immortalized Jamaica’s most iconic Dancehall artists on the track Inspiration, the outro for the platinum-selling album.
In that track, she paid homage to the legends in Dancehall who inspired her work including her female counterparts Lady Saw, Spice, Tanya Stephens and Patra and on the male side, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Capleton and Buju Banton and Sizzla Kalonji, who dominated the entire 1990s. She also went on to hail Bob Marley, the 1980s rude boys Ninja Man and Super Cat and Vybz Kartel and Mavado, who burst on the scene and became superstars in the 2000s, as well as her Trinidadian compatriots Destra Garcia and Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin, Fay-Ann Lyons.
Some users pointed out that Cardi has never featured any Jamaican on her songs or on any of her tours, unlike Nicki Minaj, and so it was pointless in celebrating her party, simply because Vegas was booked to perform.
“Boy go take a nap 😴 . When Cardi bring you out on her tour than you can speak,” nahlica_30 rebuked, while in support shav.skp._ added: “@nahlica_30 righhttt caz nicki bring stylo G n other on her tour.”
As the drama unfolded further on Vegas’ Instagram page, some argued that Vegas appeared to be trying to stir up trouble and cause animosity between Minaj and Cardi B.
“Why couldn’t you give Cardi B her [praise] for the [historic] bd bash and leave Nicki out of this!!”aal.y.iah questioned., while xx_lindy noted: “This clown stuff. You could of just showed Cardi genuine love with bringing Nicki into it… Then wonder why it’s beef. It’s y’all grown men keeping it going”.
“If you have to down Nicki to show love to Cardi do you really love Cardi or is it fake love,” 1motivatedqueen wrote.
There were some followers who said that Vegas was getting overly excited about a mere theme party staged by Cardi.
“Lmao yup she looooves Dancehall so much she made it a party theme so people can dress up like they are from there i— 🤣😂,” _thequeen.ofqueenss jeered, while julian_forbes added: “She used it like a holloween prop ain’t no artist or any one out side of a culture using peoples culture as clownery entertainment, imagine if nicki Minaj had a Japanese themed party the outrage would have rocked the world,” said.
Drake
While this was the first time that Vegas has taken public shots at Minaj, it has not been so in the case of the Canadian rapper Drake.
In 2016, Mr. Vegas called out Drake on his Dancehall-infused music, declaring that the God’s Plan artist was fake and questioned why he did not record songs with the artists he claimed to admire, such as Mavado or Popcaan.
Vegas went on to record two diss songs aimed at Drake that year, one called Dancehall Pirate in which he stated categorically that he did not “rate” Drake, as he was “fake” and a “snake”.
In the other, dubbed Own Leader he took several jabs at Popcaan and Drake, insinuating, that the Unruly Boss was a “yes man” for Drake, had poor talent, and that his current hype would not last.
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