Nicki Minaj returned with a force on April 12, a.k.a. #NickiDay, dropping two singles, “Barbie Tingz” and “Chun-Li.” Since then, both songs have achieved a large amount of praise, even from Minaj’s biggest detractors, Funkmaster Flex, Joe Budden, and Peter Rosenberg.
All three have taken shots at Minaj during her career, particularly Rosenberg, who has never seen eye-to-eye with Minaj. In 2014, Rosenberg dissed her song “Starships” onstage at Hot 97's Summer Jam, before she was set to perform with Young Money and a handful of special guests: “I know there's some chicks here waiting to sing 'Starships' later, I'm not talking to y'all right now. Fuck that bullshit. I'm here to talk about real hip-hop shit,” he said. Lil Wayne ended up pulling Minaj out of the lineup, causing a big stir.
Budden has also dissed Minaj in the past, especially while on Everyday Struggle, where he constantly alluded to the fact that her career was in a slump, even censuring her during Revolt TV's “This Year Was Dope/Trash” special. In April 2017, Budden said “I want to see you float on your fucking own, Nicki. Best woman rapper in the world.”
And most recently, in February, Flex took the liberty of including Minaj in a list of “wack rappers,” also naming G-Eazy, Lil Yachty, and Lil Pump. The comment stemmed from an Instagram video Diddy posted, where he said he thinks rap is becoming oversaturated and full of artists “saying the same things in different ways.” Flex riffed off Diddy’s remarks and added rappers he can’t stand. “So many wack rappers out here!!!!!” Flex wrote when he re-posted Diddy’s video. “If u think a rapper is wack @ them right now!!!”
But since Minaj dropped her two songs, the three naysayers have been singing her praises. Minaj took to Instagram to express her joy at their individual shout-outs, where she re-posted videos of all three listening to “Chun-Li.”
She wrote in a long caption, “Wait hold on. Yo did hell freeze over?” She continued, “Were bombs dropped on #ChunLi? Did Flex say this record #HARD????? Did Joe say this record #HARD? Did Rosenberg say #QUEEN????? Man, all I’ll say is THANK YOU. Takes real niggaz to do this. I don’t mind criticism, but hating on smthn that’s clearly hard AF will only make you look less credible, miserable, & prove your issues are PERSONAL & unwarranted. So respect to everyone showin love.”
Flex, Budden, and Rosenberg's cosigns are just further proof that Minaj is back in the fold now.
